Building our future?

Progress is slow but steady on The Summer Kitchen.

For those of you out of the Miss-Effie-loop, The Summer Kitchen is our new retail area.

I love growing and selling flowers but if this is our retirement income .... I need to beef it up a bit! So after a very long time of thinking and agonizing(more agonizing than thinking!) We decided to build a small retail store.

This is not retail in the traditional sense. There will be no boxes delivered by UPS, full of manufactured items .... all looking alike. And all with the very same label .... Made in China.

Nope. This is local. Real local. Like I can walk everywhere to get product. If I can't walk there... it just ain't coming here! So a new small building was necessary.

Many of you might call the local lumberyard and have them deliver a small shed or garage. But not my Honey. Honey has a unique way of building. He takes an old envelope ... sketches a picture on the back and says ..... What do you think?

Fortunately, my warped mind goes the same way. So instantly, I started thinking interiors. We can put the sink here.... the cupboard there. If I take that curbside chair and paint it ... it would go with the rug I found for pennies! And I have some antique lace to edge the shelves......... and what about that shade of blue????

Yea. That is how it goes.

And now, the problems begins.

1) We are AARP members. (I HATE admitting that!) We are moving slower than we did ten years ago. Both of us. And you add 5 stents, 1/3 of a lung missing and 90 degree heat .... Honey just doesn't kick ass like he used too!

2) Weeds!!! Would someone please, tell them to slow down a bit??? Twelve hours a day in those gardens and I am whipped! And it doesn't look like we are making any progress at all! So I am little-to-no help to Honey by the time he gets home from work at night.

3) Organizational skills. OK -- I will admit it. I am organizationally challenged. There may be good reason .... I can justify it ... but it is still there!

We took the potting shed ... full of pots, tools, books, my desk, cupboards .... and turned it into a chicken coop. Chickens didn't appreciate the pots, tools, books etc..... so some of the stuff came into the house. And some went into the barn. And more yet, went into Honey's shop.

Then I decided to take my office and turn it into a library. We built in two walls of bookcases and that was fabulous. BUT the old desk, bookshelves, cupboards from there will work great in the Summer Kitchen. However my little 7x15' office can't hold everything.

So there is frickin' STUFF EVERYWHERE!!! I swear the piles of stuff are exploding into more piles. My living room has become a holding cell. My laundry room.... a holding cell. My kitchen is beginning to explode with jellies and jams and dried herbs .... all destined for The Summer Kitchen.

And you already know the state of my refrigerator .... stuffed with eggs!

4) Rain. Rain. And more rain. Need I say more?????

So, this is what I am asking ......

Please. Please. Please....... have some understanding for Miss Eff and Honey. No .... we know the property is not picture perfect all the way through. No .... Honey wanted to have the Summer Kitchen further along by now. But we are making progress. And this is going to be sooooo cute!!

I just know you will love it!!!