"This is not how I imagined it!"

"I don't want that thing there!"

"I want it got rid of!"

What I was talking about was an unwanted cupboard under the stairs.

You see, we're just rebuilding our house.

The problem was the kitchen area. It was never going to be large, but I had envisaged walking under the stairs through the back of the kitchen to the bunk room at the back of the house.

The fact that the builder had enclosed the stairs totally and created a cupboard big enough to sleep another person (wizards need not apply), meant that the already small kitchen became micro-sized.

"How am I supposed to cook for ten in that space?"

Oh, you can tell the builder is not a man who cooks!

But we couldn't take out the cupboard. One of its walls is the supporting pillar which holds up the entire place.

Huh! That wasn't shown on the plans.

"Um – I thought we could put shelves in it..." suggested my husband, in placating accents, waving his hands to indicate entirely useless and inaccessible shelves.

"Huh!"

I stood and stared at the cupboard.

It really was a ridiculously large cupboard. And I needed it gone so I could have its space for my kitchen...

And then I had my brainwave.

What if, instead of deep shelves across it, I put narrow shelves on each side of it? I could then walk into it – right to the back... I could keep all the non-perishable food in it... It could be a larder (I've always wanted a larder)... Which would mean the micro-kitchen would work because I wouldn't need any food storage... Because the cupboard itself would be part of the kitchen...

BRILLIANT!

I was still on crutches, so I couldn't dance a gig. But I wanted to.

And we were all happy. The builder was happy because he didn't have to reconfigure the structural support of the building. My husband was happy because he didn't have to think of a way to pay for the refiguring of the structural support of the building. I was happy because I have a larder and had found a way to make something work.

Just by looking at it from a different point of view.

We can't solve all our problems just by looking at them from a different angle – but just occasionally – we can solve some of them.

Mary

A Moodscope member.