Accidentally Mopping

For the past few years, every time March came around I used to start thinking about my dad's upcoming 75^th birthday. That many years deserves a big celebration and I was determined to make it great. The farther away the impending date, the greater my plans. I would take him to Denmark to celebrate with our family, I thought, and of course Niels and April would be rich enough at that point to pay for their own tickets. Maybe I'll just send him on a vacation to Denmark, I downgraded the plan the following year. Or maybe just a big catered party. And as this year approached, my budget dictated it would be a nice surprise party at home.

The surprise party was lovely, and I have to give credit to the rest of my family (my aunt, uncle, siblings and mom) who stepped in to pick up the slack when my energy was waning. Everyone who knows my dad knows he has simple taste. I thought if I couldn't send my dad on an elaborate trip, I should at least coordinate a practical gift. And that was how all of our family friends came to donate money to my dad's kitchen cabinet fund. And for the size of my dad's dreams we are lucky we have generous friends.

The kitchen cabinets ended up being a funny saga. Almost immediately after the guests left the party, dad wanted to go to Ikea to start looking at the cabinets. I trekked along with him. We were looking around the kitchen showroom and realized we didn't see the style we have already used in half of our kitchen. We asked a salesperson about the discrepancy and he blithely replied that they had discontinued our style almost a year ago. “But you can try down in the as-is section, they may have some extra pieces lying around,” he offered.

We were quite disheartened, but dad wanted to see if we could find anything useful down in as-is. Let me tell you, folks, it was a goldmine. I absolutely did not expect what we found, which was almost every piece we needed and enough to scrap together the rest – all at 60% off. So now the story had turned around and we giddily went home to take measurements and make calculations. The next day we went back and realized how much was actually not available, but dad was determined to make it work with what we could find. We brought most of the faces home that day and picked up the bases a few days later.

To begin the project, dad and I built the upper cabinets in the living room. This was very fun, and just about the right amount of DIY to last me a couple of months. Dad soldiered on by himself (I think with help from Niels) to take out the old cabinets and start thinking about the lowers.

When the lower cabinets were out, dad started looking at the hardwood floor. The floor is lovely and new – he and Niels put it in just a few years ago. Also around the same time we got a new-to-you dishwasher that had a tiny leak. By the time the leak was discovered, enough water had seeped into the brand-spanking-new floor to warp the entire section in front of the sink. And now that the base cabinets were out we couldn't really continue the project until the floor was properly repaired.

Dad uncovered the extra flooring that he had prudently guarded away and started to install it in the spaces where he ripped out the warped boards. And then one day I came home to find an old board and a new board laying on the kitchen table with his calipers. “The new boards are 1/32 too wide,” dad explained. They had been stored all winter in the humid sunroom. And so we closed the flooring April's lonely room with the dehumidifier and a fan.

Keep in mind during this saga that our original cabinets had already been removed, along with our kitchen sink. So we spent at least two weeks with dishes and odds-and-ends all over our island counter, and we learned to cook without a sink. When the flooring was finally ready and then finally installed, dad worked solo to finally build the new base cabinets. Yesterday, more than a month after dad's birthday party, he and I triumphantly lifted the counter and sink back into place. He hooked up the old sink with the old fittings – our dreams for a new sink and faucet are on hold until one or both of us gets a raise. “It's nice to have the counter back,” I mused, elated to have a whole kitchen again. “I'm more excited about the sink,” dad quipped.

This morning I was up an hour early for work and stumbling into the kitchen. Who is up this early to be running the water? I thought to myself. And then I realized the fitting for hot water had broken and our new kitchen was a hot soupy mess.

As we were desperately mopping moisture out the back door at 6 am, dad reflected that it was a good thing I was up early. “Could you imagine if how bad it would be if we woke up at the normal time?” he asked. “Or if the fitting at broken earlier in the evening?” he said with a smile. “I was just thinking that the floor was really dirty.” I offered. “Well it's not the way I like to do it,” he said as we threw the last towels into the sink, “but the floor is really clean now.” The doors that dad had custom built for the sink cabinet will need to be remade, but dad thinks the floor will survive. I dubiously ran my feet along the slightly raised edges this afternoon. “It will dry out,” he assured me. “And the next time I refinish the floor I can sand those edges out.”

This afternoon I was reflecting on the amazing men I have had in my life. I have had some great male friends, and excellent boyfriends. Why have none of these men seemed good enough? I wondered. Why have I culled away so many wonderful guys? And this evening I heard the following quote: “Our daddies are our mirrors that we reflect back on when we decide about what type of man we deserve.” My dad has set the bar very high.