Fishiness

Met with Dave this morning. He'll do the porch steps this weekend. Whew!

While I was home waiting for Dave, around 10 to 9, Sim called to see if his regular assistant--who routinely beats him to my house--was parked in front of my house or not. He said he was in my neighborhood on 50th and he'd be to the house shortly.

The meeting with Dave was pretty quick. We looked at the steps as is, and talked about how they could be fixed with a reasonable balance of aesthetics and efficiency/expediency. Then we discussed timing, as in when he could come over and do the fix. Our meeting lasted probably 5 to 10 minutes. Then we were on our separate ways.

As I drove away from the house I realized that Sim should be there shortly. It was quarter past 9, so kind of odd that he wasn't there already really. So I looped the block and went back home. As I approached the corner, I saw Sim coming the other way, so we got to my house at the same time. I told him Dave was coming on the weekend to fix the steps, so I needed to know if they could work in parallel or if I needed to manage scheduling. He said they could work at the same time, no problem.

Whew. So that was quick. Off to work I went. I was lucky enough to get into the parking garage by 9:30 and get the early bird special daily rate, 10 bucks for all day. Yay. Be thankful for small favors.

O but I sighed too soon. At NOON I get a call from Sim saying he's waiting for Dave to come back with the key so he can get into the house. Sim says he looked for the key in the lock box but it's not there. Dave doesn't have the key, Dave never used the key, he knocked on the door and I opened it. Sim was the last person with the key from the lock box, and to my knowledge, he's the only person with the combination, so the locating the key is his responsibility. He says, okay he'll call me back.

I'm impatient.

Ten minutes later I called him back to see if he'd found the key. If he can't find it, I'll need to drive home for my lunch hour to make sure he can get in. He can't. Off I go. I arrive home to find a note in the door "Went to lunch, be right back." ! But what's more, I check the lock box and the key is in there! Jesus. So I call him and tell him that the key is in there and I'm going back to work.

Pretty much all the advice I get from folks is to fire him. I'm convinced--though why I can't explain--that we're in the home stretch. As long as I see visible progress on a daily basis, I'll stick with it.

When I got home from work I went upstairs. Visible progress zero... maybe? There's dust all over the bathroom, and I know I didn't put it there. So I call Sim. He says he sanded the floor to smooth the seams. Ugh. Whatever. He says he'll be back early in the morning. Yay for that, I guess.

Another Hold Up

I started off waiting for my tile contractor to show up for a meeting. I had almost given up when he showed. We had a face to face conversation after exchanging written statements that seemed almost irreconcilable. I rejected a $2,000 change order to a $2650 original bid. He never mentioned my letter in response so I don't officially know if he received it yet or not. I sent it to him certified mail, but only yesterday. I also sent him a copy via email Sunday night but it's unclear whether he ever checks his email. He did tell me about how the job was more complex than he thought it was at first and explained some carpentry tasks and creative mudwork he had to do to compensate. I reminded him that I asked him before he started, and before 8 weeks of delay on his side, what prepwork needed to be done. When we parted we agreed he'd finish the job, but only for the original estimate.

But then...

When I got home from work today I went straight upstairs to the bathroom to see what had been done. NOTHING. AAgh! So, after trying to decide what to think, how to respond, I just called him to see what he had to say. His substitute assistant, the brother of his regular assistant, tripped on the front porch steps first thing. Sim took him to the hospital, he had a hairline fracture to the wrist. Shoot.

So now I'm meeting with Dave tomorrow morning to talk about fixing the front porch steps. This could be interesting. Dave's the one who did the carpentry that Sim had all the complaints about. Sim did some funky stuff with the bathroom floor, different from how we first described it, oh probably going on a year ago now, or maybe only 10 months. I wonder what Dave will think of it. I've been living on borrowed time with the porch steps anyway. Shoot.

Four Strikes!

I've been looking through my checks and browsing the Washington L&I page on the web trying to put together the particulars of what info I need and what info I want to report if I report this guy, the tiler. I wrote him the "first half" check to start (which I shouldn't have, at least in the amount that I did, since "first half" is typically a materials payment and I'm providing most of the materials) on February 21, it's now April 17th. Last Thursday was the 4th time he's told me either that he'd be "done in a week", or "at your house full time 'til it's finished" or both. Funny thing, Tuesday evening he said "I'll be at your house full time starting tomorrow" and "I should be there by noon" in the same breath.

Now it's Thursday again, a week after the last "done in a week claim". One day after his "We'll be at your house 'til it's done" and the only progress is ONE BOARD of hardibacker over the rough-in carpentry I did last weekend, no two weeks ago just before I was sick. There's a note leaned up against my front door when I got home from work yesterday afternoon. I came home early to meet with him. But I arrive home to find a note on a nasty old piece of sheetrock that says "Wrong size board, I'll be back tomorrow at 7:30". Now it's 7:50 in the morning, there's no sign of him and no call from him, and I'll be late to work. Agh!

No Reply, But Maybe Some Response

I emailed Sim summarizing our situation, what he said would be done that hadn't, that I wasn't able to get ahold of him on the phone, needing the job to get finished so that I could refinance my mortgages--nevermind live in a "finished" house (I don't know if I'll ever feel like this is a finished house...). I told him I understood if he was too busy to do it, since he's recently had a fire at home and is having trouble timing things with his own contractors and all, but if that were the case then please refund my money and return my materials.

Whew! That's the short version.

I still haven't heard back from him, so I don't actually know if he got my email. So maybe it's just coincidence, but today when I returned home from work, I found that all the remaining backer board is installed, and the room is mostly cleared out and looking tile-ready (for all I know). Tomorrow's Friday and I have the day off. I expect that means I'll lay eyes on the guy and we can talk about the remainder of the work and timeline.

Aaagh!

Trivial if not truly negligible, nominal work has been done in two weeks. I spoke with Sim--"the Tile Guy"--on Monday, he said in his note (pictured right) that he'd be here 8:30 on Tuesday. I took him at his word and went to work rather than hanging out at home to see that he got here. What's the point, it's not like my being here is going to make him come here or anything. I was so excited to come home from work Tuesday (yesterday), expecting to see some visible progress. He said once he started putting in tile, it would take 5 days or so to finish. So I thought I'd see significant progress.

No such luck.



Only when I went in to take a picture of the note did I notice that there was possibly, just possibly one new backer board piece up from the last time I looked. It's also possible that he did that on Monday then wrecked on the black ice on Tuesday on his way to my house so early in the cold morning... Who knows?! I tried calling him twice yesterday and got his voicemail both times. I'm having a hard time sleeping on account of I don't know WHAT to do about this. I guess at this point I'll keep calling him, maybe send him a letter if I can figure out how to word it. I'm waiting for a decent time of day to call him, thus we find me blogging at quarter to 6 in the morning...

"Saturday We'll Be There Full Bore"

That's what the man says. He apologized for having been away so long. He called me back just after lunch.

Nothing Doing

Tile guy, no show, day 15? 12? 20?... whatever it is. Do weekends count?

It's a total emotional roller coaster. When something happens I feel relieved, almost blessed. When there's no sign and no word from a contractor for days, I feel duped.

The Return of The Tile Guy

So after two weeks of waiting, possibly only one of which was legit. I arrived home to find several pieces of concrete backer board on the front porch. Yippie!! I was so dreading the phone call I was needing to make, the conversation I needed to have about when this needed to get done or I needed my money back so I could hire someone else. I guess that should have warranted a photo, but I didn't take one. Maybe tomorrow. I guess I still need to talk with him on the phone, but it'll be a lot more pleasant now that things feel like they're actually starting (again).

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!