A 5-Day Battle Behind the Walls

Well, we had a big week this past weekend. My folks came up to help me install cabinets and we ended up spending all our time fixing wiring and plumbing and so also sheetrock.

After Steve and my Dad had looked at the wiring a few weeks ago and determined that it looked like the contractors might have wired all of the outlets with 14 gauge wire, I had pulled out one of the outlets to double check. I was relieved to see that it was wired with 12 gauge wire, so I decided that at least there wasn't that problem.

WRONG. Only one outlet--the one I pulled out--was wired with 12-2, the rest with 14-2, not sufficient for kitchen outlets. We completely pulled out all the "old" outlets (though still the newest ones in the house), and while we were at it took out an old florescent light fixture in the basement and a BUNCH of electric splice boxes. The floor of my basement may be untidy, but the ceiling sure looks a lot cleaner. While we were at all this, we made notes on a new chart of the breaker box too. Yay!



I don't recall what first made us decide to do it, but we decided to take out the wallboard under the sinks. If there wasn't more than one reason, maybe I would remember what it was. Anyway, those areas coincided with some of the problem low positioned outlets, so we would be patching those spaces regardless. I think we did it in order to replace the plastic supply pipes with copper.

This first photo is kind of a "BEFORE" picture, even though it was taken after the chunk of wallboard was taken out.


The second photos is "AFTER". Dunno if it's apparent here, but that area of the wall with 3 holes for plumbing was patched twice.

The replumbing was pretty straightforward work--I guess, Dad did all of it and I tried to be helpful with puzzling and decision making when I could. It's kind of fun as a puzzle, but I tend more to want paper and pencil, and Dad is able to do a lot more in his head. We had the south sink all replumbed and wired and insulated and generally put back together, when we were working on the west sink. Here we wanted to use a mechanical drain vent so that we could have one less pipe going down to the basement. It's getting pretty crowded down there. We were figuring out how far the drain pipe opening would need to move down the wall, when we realized that the drain pipe was too high to fit under the countertop height and sink bowl beneath it... Then we realized that we would have this same problem with the plumbing for the south sink that we'd just finished insulating and sealing back up. So before the putty was even dry Dad started cutting through it.

In their last few working hours here at my house, Mom and Dad finished putting in the plumbing to the west sink and got valves on everything so that we could turn the water back on, whilst I fetched a friend from the airport. One last night of take out and we were done for this push.

Other things we accomplished was getting a level reference line on the wall for the base cabinets and markings for where the cabinet boxes start and end. We also set up a guest room, sort of. At least I got a bed up for my mom and dad to sleep. And cleared some space in the living room and brought down the tv from my bedroom. What else... I can't think. Anyway, now I've taken a break for a bit. I'm working on a cabinet and sink problem. I'll detail that later, after I get it figured out.

Okay, It's O-kay

Okay, I'm calm now.

I was all in a dither this weekend over a couple of things. The outlets weren't where I wanted them, as I said. But today I finally got to marking the wall for where the cabinets were going to go, well, so I could figure out, so precisely, where I wanted the outlets to go.

I took my floorplan to the southwest corner of the kitchen and started with a 36" block comprising the broom closet plus a 3" slack piece called a "scribe filler". Then an 18" cabinet, then a 36" sink base, then, wait... I want that sink centered on a 48" window. As I'd just now marked it, there's a 4 1/2 inch gap from the right/west edge and a 7 1/2 inch gap from the left/east edge, a difference of 3 inches. So to center it, I need to slide everything 1 1/2 inches to the left/east. (I hope you're all following this math okay... :)

Well, since I'd made my markings assuming using the full 3" of the scribe filler, if I move things to the left/east, I'm now pulling things (in the abstract) away from the wall. Noting the increase in my heartrate and the drop in my mood I decided to address/assess the other corner and walls and digest my new predicament a little. That one worked out okay, I've got a little space by the fridge and a lot of space by the door--like I wanted it. So, back to my original problem, or my last problem rather.

I contemplated outlets a little more. Do I put an outlet inside the broom closet? Do I need an outlet between the sink and the west wall? (I'm distracting myself). Finally I decided to have a look at that scribe filler, it seems like it was more than 3". Sure enough it's just under 4 1/2 inches wide. Hah! Yay!... Whew! I think I can just do it if I use that whole thing. I was dreading my other options, I'd looked at all my other cabinets to see if there was a 21" one that would fit in the place of the 18" one on the plan. Nope. Wondering how long it would take to get a new 21" cabinet (and how much that would cost) to replace the 18" cabinet, and then what to do with the spare?... I'm glad not to need to order anything new, but a little disappointed at the thought of losing a full 4 1/4 inches of space at the end of the wall.

