Once Over (Again)

I had an early morning (7 a.m.) appointment today with either a designer or a general contractor or both. I think he's both, I think he was from a design/build company. We went through the whole house to talk about what was needed in each room. We also talked a little bit about the deck and storage.

Aside from some smaller aspects of the kitchen and bathroom in progress, we're mostly focussing on the living room/dining room wall and the fireplace. I'm hoping to do those both at once and by the same designer so that they'll sort of match. He did some quick sketches for the fireplace and the wall and said he would put in some design time on the bid so that I could see full fledged drawings and approve them before we start.

Now I just hope the money's not too much. We also talked about stuff to be done in the basement. It was fun to think about, but I'm not sure what I'll be able or willing to do. We'll see, I guess I should receive some bids before the end of the day. Whew!

Bathroom Plumbing

For days I've been poring over installation instructions for my bathtub faucet rough in kit, pictured right on my beautiful refinished-though-rustic loft floor. It's laid out there roughly how it looks inside the wall with the hot water supply valve on the left, then the spout/diverter, then the cold water valve, and then the handshower thingy on the far right. Connections from the valves to the spout/diverter are copper, and from the spout/diverter to the handshower are threaded connections and a braided hose. I kept trying to decide if I could do it myself, the drawings and instructions were just specific/detailed/straightforward enough that I had a pretty good understanding of what needed to go in and how (order/position-wise that is).

Ultimately, however, I decided, no, I can't. As I type the plumber is soldering joints under the tub, in among the plastic pipe and electrical wiring, in/under the backside of the fiberglass tub and metal struts or whatever you call the bars that help the fiberglass hold it's shape around the loose-ish edges. Yuck.

Still, I'm glad I read it all, I was able to review the instructions with the plumber before he started and I think I even helped a little in that bit. There was one step he did that I wouldn't have done, he drilled smaller holes than the instructions dictated and then chisled out the rough deck so that the plate that mount thereupon would then be flush and snug whereas if they were drilled per instructions they would have had considerable play in them to the point that the handles would have wiggled. "Movement is not good in my business. I don't like movement." So I held my tongue--after questioning him once of course, I mean just because he has 20 years experience doesn't mean I'm not going to question him. Seems to me like anytime something's done differently than what the instructions direct, it's worth questioning... except where the valves are less than 3 inches from the wall behind them, I asked him to do that.

So there's this kind of weirdness where the plastic (CPVC) pipe that was already in there leads to a panel at the side of the tub instead of to the ledge by the tub where the faucet is actually installed. I guess it makes sense if you're expecting to install a faucet including the rough-in kit after tile, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to do it before. So there are these juts of pipes heading to the side of the tub that the plumber had to meet up with. This plumber did all his work in copper even though all the existing stuff is in plastic. He just whipped that stuff out. And while it seems kind of goofy and indirect, there is a certain elegance to it too where maybe there's a little more play in the system that will somehow give it flexibility and longevity where at first it seemed like more pipe lengthe would mean more vulnerability to mistakes.

It turns out when my tiler said "starting Monday?" he meant "starting next Monday?" That's okay, or at least it all works out okay since I did a lot of prep stuff this week on what I thought was borrowed time. The only real, or biggest, cost was the added stress of that.

I've got someone coming tomorrow morning EARLY to talk about design. I'd better make it an early night tonight.

Sunny Sunday Too

Today started out grayer than I thought it would be. It was a blessing because I really needed to spend some time indoors. I tore out some sheetrock where the tile for the shower is going to go. Even with the hurdle of having to figure out how to change the bit in the rotozip tool which, after blind attempts going on just intuition, required my looking the manual up on the internet to get it right. It turned out I had it right, just didn't have the confidence to crank on the wrench as much as I needed to to get the thing out.

That new bit went through the board like it was soup!

I know it wasn't the most efficient way to get a bunch of sheetrock down, but it was pretty good for leaving up areas that I didn't want down. I'm leaving 8 inches around the top rather than having tile all the way up to the ceiling. For ripping out sheetrock it was a precision operation compared to stuff I've done before. I'm amazed I didn't cut myself pulling off the outside corner bead thingys, so yippie for that.


I got most of the big pieces out to the front porch--my dump staging area, I'm sure my neighbors are thrilled. One side is garbage, the other recyclables.--but have yet to do the shop-vac sweep. I have some smaller pieces to do and I'm not sure how to get them but I know it'll create enough rubble and dust for another pass with the vacuum so I'll leave them be for now.

