Jon loves to say he doesn’t know anything about fixing things around the house and farm. When a plumber, electrician or handyman comes to fix something, he tells them to talk to me.
But this weekend, Jon became our handyman.
The original pamphlet for our kitchen sink and the cabinets, from 1956, was in one of the kitchen draws when we moved into the house. The enamel sink and metal cabinet it sits on have had rust spots on them since the day we moved in too.
Jon said they always bothered him, but I just saw them as the age and wear that comes with an old kitchen.
I love our 1956 kitchen.
Before it was installed there would have been a pump coming up from the old stone-lined well in the basement, just about where the sink is now, into a dry sink. Harold, who was Florence’s husband, the 103 year old woman who lived in the house for 80 years, made the kitchen cabinets.
He reused some wood, probably pantry shelves, to make them. You can still see and feel the marks on the wool from them being hand-planed. And I have no doubt that he installed the enamel sink and metal cabinets too.
Maybe Harold’s spirit was working on Jon and let him know it was time to do something about the rust on the sink. I can’t imagine why else Jon would choose this weekend to tackle it.
I wasn’t really interested in working on the sink myself, but I did go with Jon to the hardware store to get what he’d need. But he didn’t really need me there. Jon seemed to know, better than me, and the people at the hardware store, what he needed, and how to go about painting the sink.
I was so used to seeing the rust on the sink, I didn’t think it would matter to me if it was painted. But I was surprised at how good it looked.
That’s when I pointed out the rust on the metal cabinet under the sink.
Jon got right on it sanding and painting the rust away.
Was I shocked? Yes. But also delighted at how much better the sink and cabinet look. And that I didn’t have to do it.
