The Point of The House

I installed them today!
Everyone knows the real point of building or remodeling any house is to have cool kitchen cabinet knobs. In fact, that is the real reason we are building the lake house. A couple years ago, my spouse said "Let's build a lake house." and I said "Can it have those cool leaf shape cabinet knobs?" and he said "Sure, as long as they are not too expensive." which I took to mean less than a hundred dollars each, so I said "Okay, let's look for a lot to build on." and it all followed from there. They were long and narrow, with an undulating edge and a distinct center vein and they came in this amazing bronze color so dark it was almost black. Each has two points where it is attached, so techincally, it is a door 'pull', not a 'knob'.
I visited the manufacturer's website every few weeks to take a look at them and fantasize about how they would look on various style cabinets and in various types of homes, and in fact, the entire design was shaped in a major way around how it would provide a framework for the leaf cabinet pulls and show them off to their best advantage.
The house was given a timber frame, wood and bamboo floors as a background to show them off, oil rubbed bronze door hardware to match them, black granite counter tops to coordinate with them, a brown stone sink with leaves carved on the front, an area on the second floor open to the ground floor so that you could see down to them, an open floor plan so that you could see the kitchen from other rooms, a cabinet that pierced the kitchen wall with glass doors on both sides so that there could be doors with knobs in the hallway, visible from the living and dining rooms, and a deck outside series of patios doors so that you could see in to them. Every so often, I would fill up a shopping cart at the website just to carry the fantasy a bit farther toward reality, even though it was far too early to order them. Finally, when things were well on their way, I suggested to my spouse that it might be time to order them. He said it was still a bit early, but what could it hurt?
So I went gleefully to the website with my credit card propped by the screen and . . . they . . . were . . . discontinued! Oh, the horror! I lost all interest in the lake house for several weeks and sat at my chair in the kitchen and stared at the opposite wall. My family would show me the plans and the books and magaines with their pretty pictures and ask me questions to try to stimulate renewed interest and I would say "Whatever" or "I don't care" or "Anything you want will be fine." Finally, my husband convinced me I was ruining it for the rest of them and that he knew the joy was gone for me but that I should fake it for their sake and find some merely adequate leaf knobs instead of the perfect ones that the house had been designed around, and so I agreed to get back involved in the process. I even ordered some knobs that had two smaller leaves at the ends and a twisty part to hold onto to open the door or drawer. But still, I mourned the elongated undulating leaf shape pulls. I mourned them deeply.
Finally, on a visit to one of those overstock discount stores, as I was ambling pointlessly around the kitchen wares section, there, at the end of an aisle, in dusty plastic bags, were my leaf pulls! Could it be? Were they the real thing or cheap knock offs? Yes, they were the real true oxidized undulating leaf pulls. But there were only about a third enough of them. I bought them anyway, full of hope that other stores in the chain would have more. I rushed home and called. Several stores, miles away and from each other, had quantities that would total what I needed and a couple of spares. I cancelled appointments and plans and refused meals to dash to the stores to bag them before someone else discovered my treasure.
They have been in a box in the garage, awaiting the moment that they could be installed, for weeks and weeks. The cabinets were delivered in their cardboard boxes on a Friday, but the carpenters could not come from their other construction job until the next Thursday. I suggested to my spouse that I could open the boxes and find the fronts of the cabinet doors and drawers and install them. He rolled his eyes and said it was too early. When the cabinets were installed, I suggested it was time and he pointed out they would be damaged during the installation of the heavy granite counter tops. When the counter tops were installed, I suggested it was time. He said they might be in the way during appliance delivery and installation. When the appliances were in, I brought them in from the garage and removed them from the dusty bags and caressed them. He said they might be damaged when the plumbers came to hook up the sink. Or when the carpenters worked on trimming the cabinets and the windows and doors.
But that was all done last week, so today, after I did some scary painting over the part upstairs that is open to the ground floor where the guard railing is not installed yet, I rewarded myself by installing the elongated undulating oxidized leaf pulls. They are wonderful! It is everything I knew it could be!