Yes, Kimberly, Jon my contractor is Kyla’s Jon. (Kyla and Jon are both on Bufflehead, the dance team of which I’m a non-dancing, tuba-playing member.) It is nice to work with a friend, especially when that friend is a sweetheart with really good taste, and better yet, taste that is remarkably similar to my own. Jon’s own kitchen is, in my opinion, beautiful and creative, and aesthetically quite similar to what we’ve designed for mine.

Those of you reading my blog know me well enough to know that I’m a detail-oriented control freak (can you say “INTJ Virgo project manager”?), so you’ll know how much I appreciate this: Jon is really good about asking about even more details than I’ve thought of myself, and he’s really good at figuring out what I’m trying to ask for. When I don’t have an immediate answer, he always has good suggestions and alternatives, and his recommendation almost always matches my own preference. It’s reassuring to know that if there are any details left that we’ve forgotten to talk about, his assumptions are likely to be at least as good as anything I would come up with, if not better.

Jon’s right hand man is a soft-spoken carpenter named George. George’s work appears to be meticulous and well thought out. On days that I work at home, we often enjoy a cup of coffee and a chat together, so I’ve gotten a chance to learn that George is also quite an interesting guy. In prior lives, he was a set designer for the Stuttgart Ballet and Opera companies, the website designer for an orchestra I used to play with, and a paper millionaire from a software startup that didn’t quite work out. One morning he mentioned that he’d been on a blind date the night before with a prominent author of a series of vegetarian cookbooks that changed my concept of food (yes, that author, but I promised George I wouldn’t name her here). He said she was charming, gorgeous, and wonderful, and they had a great time, but he doubted that it would go anywhere. Sure enough, the next morning, he announced that he’d received a Dear George letter. I had suggested that he might introduce her to me, but she seems to play exclusively for his team, so I guess it’s just as well that he’s not in a position to do so.

Minor players in our drama include Manuel the Manual Laborer and Reid the Plumber.