Beer Goggles

You know how beer goggles makes you think you're going to bed with a supermodel but you wake up with someone from Revenge of the Nerds? Uh, neither do I. But I hear that's what happens. I am now experiencing that phenomenon with the kitchen. The kitchen of my fantasies that I went to bed with (or dreamed about) is turning out to be a different kitchen in the light of day. And she doesn't look so hot.

First the demo story: As I mentioned, we left for Thanksgiving a full week before the holiday and returned on the Saturday after. So that was 8 days - 8 days in which (even with the holiday break) I was quite sure, and quite reassured, that the demolition would be complete. I expected to walk into a nice, relatively clean, shell all ready to measure for cabinets (which of course can't be ordered until the shell is ready). But no, this is what I saw:

To make matters worse, because the house is 70+ years old, there are some fun construction surprises, like a post that was in a wall that apparently holds up the stairs. And it's in the middle of the room that will have the pantry and island. Isn't she a hottie?

So now we're stuck trying to reconfigure half the kitchen around this lovely pole, which at night probably looked like a keeper, but in the light of day looks a little worse for wear. My kitchen is doing the walk of shame.