Meanwhile in all my mulling, I looked again at the outlets with a tape measure in hand. Maybe I gave the wire an extra (hard) yank or something. It looks like the wire might just be long enough to get the boxes up to 41" or 42" off the floor, just above the backsplash, right where I want 'em.

Electrical

As I'm considering hanging cabinets and looking at the locations of things, I realize that I don't like the placement of my outlets. I've been advised that the wiring to my outlets may not be sufficient, the gauge of the wire and possibly the switch at the circuit box.

I can't for the life of me recall if I actually okayed the current locations of the outlets, but I probably did. The line "they're just above counter height" seems familiar. And that's where they are. But really, I want just above backsplash height. I don't know if there's a way to work around them where they are, I just know it doesn't fit with the design I have in my head. There's a lesson for me, designs need to be on paper, not in my head. I get the feeling everything should be in writing, every decision, every detail. I really should know this by now. The same applies at work.


So I pulled an outlet off the wall. The wire actually looks fine, I think, it's marked AWG 12 CU WITH 12 GROUND TYPE UF-B 600 VOLTS SUNLIGHT RESISTANT. That "sunlight" business should be irrelevant since it's buried in the walls, but it definitely doesn't hurt anything. So maybe the wire is okay, but it's too short.

I just took a shot of the circuit box. I thought the picture might actually be legible, but it's not. It's a better view of it than looking at it in person, but that's just because of poor lighting. Hopefully when I get down there with a flashlight, what's where will become clearer.

Oops?

Well, I called Dave tonight and told him I was backing out of the cabinet installation contract. Eesh. I had a knot in my stomach, but after two missed meetings (I flaked, then he did), I was having a bad feeling about spending so much money on something I (that's a big fat we) could do "myself" (ourselves). I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I intend to figure it out in the next few days. Dave wished me luck ("good luck with that"), but I'm not sure if it's my guilt or if it was truly sarcasm that left me feeling so bad. Anyway, onward. Live to shop another day.

Wish me luck!

1 Coat Painted

Here it is, as I left it yesterday when I headed to Portland. I've got one solid coat on the walls, without concerning myself with areas that the low cabinets will cover. I'd have left bare the areas that the wall cabinets will cover too, but I would have needed lines, and well it just seemed like that would be more work not less.

What do you think, kind of sage-y right?

Funny, now that I've painted this color on the walls, I'm seeing it everywhere.

Slower Going than I Think

I thought I would have some green on the walls by today. I got home too late last night to do the taping on the ceiling. So I started after dinner this evening. Then the next time I looked at my watch it was 9:30!! I hear my Harry Potter book calling. The green can start tomorrow.

Selecting Countertops and Painting

I had Friday off so I went to visit the showroom of FineLine Pacific countertops and check out their options. Their Costco's local service provider for custom countertops.

I was considering Uba Tuba, Tunas Green, and Verde Florence, but I wanted to see them in person. As much as I love to browse this stuff on line, a computer screen is just can't accurately depict colors well enough to make a selection and purchase of countertops I hope to live with.

So I checked out the stone samples and headed out. I consulted the Hamptons Saturday morning. I needed confirmation that my color choice was okay. We looked at the samples in their kitchen, I brought a chunk of my flooring, and their cabinets match my cabinets--and theirs are not wrapped in cardboard. We had two for the Verde Florence and one for the Uba Tuba, so we decided to take 'em outside for a look in the full "sunlight" or natural light anyway, we didn't see much of the sun last weekend. At that we all agreed that the Verde Florence was good, less yellow than the others, more neutral.

