How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time!!

I have been in the cabinet industry since 1981. In this part of the country, that would be predominantly residential kitchens and bathrooms. So naturally, one of the first side-jobs I ever attempted was a kitchen. One of my son's friend's dad was a contractor and asked if I was interested in bidding on the kitchen for his current spec home. I had already spent 13 years full-time as a cabinetmaker, so I knew I had the actual hands-on knowledge to build it. After all, a typical residential kitchen is composed of several smaller, easy boxes put together in an organized layout.

What I lacked was the design experience; that was usually done by someone else in the place I was currently employed. So I did what any elephant eater would do, I broke it down into the smallest pieces I could and started chewin'. With the help of Bob the Builder (no kidding, his real name was Bob) we laid out the sizes of boxes and locations of appliances and hatched a kitchen plan. Working nights and weekends I was able to finish the job in about 6 or 7 weeks.

I look back on that first full kitchen project and am still a little amazed. Like the beginning of every large undertaking, even to this day, it is OVERWHELMING!! There just seems to be no end to the to-do lists. It took a while to feel natural, but I finally learned to break each job into smaller tasks. Then just start the first task, and when it's done, go to the next. Eventually the list of things yet to be done fits on a single page, and you can finally envision success! But don't let me kid you, there is plenty of self-doubt and "worst case scenario" thoughts until then.

I ended up doing another kitchen for Bob the next year, and by word of mouth continued to work full-time and do occasional jobs after hours. I averaged about a kitchen every 2 years or so, for the next decade and a half. I would love to tell you the mental noise and self-doubt goes away, but it is never gone completely. My lovely wife has learned that on "install day", I am better off left alone to battle the voices. Outwardly I seem downright crabby, but internally I am trying to move step-by-step through the project. I probably spend way too much time solving all the issues that never happen, but I have a motto that sums it up: Strive and work to do your very best, but plan for the worst. That way when things DON'T crash and burn, (which they almost never do, with kitchen jobs and everything else in life), it's a happy surprise. Thankfully, 90 percent of the time it goes just fine. The other 10 percent usually wouldn't have been avoidable anyway. Things like REALLY crooked walls/floors, and the dreaded "Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you we moved that wall, outlet, fixture, etc." It all works out in the end. You just keep taking bites until the beast is gone. At least until you agree to tackle the next one!