The Solution (to the FINE Fight)

This whole kitchen make-over has been on the cheap. John still doesn't have a full-time job with benefits (over a year now) and working 2 part time jobs, help from family, plus what I can do means we are squeaking by. No money for renovating.

My dream counter-tops are concrete, made on site, with glow-in-the-dark powder included so they glow like a great big night-lite! Dreaming of the money for that...I also need to practice on smaller surfaces, get really good at it, to reassure John it will be a good project.

Meanwhile, while Ikea (linked to cool new fabric they have!) window shopping with Emma, we found a great breakfast bar surface: long, white laminate, strong but lightweight surface in As-Is (which is 50% off on Wednesdays in Baltimore, or the Handyman corner within the As-is is 50% off all the time!). $20. John notched it to fit the wall and screwed and braced it into the wall. He asked me if I wanted silver screws showing at the top, NO, so he suggested white end-caps, FINE. He warned me he couldn't counter-sink them, because the counter-top was so thin he was worried it wouldn't be secure enough, FINE.

The little bumps he described looked huge NOT FINE in person. I had been dreaming of a smooth surface, and these didn't fit in with my aesthetic criteria.
I stormed out NOT FINE and went to my therapy thrift store, walked around moping. Calmed down as I listened to piped in country music. I found a wooden box not long enough for our whole breakfast bar, but with compartments, and thought how cool that would be to have a resting spot holder, for spices along the disputed back edge of the breakfast bar.

The check out line was too long, so I put it back along with the retro pink roses tablecloth (it had comforted me just to hold it walking around the store). I calmly came home, ready to kiss and make-up and talk. I told John about the wooden box, and we kept talking and came up with measurements that would cover the white dots.

He really is my hero for listening to my concerns and patiently trying to make me happy FINE!

This is not a 2x4 (which isn't even that size?) is more of a 2x3 with the potential for drilling spice jar or tea-light candle holder-sized holes. It needs painting, but I can deal with that.

In process, solving problems one at a time.

When John & JenB came up from Virginia we had a row of tea-lights glowing along this edge, good camouflage. It looked festive, and I didn't have to explain a thing.