Then I went up to Lowe's, and called Lara on my way. Lara and Kimmo were home, so I decided to go over for a visit and a quick consult with them too. I presented it a little differently there, as my decision had more or less been made. Kimmo had work to do in the afternoon and Lara offered to join me to shop for paint. YIPPIE! We went to Home Depot first, for which I have a gift certificate. We went through all the motions looking at color chips and I reread some stock literature on color theory. When I finally had a set of 6 to 9 colors to try, we took them to the paint guy to get samples. The smallest sample they had was a quart. He said I could get smaller samples from the manufacturer if I wanted to special order it. Gr. Lara got a quizzical look on her face. She said she swore that they'd done it for her last time. Then she realized that that might have been Lowe's not Home Depot. So, off we went. Though I wasn't able to use my gift certificate, I did save upwards of fifty bucks and several quarts of paint. I dropped Lara at home, or rather she dropped me back at her house--she with the SUV was doing the driving in the SNOW. It wasn't so bad though, it was fine for me to drive home.

We went to Leslie and Arece's for dinner and a movie. I was going to leave the color tests until Sunday, but Lara offered to come over and paint with me before going to The Hamptons'. I tried to get some pictures, but like I said, it's hard to do justice to colors on a computer screen. But I'm using that grayish slate green kinda color--called "Grandma's Linen" or something like that, but there's the exact same color in the Martha Stewart line of the same brand called "Potting Shed" or something like that--on the left for the walls. I may use the other on the right as an accent, we'll see.

Oh yeah! And I called Dave today. I plan to finish painting this week (I've been a little generous with myself on time, but holiday season is coming up and the festivities have already begun!), I'm done with the ceiling as of this evening, tomorrow I can start the walls, um, after volleyball? Anyway, Dave starts Monday on installing the cabinets.

Color Safe

I got a phone call, maybe prompted by my last entry before this one, that sage green is "totally fine" it's lime green that's "out". Aah.

Color Questions and Diversions

This weekend, after my cabinets arrived, I realized that for weeks now I've thought I didn't need to do anything because I was waiting for my cabinets to arrive. Friends and relatives clued me in that it's a good idea to paint before installing cabinets, it's all just much cleaner that way. So, I thought to buy paint and maybe do that this weekend. But in considering colors, I had been envisioning sort of a sage green, something like that. One of my people--everyone I know has become my own personal consutlant, whether they wanna be or not--said "anything but green, green is out, passe"... agh. Then I spoke with consultant number 2, not that she's of a lower order than the first, I'm just talking about the general order, chronological like. Er, that's just number 2 for the day. I can't be bothered to try to recall whose judgements or opinions weighed in at every point since the beginning... so anyway, my next consultant thought a sage green would be great! But really I should select countertops first and let that guide me somewhat in my color choices for the rest of it.

Ya, that makes sense. Uff.


In the moving in process of the loads of cabinets on Friday afternoon, the delivery guys had to open one of the boxes and take out a toe-kick in order to squash the box small enough in 2 dimensions to get it through the front door. So I took that piece into the kitchen and placed it roughly where it will go in when it's installed. Now, I don't know how well this will come through in the picture, but it's a little like colors too close to contrast and too different to match. I'm hoping that the fact that there is so much of both that it will be okay in the end. But that's my worry right now. So I'm now a little stumped on the countertops question, hopefully there's a magical color that'll make this work, or at least between the countertop selection and the wall paint color.

I sort of lost my patience with my options. I decided to go to my cousin Laurie's house and pick her brain about it, and I wound up committing to babysitting the next day. That beat the heck out of figuring this out. Anyway, the place I wanted to go to look at countertops wasn't open on Sundays even if I did want to go. It was nice, between watching Thomas and picking Ava up from her playdate I got to see each of those kids have a tender moment with Henri the aging beagle.

For Thomas, Henri took his place on the couch when T paused his video game (I know, I'm a great babysitter) to go to the bathroom. When he came back Thomas said "Hey, I'm sitting there!" And I said, I know, if you just get back up there, he'll move out of your way. As Thomas climbed up Henri sort of forced the issue, but not too badly, as only H can do. Thomas did have to actually lay hands on the dog to get him to move, and in so doing he said "Aw, I love you Henri." I must say, my heart squeaked a little at that. What could be cuter.

Then after Laurie came home, I offered to pick Ava up from her playdate, since I had an errand to run up in that direction anyway. Ava got into the back seat after saying no less than 3 times to her friend Fiona, "See ya at school tomorrow!" on her way out. Long goodbyes, not my strong point. Once again, Henri is in just the spot that Ava's shopping for. I think it's Henri's MO come to think of it. Anyway, Ava sidled up next to H and buckled up. This time, I had my camera with me.

Pardon my phraseology, but I'm a sentimental sap and I live for that cra.., er, stuff!

