of Chinese lights, and Indonesian colanders

Exactly WHAT do we manufacture in this country anymore? I have been making a lot of purchases in the last few days, mostly because we are in the throes of remodeling the kitchen and kids' bath, and as The Reenactor is like a man possessed about getting the job done, I'm all for making those runs to the big box stores for purchases as quickly as we need them. And I'm quickly realizing that I'm buying almost nothing made in this country.

This all started with a bonfire last week. We were burning the cartons from the kitchen cabinets we had installed the weekend before (those WERE made in the U.S.), and we decided to pitch in the remaining two broken cabinets from the old kitchen that had been hillbilly-ing up our front porch. As these burned quite nicely we decided that since the vanity in the kids' bathroom was broken as well, and we had been intending to replace it anyway, we went in, unhooked it from the wall and plumbing (I'm using the Royal "we" here....I didn't do any of that...the Reenactor did) and by golly, that went in the fire too. After that we realized we had pretty much commited ourselves to remodeling the bathroom at this point.

So anyway....back to manufacturing. In the last 48 hours I have purchased a ready-to-install vanity, lights, flooring, and various other products needed to get this done. I also made a side trip to a housewares store to buy some drawer organizers for my new cabinet drawers. The cool bamboo (renewable resource!) wood drawer divider I bought was made in Indonesia, as was the new colander I bought. I didn't search through every bin at the home improvement store, but I can pretty much guarantee that none of the lights I looked at were made in the US. I saw "made in China" on every box I picked up. Same thing for the other fixtures we've purchased.

Here's the thing.... I would actually BUY American-made products if they were available, and if the price difference wasn't grosssly unreasonable. It is the same choice I make when I seek out organic products. The more I have available to me, the more I will purchase.

Oh and now we have a toilet on our front porch. It adds to the overall ambiance of the place, I must say. And if any of you come to visit be aware that you might be greeted by a gap-toothed kid with no shoes on playing a banjo. And that would be T1.