My quitting buzzer went off and I showered for my Oscars party. I had intended to stop at Home Depot on the way, but that didn't happen. It seems like there was something else, but I guess that was it.

Oh yeah, I remember. My faucets arrived earlier this week. I love the internet! I ordered my kitchen faucets and my tub faucet both over the internet. I think it was all through faucetdirect.com. I got Moen for the kitchen and Delta for the bathroom (links are to the models I ordered).

Sunny Saturday

I started the day unable to find my cell phone, my only phone. Arece said he was going to get trees and plant them himself because I was too busy with interior work to do the trees this weekend... But I had a change of heart. I had to catch him before he left for the store, so I paid the Hampton residence a possibly earlier-than-appropriate visit for a Saturday morning. But they were up and they let me in anyway, and I even got to have coffee with them to start the day off right.

Then we were off to the nursery to get trees and seed. We got 2 Dwarf Stella Cherry trees, a self-pollinating variety with "rich red fruit and light pink blossoms". Awesome. Thank heaven people all over the place know stuff about plants, 'cause I know nothing. I couldn't even find the grass seed. I went to the "seed room" but apparently that was just for gardening stuff, not lawn seed which was in a totally different corner.


We got all that, strapped the trees into the back of the truck and headed to 5211. Arece came in to admire the cabinets (thanks Arece! :) and we were about ready to get to work when Leslie called to say she was on her way (back) over, and she was bringing us lunch. Yippie! (thanks Les! :). Leslie admired the cabinets and Arece started the hole for the first before we ate lunch. It was so nice we picnicked on the front porch and got to chat with a few passers by.


We finished up planting the trees and I had Leslie and Arece help me review the bathroom plan as the tile guy is supposed to start Monday. Yie. These occasions always make me panic. They thought it all looked good. I found the old bathroom sink drain behind the sheetrock, but I have no idea if it's still plumbed all the way down. There's also some copper pipe from the former water supply to the old sink, but that's clearly not plumbed any longer. I have yet to open the sheetrock around where the new sink was supposed to go.

I forgot to take BEFORE pictures of the trees. I might have forgotten to take AFTER pictures, but when the truck pulled up with the new lightpost, Leslie mentioned maybe that was a good occasion for a blog picture. I'm down with that.

4pm is quittin time on the weekends, just to put a little break in my break from other work. Which means on Saturday I got to watch the rest of an Adam Sandler movies while napping on the couch at Hamptons', and today I get to make it to an Oscars party. I haven't seen any of the movies this year, not even Ratatouille, but I'll enjoy the social occasion all the same.

We've Got Cabinets!

(click on photos for a larger view)

I'm so tired. But what a great weekend!! All of the cabinets are in except for the two in the island, and I need to figure those out still... like, now. I also need to get a cooktop and an oven, then I can order countertops. If I do the countertops in two separate orders, I could do the perimeter ones now and the island, with the cooktop, later.

I've posted new pictures from the last 2 days are on flickr. But here are a choice few, looking north and south at the ends of days 2 and 3, and one of Paul lending a hand. Days 2 and 3 were not as popular as day 1, but we had got our method pretty much down and production was pretty quick.

Day 2 we got in the lowers in the south wall and the uppers on the north wall and got the boxes out for the lowers on the west wall. Day 3, Julia, Barb, Pat and I got all the lowers mostly in on the west and north walls and Lara and Julia moved the refrigerator into the kitchen from the dining room which involved emptying it and taking off the doors. Paul pretty much floated, and Dad was on call for helping us while he was otherwise upstairs working on putting together a shopping list for the bathroom plumbing.


We went as long as we could before Paul basically demanded a nap, which meant it was time for the Portland and points south contingent to have lunch and hit the road. I met them at Kidd Valley for lunch, then we pretty much went our separate ways. When I returned home Steve had arrived and Dad was not yet back from the hardware stores for plumbing supplies (he has all my sympathy for that task which is never so simple as it might sound).

We re-set the cabinet above the refrigerator, which had been quite a puzzle when we put it in the day before, and still didn't look quite right. I can't remember which assumption we'd made that worked against us, either that the box was square or that the corner of the wall was, or that the wall itself was plumb. Anyway, we released a little pressure on all but one of the screws and placed another shim or two and then called it good. Similarly we made some final adjustments to the lower cabinets in the northwest corner and then screwed everything together one final time. (Pat and Barb, you won't believe how tight we finally got that joint. It looks great and when I got the doors back on those cabinets at first they actually overlapped a little bit!).