Cabinets Arrived

My cabinets arrived today. I spent the day waiting. I called Dunn Lumber at 9 this morning to ask for an estimate of when the delivery truck would come. They said they'd call Canyon Creek Cabinetry and call me back to let me know where I was in the delivery order... At 2pm (I'd been home all day at this point) they called me back to say that the truck would be here around 3:15.

I took a nap. But I slept lightly. When I heard a truck pull up I woke up to wave to them. I don't have any house numbers up right now, but they seemed to have figured it out okay.



A month ago I was told that I'd have to pay a per-box fee for them to bring them into the house since there are stairs (2 of them). I was supposed to let my contractor know when they were going to arrive so I could arrange to have someone else do the carrying if I wanted to avoid that charge. I did tell my contractor, but today no one showed. I guess I never called him with an exact time to show up (for obvious reasons, eh?), and he just didn't follow up proactively, so in the void I took delivery of the cabinets myself and the guys were nice enough to bring them all into the dining room.

This "before" picture was an afterthought, so I got a shot after they brought in the first box. I just didn't think to get the camera out until the action started. I had been asleep after all.

"After" I was not able to stand in the same place. The boxes take up about half of the volume, or at least the floor space of my dining room--for the record, the biggest room in the house. I backed the camera up to the front window in order to get the "after" shots. Also from the "kitchen" and living room angles.

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.

Highjacking the Blog to the UK

Well, there'll be nothing happening on the house for the next few weeks as I'm in the UK. I'm visiting Barb and Bruce & Co in Cambridge today and tomorrow we, Sarah and I, head north. We're not sure yet whether we'll go all the way to Edinburgh, or stop part way for the night. We're going to the Hearts vs Rangers match in Edinburgh.

Bruce is in London tonight for a conference today and tomorrow, so we're a houseful of women and girls tonight. Ice cream and wine for everyone!

We had a great talk about how school is different and spelling especially different. Miranda's missed a lot of -our and -re words on her quizzes. I played cards with Olivia and Sophia. Miranda's reading the 3rd Harry Potter book, completely rapt in her own wizard world. Actually, now they're all having ice cream... well, all but Olivia who refused it because it isn't chocolate.

Tomorrow we'll walk them to school in the morning and then get a car, and hopefully do something with Barb before we hit the road.

The Bathtub Is In

Two weekends ago Dave came to build in my bathtub. He came over with John and we talked about how it would go, a 5 foot tub in a space roughly 6 1/2 feet long. I couldn't help myself, I wanted to know what it would take to swap (back) the locations of the shower and the toilet. After reviewing the work it would take, I gave it up. Dave wondered if we should go ahead with the plan as it was, or if I wanted some more time to think about it. 'No, let's go ahead,' I said.

But I was pretty bummed about it.

Not 10 minutes later I called him back and told him to tell John NOT to build it. I wasn't sure of my decision. It was (and is) hard for me to believe that it would be that onerous to replumb the toilet to the stack just 18 inches away. But Dave had said something about not wanting to cut into a joist--to put in a toilet drain--and compromise the structure of the floor supports, especially so near to the bathtub. I'm not sure that would be necessary... but I digress.

After a week of stewing over it, I've given up all over again. The shower stays. The toilet stays. Forward ho with the bathtub! So Dave came back this past weekend and put it in place. I think he's been back again on Monday and Tuesday to finish up the plumbing and clean up. It looks pretty good now, better than the picture since it is cleaned up.

Now I've got some errands to run again. I need to buy shower hardware to get the valve which needs to be put in place before the tiling can be done. And I need to get my tub faucet. I don't think either of these will be prohibitive--even for me--but, well, I seem to have a knack for making things more difficult than most.

She's Baaack!

I've moved back into my house. It was rough going the first couple of days, the hot water was shut off and there was a circuit or two out of commission. Dave came and sorted that all out, including capping the gas line that went to the old stove (whew! glad I didn't try my luck at starting the gas water heater!... Actually, that would have been okay, the gas was shut off at the meter which I never would have figured out or dared mess with unadvised).

But, now that that's all settled, it's good to be back. I managed to get back into the house just 2 nights before the annual "Take Back The Night" night of block parties everywhere. It was dumb luck that I managed to pick a route back to the house that I could actually take all the way back to the house. That was the same day Dave came to fix the gas and the electric. When he arrived at the house he said "how come you're not out there with all your neighbors?"... Uh, no good reason. So I went to the nearest block party--or second nearest, there were two within half a block of my house, which seems a little ridickle to me.

