IKEA Trip Last Weekend

I hit IKEA with Julia this weekend. I only spent 13 bucks, but I made big plans for a spending spree next time. I've selected a couple of sinks for the kitchen, a single bowl sink for food prep, and a double bowl sink for washing up.

I've also more or less selected a cooktop, though I haven't yet ordered it. I've spent multiples of my limit on my airline mileage credit card this month, it's beginning to get confusing. From one day to the next the balance owing and the available credit just plain don't jive.

The cooktop I want is the 30" Electrolux Induction Cooktop.

Things Are Progressing

I got the cabinets ordered, all of them. I could go over to Leslie and Arece's and take a picture I suppose, they're going to be basically the same. That's progress.

But the progress that's on my mind is slow renal failure for my dog. He had a couple of visits to the vet last week to check how he's doing since he's been on medication over a year now for his kidneys. It's progressing slowly, but it's progressing. I tell you it can never be good news when the vet asks you how old your animal is... So we put H on a new prescription diet with lower protein and that should be less taxing on his kidneys. "But you should start preparing yourself..." he said. I dismissed that. On the one hand I've been preparing myself for years. Beyond that there's nothing can do to prepare myself for my dog's demise. Except maybe go to the park more.

Cabinets Ordered and Change Ordered

I've been sick for the past several days. I probably shouldn't have played soccer last Friday, by that time I knew it was coming. In fact I was coughing off and on all day on Friday. I spent half the day in bed. But I'd been away from the game for 3 weeks and we were at low attendance among our women teammates. I guess I just couldn't help myself. I doubt it helped me, but I don't think it really caused any more illness than I would have had anyway.

Anyway, I got up this morning with the driest of coughs and achy all over. I called in sick at 7 a.m. and by 10 a.m. I could feel my fever break, my head cleared up, and I had energy that only comes from not being sick after having been sick.

I tried to order cabinets last Friday. I really tried. But Dennis, the guy at Dunn Lumber whom I've been working with to get my kitchen cabinet/floor plan layout figured out, he was out last Friday. Then I remembered that back in August when I tried to do this on one of my Fridays off, the same thing happened, maybe twice. The gal I spoke with on the telephone says to me Dennis is off every other Friday. Well a-freakin-ha! Dennis and I have the same days off so I kept missing him.

But, this week is different. I have no more summer vacations to plan nor financing to wait for (that finally happened the day I took off for England), this time I've got me where I want me! I took advantage of my day off and made an appointment to see Dennis at noon. At around 12:30, after figuring out where a microwave should go and what kind of box it should sit in, I signed the papers for half of my cabinets. That's all that would fit on my credit card that earns me air miles. So done... -ish. Hallelujah, I finally did it!

I'm back home going to transfer funds between my accounts so that I can pay my VISA off even before it gets the charge. I go to my trusty 3-ring binder for the house projects and I'm flipping through the pages from this morning's order. I figure I'll get the amount of the full cost of the cabinets in there, annotated, so it'll be easy to keep track of. Well, as I'm flipping past the elevation drawings I notice that I don't like the look of two of the cabinets. There are two narrow base cabinets one right next to the other. One's 15 inches wide, the other 9 inches, and the next, a sink base cabinet is 21 inches wide. All 3 of these cabinets hinge on the right. I dunno, something about it just looked wrong.

So, at 3:55 I took off for Dunn Lumber to see if I could change it. This was the first half of the full set of cabinets, this is the portion that Dennis was going to send in today, this is the portion I just signed off on and paid for. Why exactly that put me into a panic I don't know. I should know by now that if it's not built yet, it's not too late to change it. Even if it is built already, it's always just a matter of money and time. Time and money.

I knew Dennis had a 3 o'clock appointment, so I figured he'd probably still be there at 4. Sure enough, his 3 o'clock was just wrapping up when I got there. I occupied myself looking at mouldings and granite--ooh Uba Tuba looks better than I thought!--while I waited for them to finish. When they did finish, I poked my head back in Dennis' office door. "I'm back!" I said. His computer was dark and his files were put away. "No problem," he said, though, he can put in the change order when he gets the confirmation of the order in the first place. Whew!

So, half the cabinets are ordered and paid for; the rest, later this week. Then I just need a cooktop, an oven, 2 sinks, countertops... and that might be it!... for the kitchen. Man, that would be awesome.

...Not!

That didn't work at all. I spent very little time on the internet while I was abroad. And I didn't bring (take?) my laptop along. Blogging was simply not in the cars, er, cards. I did do a little catching up after vacation, however. I did that on Barb and Bruce's blog.