Miscellaneous Things

So much has been going on that it's hard to keep track.  They turned the island around this morning, which will be lovely and the granite template people were there too so I should have countertops by the end of next week.  Yippee!!  In the mean time, I'm still cooking in the basement.  Because the pipes are so low that I have to tilt my head all the time, I actually went to an acupressurist to try to get my neck feeling better.  It worked great for about 2 weeks but now I'm back in the same boat.  Not sure if I should go again or if I should just tough it out and hope for the best.  Who knows. 

Also, over the course of this basement banishment, I have managed to fry yet another power strip.  We had a couple of the same ones and both of them died untimely deaths within a couple of days of purchasing.  Home Depot was very understanding.  We finally bought a big yellow one and it's held up fairly well even though I set it off all the time.  See, you can't make a cup of hot water in the microwave at the same time that the coffee is brewing.  Once it's done brewing, the microwave is ok to use but not at the same time.  It's like a game of russian roulette, plugging and unplugging things in order to make sure the power stays on.  It's not really fun anymore.

All of my appliances were delivered on Friday.  All except the refrigerator.  It seems that when they were loading it onto the truck, they found that it had an oil spot on the bottom of the box and when they opened the box there was a hole in a spot where a hole should not be so they had to reorder it.  Not sure when it will arrive but I'll call them one of these days.

Over all, I'm really happy with the progress these days.  Yesterday my dh and I were talking about how it is going to be really, really nice when it's done.  Having lived with the ugly for so very long, I really can't wait to get in there.  I'm never going to leave the room. 

This is what it looks like (without the lights on...I forgot) as you walk from the dining room into the kitchen.  First area on the left is the pantry, and on the right is the powder room.

Tuesday

Things continue to get done, which is a very good thing! 

Notice how the island has the open side away from the kitchen part?  Yeah, that's wrong.  It's backwards.  The open side should be facing away from the camera.  Of course it's already stuck to the ground so they'll have to fix it tomorrow.  It won't really be open but the part with the black will be where the microwave will go and the rest are drawers and shelves.  Should be good.

Part of the pantry got here today and there are lots of doors and bits of hardware laying around. 

Also, the powder room vanity was installed.  Not a great vantage point but here it is.

Besides that, nothing too exciting.

This is what I got on Friday.  (My birthday was Saturday)

He won't be happy that I put this in here but only a couple of people have the link so it's all good.  Anyway, I also got a homemade cake from my friend Mary, who is awesome.  We run together and I really need to get a leash so she can keep me in line better.  I tend to start off with a bang and end with a whimper.  Anyway, I got cake and flowers and dinner out (lunch too) so it was fun.  Although it takes me a couple of days to get used to the increase in number, it's all fine now.

Who knows what I will come home to tomorrow.
 

Wanna see what happened yesterday?

Progress. Shocking but true.

 Eventually we will have a kitchen.  It feels like it will never end and with everything else going on I feel like a ball of stress.

I've had a cold/bronchitis/whatever for 2 full weeks, I'm running a lot more miles to get ready for a 10 mile race in 10 days (and I'm having a terrible time of it), and my house has been turned upside down basically since Christmas.  I really need to get some sort of normalcy back again.  And maybe run shorter distances.  I actually threw up near the end of my run today.  What a lovely way to end 5 miles.  I bet that's more information than you really wanted to know.  I'm pretty sure this will be the only long race I'm ever going to do.  I think I'll just train with my friends but skip the stress of race day.  I'm not good at handling all of this at once.

I hope I come home to more progress.  Only time will tell.

Cheaper Things

Before I forget to say this...I found the same cabinet pulls that I decided to get for $.80 less each.  Doesn't sound like much but when you need 56 it really adds up. It's good to google the product name and number because you never know where you might find something less expensive.  Of course, once I placed the order on Monday, I got an out of stock notification telling me it would be 7 to 10 additional days on Tuesday and a shipping notification on Wednesday.  They got delivered on Friday.  Crazy!

Week 13

So we are heading into week 13.  WEEK 13!!!!  Ok, now that I got that off my chest, I'll tell you what's been going on.  All of the cabinets were to be delivered on 4/13.  That didn't happen so it was pushed off to 4/18 which would have been ok but we only got 4 or 5 that day.  A couple more things came on Friday and I was assured by the cabinet maker that the cabinets would be here so they could be installed beginning on Monday.

My day started off with text messages from the builder because his guys were there and ready to start at 7:30 (as they are every day...they're awesome) but no cabinet guy.  He did show up a little after 9 and lots of cabinets are at my house, hopefully being installed while I type this.  I can't wait to go home and look.  I only hope I'm not disappointed.  The reason this is stressing me out (besides the fact that it's already been 12 entire weeks) is because the granite template guys are coming on Wednesday and I would love to get the fabrication started.  The sooner the better.

Besides that, nothing much is happening.  The backsplash tile is ordered.  I think it's going to be really nice.  This is a sketch of the detail over the cooktop.  If you click on the picture you can see it better.  Anyway, this is just what I was imagining.  It seems that the kitchen designer and I were of like mind. 

I'll have to update if anything happened since I left this morning.

Lights

This is what I ordered for lighting.  It's all from rejuvenation.com.  There was a lot and the decisions to be made were daunting but I'm still happy about all of the choices.  All are in brushed nickel finish which should match mostly everything else.

Pendant lights for the island:
Spencer lighting

For over the kitchen sink:
Quimby

It's only a little different but I thought that would be a good thing

This one is for the powder room.  Also in brushed nickel.

This one is for the laundry area.  Nifty!

Over the kitchen table (I really love this one)
Alexandra (not copper, in brushed nickel although the copper is really pretty)

Dining area

Pantry Area Light

What happened to the zen?

Well, it was nice while it lasted.  My cabinets were supposed to be delivered today at around 11.  The truck arrived at 2 which means that my kitchen designer sat outside my house for 3 hours since I'm at work.  It gets even better.  When the truck arrived, it had 6 cabinets on it.  If I need 56 cabinet pulls, I think I'm missing a heck of a lot of cabinets.  Apparently they don't have the doors on either.  I haven't yet gotten a chance to talk to the guy who is making them but I can't imagine it will be a pleasant conversation.  Apparently more are coming tomorrow and Friday but honestly this is holding up everything because they can't install them until they get here and that pushes the counter top template guys even further back.  It's very distressing and while I might like to scream and yell, it really won't do any good.  I just hope I like them when I see them.

On top of all of this, my cabinet hardware is backordered 7 to 10 additional days and the tile I want for my backsplash might not be available until mid May but who knows if I will have cabinets by then or not anyway.

I need this whole thing to be done.  It's been 11 full weeks and I am really done.  My house is a mess, there is furniture smooshed everywhere and I find it really hard to relax with all of the clutter all over the place.  I really just want to put things in their place and get back to some sense of normalcy.

Sigh.