Our New Kitchen

When Leslie and I first set up house in a one bedroom upstairs apartment in Reno, Nevada, the kitchen was tiny—an "efficiency" kitchen—but it was ours. Since then we've lived in three or four different houses including the one we bought in 1998 and have been remodeling ever since. Our kitchens have been bigger and smaller, far better and far worse, but the worst we've ever had is the one we've lived with for the last two or three years.

Our waferboard shelves were just "temporary," but like so many temporary situations we've had to endure, it seemed to go on and on until it became more permanent than life itself. Now, finally, thanks mostly to Leslie's genius and tenacity, we have a new kitchen all our own. All the little touches we love so well, we credit to ourselves; we designed it that way. All the little annoyances, same thing. It's ours, 100 percent.