The Gratitude Project - Day 2

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I've decided that just like when I made my gratitude journal a few years ago, I'm going to space out the big important things for which I'm thankful throughout the month. I mean, it wouldn't be good reading if I started out with all those and then petered out toward the end of the month, right? I'm sure that people will realize if I post that I'm thankful for glitter before I post that I'm thankful for my husband that I'm not saying I think glitter is more important than he is, you know? I just want to try to keep the weight even and the posts interesting.

So what is today's entry?

Today, I am thankful for my landlord and the new counter top he had installed on our bar.

Our living room and kitchen are set up as a great room. This means there is no wall dividing them, only a long counter with a raised bar on top. When we moved in, it was noted that the previous tenants smashed a hole in the bar as they were moving out. It was filled temporarily with epoxy and our landlord said he would replace it at a later date.

Well, we all sort of forgot about it. Originally we planned to buy bar stools for that counter, but when we got the piano it was decided that in front of there was the best place for it. The space wasn't really usable as a work area because it was too narrow. I couldn't even put a cooling rack up there because it was so narrow! It ended up being a junk catchall until I started to decorate it like a shelf. At least that kept it clear and looking nice.

A week ago our garage door cable decided to break, causing it to fall completely off the track on one side. While the landlord was here, I mentioned the counter to him and he said he'd get right on it and apologized for it taking so long. Taking a chance, I decided to ask if he could have the new one be about three inches wider than the old one, explaining how helpful it would be with the cooling rack situation.

Well, look what got delivered and installed today!

Not only is it wide enough for my large cooling rack, it's granite too! So much nicer than the old cracked laminate, that's for sure. I am very happy about this, because I just gained another six or seven feet of counter space, if you think about it! Yay!

I'm also thankful that he said we could paint.

In most rentals, painting is verboten. I've not only been given permission to paint (remember what I did to my bathroom?), but he's reimbursing us the cost of paint since us doing it meant he didn't have to repaint before we moved in. How's that for an awesome landlord?

It's good, because not only is our kitchen a lovely poop brown color, apparently before it was brown it was magenta. Now, don't get me wrong - I love a nice red wall. If you recall, I had a red wall in my last kitchen. But magenta??? That's not pretty. It's especially not pretty if it was not all covered up and there are streaks of it like this under counters and around the edges of the cabinetry. It wasn't too noticeable with the old bar, but with the new one the magenta is definitely still visible.

Time to bust out the primer!