Black slate and the Big Teeth

Been a pretty busy couple of weeks. First, there were the Big Teeth: Hans finally got his teeth fixed. Major mouth surgery, but not much trauma--he heals fast. One very welcome side effect of the massive tooth removal was that his low-grade, constant infections are also gone, and after about three days his joints stopped hurting. However, dealing with the new teeth has been a bit of a challenge. There's an old Scandinavian/Northern European joke about how the Other Guys talk: like they've got potatoes in their mouths. "Ja, Danish/German/Swedish is just like Swedish/Danish/German, only talking around those earth apples." That's Hans for right now--has to learn how to talk with the new teeth. I've been very impressed with how well he's doing, though--both in good humor, health, and ability to adapt.

What with the rain, and Happy Road turning into a slippery swamp (aka Ye Olde Job Site), Hans has been spending more time at home and continuing the repair project on the kitchen. This has now expanded to include the countertops. Several years ago, Hans (with the help of a not-quite-dressed-yet and sleepy Jim Smith) extricated a huge hunk of black slate (pool table slab) from a dumpster. Last year he cut it into countertop-sized chunks and sanded it off, and yesterday, he installed it in the kitchen. It looks GORGEOUS. He oiled it with walnut oil, which will take a while to soak in all the way, but it's a lovely deep dark charcoal grey and it makes me want to keep it all nice and clean just so I can look at it. Very dramatic. Now, of course, I've got to get to painting the cabinets. That old plywood looks pretty yucky in comparison.

And I am SO glad we got the horrible old paneling countertop cover off.

Photo to come in a later post.