Rick Nichols in his finished kitchen
Last October, it was our turn -- time to join the Great Middle-class Kitchen Make-over Follies. For 20 years, we'd lived with a freckling refrigerator and bad tile job. But on the verge of gutting the space, I had an attack of nostalgia. And it wasn't the first in a surprising soap-opera see-saw of emotions: giddiness, anger, despair, relief. Or maybe they weren't so surprising after all. Here are my dispatches from the front. (And a video sneak peek of the victorious transformation.)-- Rick Nichols
Video: On the Side | Getting to know you all over againMore articles by Rick Nichols
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On the Side | New kitchen is a cause for wistful thinking
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My wife and I are about to embark on a great cliche - the Middle-Class American Kitchen Make-over.
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On the Side | Stymied in kitchenland
- Rehab project brings contradiction, loathing, longing for the comfort of cookingOur old GE range sits coldly, reproachfully, under the river birch, the burners filling with leaves. There's a nakedness about it: Grills are built for the out-of-doors. This was a house pet, a kitchen-dweller, yanked from its counter as cleanly as a tooth.
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On the Side | A long, long simmer for the dream kitchen
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We are treated on Day 70 to a prodigal aroma - the scent of smoked turkey wing lingering where two wires for the future range hood stick from the wall, a forked tongue quietly mocking.
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On the Side | New kitchen in home stretch, and feels homey
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It has been going on six months since our kitchen went under the knife. Last week, the stunning tile work finally was completed. (Who knew there were 32 colors of grout and caulk to choose from? ) And the final coat of paint went up: We'd settled, after false starts, on a shade of Tuscan gold called - mockingly? - "Midas Touch."
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On the Side | New kitchen requires emotional renovation
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Eventually, I suppose, I'll figure out the light switches - which ones dim the high hats, or flip on the hanging light, or the under-cabinet strip, without which the dangling potholders and spatulas would spend their lives in perpetual darkness.
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