Monday, October 26, 2015

A Startling Chain of Events

I bought my wife an espresso machine for her birthday. That seems like such a simple thing, but that's how it all started. Doesn't that sound ominous? It all started with the espresso machine...


So, anyway, I bought my wife an espresso machine. I thought it was just a simple thing. Not that an espresso machine is a simple thing, but it's a thing she's always wanted. Sort of. Actually, the thing she's always wanted is more complicated than that and has more to do with the actual coffee than the machine, but that will be for another post. For simplicity, we'll just say that she's wanted an espresso machine for a long time, and we finally got to the appropriate time for that to happen. So I bought her one.

She didn't know where we were going to put it... Oh, yes, I told her about it ahead of time, because I wanted to make sure I got something she would like and that would do the things she wanted it to do, so we looked for it together. Lots of research. She likes research, though. Anyway, she didn't know where we were going to put it, so I spent the day it arrived rearranging and clearing counter space so that it would have a place to be.
This is the place that I made for it to go. Sort of. There was actually a bread machine in the corner there that the espresso machine initially sat next to. As you can see, neither thing is there now. Now, it's just a big naked spot. Of course, we haven't really had much counter space in our tiny kitchen, so the big naked spot has been good. But how did the naked spot happen?

This is where it gets... interesting. Yeah, let's say "interesting." See, once we had the espresso machine and it was set up and everything was working fine, my wife informed me of two things:
1. We were going to be painting one of our walls.
2. We had to buy a thing to put the espresso machine on.
To the left is the color of the rest of the room and the color the "blue" wall used to be (the color of the "blue" wall is actually Mexecali Turquoise); to the right is the new color of the accent wall. The red thing is the thing that goes under the espresso machine. Here, you can see it better:
And here's the whole thing:
The wire mesh is part of, well, I'll call it an art project, because that's what it is, an art project for art, which is mostly non-existent at this point. We're not all the way finished.

So the espresso machine led to
1. Painting a wall, which involved testing colors and all of that jazz.
2. Buying a thing from IKEA, where I had never been before. Neither had my wife. There will be a post on that trip.
3. Building the thing that came from IKEA which, again, was more complicated than you would think, because we modified it.
4. Several trips to Home Depot, both for the modifications to the thing and for the materials for the art project.
5. There will also be a lamp project in order to replace the ugly reading lamp you see there on the end of the thing.
6. And who knows what else...

All because I gave my wife an espresso machine.

But, well, you know, if you give a mouse a cookie...

Oh, and hey! The coffee is great! It's totally a thing now. Every morning. Yeah, I'll explain some other time.

15 comments:

  1. Now you need to open a coffee shop. BTW, I love the red shelving unit! I adore bright colors and that red is fabulous.

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    1. JKIR,F!: I'd love to take credit, but that's all my wife. She has a great style, and I don't really question it. If it was me, everything would probably just be brown. Not because I like brown, but that's just what would seem normal to me. Or something.

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  2. I had my first IKEA trip this past April. It took three days to assemble the desk I bought there...and that was without any modifications.

    Very good to hear that the coffee's great after all you've done to accommodate the machine.

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    1. M.J.: I'm available for hire... but you have to also provide transportation.

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  3. Incidentally, It All Started With The Espresso Machine is the title of our upcoming Halloween horror novel.

    When I get hopped up on coffee I don't do anything overly productive. I'm kinda jealous. Oh, and the fact that you went shopping with the wife at IKEA and it didn't end in divorce shows how strong your marriage is.

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    1. ABftS: I never get hopped up on coffee. From all appearances, it has absolutely no effect on me. Then, again, neither does alcohol. At least, to this point in my life, I have never been drunk.

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    2. Oh, and there will be more about IKEA, but my wife and I were talking about that whole relationship issue with IKEA while we were there and not really understanding it. Not that I don't understand it, but I also find it dumb that people can't do a thing like IKEA without it resulting in... turmoil.

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  4. That sounds familiar. One small thing leads to a dozen other projects just to make it all fit. I won't even tell you about how new handles in the kitchen let to painting and remodeling said kitchen...

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  5. TECHNICALLY, this whole project started much longer ago, when I gave Andrew the red tea kettle which was the inspiration for his "What Time is the Tea Kettle" story...heehee. But the espresso machine was a very welcome kick in the butt to move the project along! I love my birthday present and my new turquoise wall.

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    1. That's true. I should have included the tea kettle in the backstory. Man, I missed a chance for a plug!

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  6. That's quite a big hooliado for one espresso machine. Why didn't you just buy a new house to accommodate the machine? I have a coffee grinder with an espresso setting, but I just end up with stronger coffee and not real espresso, but then I don't have the fancy machine.

    What I want to know is if you ever used the bread machine and where is it now?

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Wrote By Rote

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    1. Lee: Well, painting the wall was more affordable than the new house.
      And, yes, we use the bread machine all the time. In fact, we don't buy bread, not even hamburger buns. Okay, well, sometimes we buy sourdough, but that's because we can't make that.
      Yet.

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  7. The espresso machine does look rather ominous, although I never would have guessed it would lead to basically redoing half your kitchen. Let's hope there's no more redecoration, yes?

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    1. Jeanne: Oh, we're not even close to being finished.

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