Okay, I am aware that I am not always the most observant person in the world and our cabinets are a case in point. For reasons that are not important, I genuinely thought (as I posted a couple of weeks ago) that we had a mix of stock and custom cabinets in order to maximize the available space. Well, as it turns out, they are totally custom and therein lies the issue with the latest delay. I can’t recall if I have explained about the microwave. If I have, my apologies for being repetitive. If I haven’t, here is a serious point that I also bring out in my book, Your Room at the End: Thoughts About Aging We’d Rather Avoid. Although the microwave above the stove is a popular option now to free up counter space, it is a problem for we “shorties”, and it can be a problem for everyone who ages. The reason is that as we age, we often lose some degree of hand strength and having to reach over a stove (that can be hot), into the microwave with a dish that may be glass and therefore a bit heavy, can cause an individual to drop the dish. So, if building or remodeling for an older individual, bring the microwave down to at least comfortable reaching level. That can be countertop, or if you have kids (as my nephew and his wife have done), you can consider putting it like in an island below the countertop. This can also work well if you have someone in a wheelchair.
In our situation, we are having the microwave put into another cabinet that will suit my height and give me counter space immediately below it. That way we also have lower cabinet for the dishes that we most often use in the microwave. Now, that was all fine and good, but the one day when the cabinet guy did come last week, we discovered that the dimensions for the microwave had either not been given to him or he hadn’t understood that’s what they were. In any case, the cabinet he had created wasn’t going to work and he and my husband concurred about adapting another cabinet. Ah, as it turned out, “adapted” actually meant to build new and that does take longer than adapting. So, the planned delivery Monday did not happen, nor did it on Tuesday, and at the moment, the promised time for today has not been met. On the other hand, that can be attributable to traffic, so I’m not giving up hope yet.
