diy

I had hoped that this post would begin differently. Mr. Beeton and I had been keeping our fingers crossed that a magnificent windfall was coming our way. But, alas, it didn't work out, so now we are back to square one.

You may have read some of my past posts about the challenges that we face in our galley-style kitchen. When we bought our house, my one major reservation was with the kitchen (no, not with the stained carpet in the basement, the paint splattered baseboards, or the marred hardwood floors). Four doors, literally no cabinet space, poor lighting. But, I watch enough HGTV to believe in possibilities, and I had seen enough renovated houses in this neighborhood to know that my dream kitchen was possible - even if it is tens of thousands of dollars out of our reach. I'd live with what I had until we could do more.

But it's been frustrating. Majorly frustrating. I feel like every time I cook in that room I end up shouting, "I hate this kitchen!" So, when A&E put out a casting call for a webisode of their program Fix This Kitchen, Mr. Beeton applied.

And, guess what? They wrote him back.

You see, to be chosen for the show, you not only have to have a terrible kitchen (check) but you also have to express an interest of food (check). Mr. Beeton thought my teaching, reading, writing about kitchen culture (as Sherrie Inness calls it) was enough to make us a perfect match. Apparently, his introductory email, which highlighted these connections, was compelling enough that they wanted to see pictures, which we promptly sent along with a narrative. And, then, those pictures were compelling enough that they wanted to see a video. It was supposed to be no less than five minutes long and no more than ten minutes long. They also wanted us to fill out a questionnaire and sign a million release forms, which made us really, really hopeful. This is what we came up with:



We thought our cooking show would put us over the top, and we had a few nail-biting days (especially because Mr. Beeton's email got all screwy with a University wide conversion!). But, we heard from them the other day, and we were not selected. We're both pretty bummed, but now we are rolling up our sleeves and getting to work on some of the easy cosmetic makeovers we had planned before we dared to dream. We'll keep you posted on how it works out.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched Horrible Bosses.