Anyway, I went to the one a half block to the south (rather than half a block to the north), and met at least 6 of my neighbors. For me, (when I'm suffering the shame of having forgotten about the whole thing and so being unprepared with no macaroni salad of my own to contribute...) that was pretty good. I met Dennis from the corner, and Todd from the other corner, both of whom I'd met before. Then I met Jeanne and Kevin, and Jeff and Dave and Ellie, and Rita and Bill.. Hey! I remember more than I thought!! Anyway, they were all really nice, an it was pretty fun to say "I live in the house right down there, the one with the new porch." And listen to people ooh and aah over it. Todd, whose house was right there where the party was, had TONS of work done on his house before he and his family moved into it. I told him he was "the pride of the neighborhood." "Not like Dave," he protested. Dave used to live in the house right next door to Todd, until about 4 days prior to the party. Dave and his family moved into a house 4 blocks down the street, "the one that was raised up." O my god, I know that house. It's true, Todd's house is nothing compared to Dave's. And Todd--I happen to know--bought his house for 500K and said it wouldn't be liveable until he put 200K more into it--and he did!

Anyway, I still felt (feel) pretty darn good about my porch. Dave (my contractor) said it would be the nicest porch on the block, and I think he's right. Luckily Dave (my neighbor) no longer lives on my block!

The kitchen floor is grouted and sealed, and it's BEAUTIFUL. I need to talk with Dave and see if he'll just build a tub surround for the tub that I have. It's less than optimal, but it's a good brand, it's a nice tub and best of all it's bought and paid for and ready to go. I'll get a toilet this weekend from my folks, then I'll just need a vanity and that upstairs bath will be good to go! Then if I can order my freakin' cabinets it'll be almost done!

Copy Cat Cabinets

Here are some more recent images of my kitchen floor. There's now a transition strip of oak between the kitchen floor and the dining room, but other than that not much has changed. I need to call the tile guy and try to nail him down on when he'll do the grout and seal on the floor. I'm dreading that.

Well, after stewing on it for months, I think I've finally arrived at a cabinet choice. (If you knew how many times I'd thought that before now, you'd either laugh or you'd cry.) I ordered sample cabinet doors in quarter-sawn oak with "nutmeg" and "chestnut" stains. They both are beautiful, and they were even kind of spendy. But after looking at a couple of kitchen design magazines, I can't help but think I don't want more oak, and I want something lighter... I've arrived at wanting Shaker style doors in Maple wood with a "natural" stain--which may be the same as no stain at all but simply a few coats of urethane. Just like Leslie and Arece's.

I think I'm trying to brace myself for the buyers' remorse that I'll have after I actually write the check. For all the checks I've written in the past 3 months, I still get kind of sick each time I write one for an amount over about 2 thousand dollars. While the check I write for the cabinets--more likely it'll be a credit card transaction--is not the biggest one of the project, it'll be pretty up there, definitely in the top 3.

Big Day, Not Much Visible Progress

I'm getting to the point where I really need to drop some money on a couple of things. On deck for the day was getting 1 a bathtub, 2 cabinets, and 3 epoxy paint for the porch. Long story short: The Project - 3, Debbie - 0. Dang. I do feel like I've made some progress.

I went and looked at tubs again. I've narrowed it to 3. (I got this close once before, then I saw the price and went back to the drawing board. This time I shopped where I could see the prices of my options while I looked, it makes a world of difference).

I went to order my cabinets and changed my mind again. I've decided to go with a local supplier/builder, now I have a 2 week wait until the color/style samples I ordered come back. Hmph.

I went to several paint stores and couldn't find what I needed. I ordered a catalog and color samples online for a paint company in Florida. We (Laurie and Steve helped me HUGELY) looked at colors online, but I'm not sure I trust them. We looked at color schemes for other kinds of paint and picked something, now I just have to wait for that catalog in the mail and hope that there's a good match to what we're looking at. There'll be something I can use, but still, cross your fingers for me.

Travertine!!

That's right, I'm going to have a kitchen floor after all. Whew! That was close! Egads! That's a level on the floor. Does that thing work? I couldn't look. I mean, I couldn't walk on that floor yet, so I really couldn't look.