Finally Dad and Steve tried to level the refrigerator. As luck would have it, the installation instructions included a section on how to level the fridge. Unfortunately, however, the diagram did not match the actual hardware, so it didn't entirely work but it's pretty darn good.


Here's hoping the dentist can find time for me tomorrow. I lost a filling on Saturday night and have been dealing with a sharp crag where my lower left molar is supposed to be for a coupld of days now. I'm not having sensitivity to hot and cold (yet) so maybe I should count myself lucky for that. With all the great help and passing luck on everything with the kitchen this weekend, I am counting myself very lucky for a lot of things right now.

A MILLION THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED!!

Gettin' Busy, Hangin' Cabinets

We got to hanging cabinets yesterday. I started early morning, okay 9 A.M. after coffee/breakfast at Starbucks and a grocery run to PCC. I finally got the insulation and sheetrock up and taped/mudded (1st coat) around the west sink. Next time I looked at my watch it was 10:30. I started clearing crap out of the kitchen to make some room to move and by the time that was done people were showing up at the appointed time of 11 A.M.

We unboxed all the cabinets for the south wall. Then removed and labelled all the drawers and cabinet doors. Shuffled everything around so that the boxes were roughly in position for where they were to be mounted. Each consideration was translated through the whole set so we could see how everything would finally fit with all the cabinets lining up where it really made a difference.

We ended up moving the broom closet about 3 inches west of what was originally planned so that the trim around the window could be symmetrical. I AM THRILLED that that worked out. It means there'll be a notch in the countertop at the west end of it so that the back door can still open all the way and that's just fine. It also means there's an extra hole, or an extra-wide hole inside the broom closet which is worth it because it means I can flip Pat shit about it. :) Just kidding. It's fine and a reasonable price to pay for having the rest of it gone how I like it.

It was a fun day for me. Joe's help was INVALUABLE. He and my Dad and Steve all have infinite patience and persistence for this stuff. If I'm lucky, I'm learning that from this work. I enjoy the work, if I can get the stress out of it, I may take it up as a long term hobby.

I have some new pictures on flickr in set 20080216_Seattle. But here's the last one from the end of the day. After moving cabinets around and measuring things for about 3 and a half hours, we hung 5 in about 30 minutes to an hour. Excellent.

The F-Word

Financing.

I applied to refinance my mortgage a couple of weeks ago. It turns out they don't like to appraise houses that don't have kitchens or finished bathrooms. So the refi is on hold until the remodel is done. That'll put a little snap in my step.

A couple of months ago I don't think this would have been a problem, but with the market the way it is right now, I guess I shouldn't be surprised... BUT I AM. NOTHING in my neighborhood sells for less than 35% more than what I'm looking for in my loan. Agh.

I guess I'll try to get myself in gear here. I ordered kitchen faucets online for both sinks. I think I'm going to get sinks through the countertop vendor. One will be free, whoopie for Costco! Anyway, that should simplify/streamline things somewhat.

Happy Valentines Day, Happy Presidents Day, and Another Day

I'm gearing up for a working weekend and a visitng weekend. These are my FAVORITES.

Getting to cabinet installation. I'm praying for patience, persistence and diligence for myself this weekend. The plumbing and electrical stuff are ready. I have most of the material and supplies I need, Dad is bringing a few things more.

I've never been particularly good at planning for other people's time. I'm hoping and expecting to get some help this weekend. I know my folks will be here, and as we learned a couple of weeks ago, we can get a lot done when we focus and keep at it. For this cabinet business though, we'll really benefit from leveraging some extra help.

I need to get doors and drawers off of and out of boxes and make sure everything's well labelled so I can get the boxes in their proper places mated with their proper parts. I'm spinning my wheels trying to think of where's the optimal place in my house to put this stuff, but the best place, the storage room in my basement, is full of crap. I had to gasp this week when I had an appraisal and I saw her taking pictures. The horror! Well anyway, life goes on, and so does this project.

I'm planning to work the days and relax in the late afternoons and evenings, putting in roughly 6 or 7 hours per day in 2 to 3 hour shifts then breaks. I dunno if that's how it'll work, I'm just trying to develop and note my expectations. I'm anxious still, but feeling pretty good about it.

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.