What Was I Thinking? (Part 3)

First off: One thing I kept hearing throughout our research process is that kitchen and bathroom improvements pay for themselves by increasing the home's retail value. Well, lots of people also said that the Iraq War would also pay for itself, and that estimate has only been off by several hundred billion dollars. As far as my home goes, I don't give a rat's ass about the resale value since I plan on living there until either I die or have to be sent to an old age home, by which time the kitchen would need to be redone yet again.

Anyway, the last time we looked at doing the kitchen we were not very imaginative. Everything was going to stay in the same place but we were going to add a small island. Now that we were finally committed to doing this once and for all, we though we'd go to the Home Improvement Show held several times a year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We went there a few years ago and saw some cute ideas for layouts, gadgets and such, but nothing that really stood out. This time we dragged the kids along, and dear readers, consider this sage piece of advice: Young children absolutely hate home improvement shows. They're not too fond of the trip to and from the Convention Center either, particularly if you decide to stop at Ikea on the way back home. Though in retrospect, I have to wonder as I picture my kids in the back seat, Daughter with her portable CD player and Son with his Nintendo DS, how the hell I ever survived trips like that in the back seat of my parents' car without miniaturized portable electronics to keep me occupied?

So the show at the Convention Center was almost a complete waste of time. We got a free pumpkin, a nice large one in fact, however I didn't even take it out of my car until well after Halloween, though fortunately before my car would begin to smell like rotting pumpkin. We looked at a few kitchen displays and learned the Caesarstone has pretty much replaced Corian as the artificial counter surface material of choice, at least for those who don't want granite. There were some cute doo-dads, like the pull-out spice rack which is a great use of space when you've got an extra eight inches of lower cabinet space next to the stove. But mostly we just left our name and address with a few of the more reputable looking companies for them to come out to our house and give us estimates.

Come back next time as Wife and I confuse the crap out of some poor estimators and receive estimates that far exceed my wildest expectations, and believe me, I can expect with the wildest of them...