Progress, But……

It was one of those days with definite mixed results. First, although we thought we had a functioning sink and dishwasher, the leak when we used much water and the “blowback” from the garbage disposal led us to think there was a problem. There was, although not exactly what we thought. The leak part was corrected fairly quickly, however the other turned out to be nothing to do with the remodel, but instead an exterior blockage that had gone un-noticed and that caused the need to call in a plumber. Fortunately, the plumber was able to come that afternoon, which was right after the contractor finished doing some of the new electrical wiring in the garage for the upgrades my husband needs to arrange a workshop the way he wants it with whatever the new saw is that he plans to get. By that stage, there was also the discussion that the cabinet guy wouldn’t arrive until around 4:00 which meant 5:00 in all likelihood.

Except that 5:00 came and went with no cabinet guy and at approximately 5:40, I resigned myself to him not coming and went into the kitchen to switch on a light and discovered that none of lights would turn on. Not being skilled in electrical matters, I did assume it was a breaker that had been thrown since the digital readout on the coffeepot was working. However, I do not know our breaker box well and with all the work that had been going on in the garage, I certainly didn’t feel comfortable in messing around with it. It was at that point that the cabinet guy showed up with his helper – yes, right at 6:00 p.m. There was enough light for a while and I went and got the lanterns, but hubby did arrive home before it reached that stage and he did flip the breaker as well as admired the new outlets that he had. In the meantime, planning to fix dinner was pretty much out of the question and at 9:00 p.m. when the cabinet guy still had more to do, I said, “Okay, let’s stop for the evening.” (He was going to have to come back one more day anyway.) The gathering up of tools meant that we didn’t leave the house to go for dinner until 9:30 and then of course, we wound up with a waitress that shall we say wasn’t what one would call speedy. On the other hand, it was pushing 10:00 pm on a Monday. Notwithstanding the obvious frustrations, progress was made and we shall see what the rest of today brings.

 

Half an Inch, Honest……

New Pull-out Trashcans

New Pull-out Trashcans

Okay, this is a big sigh of frustration moment and a tribute to my hubby’s handyman skills. Part of the plan for the kitchen has been the pull-out trash cans that work so well. The cabinet maker had originally planned to put them under the sink, but it became apparent that there wasn’t enough clearance with the extra deep sink that we bought. As the actual cabinet completion slowly took another step forward yesterday, hubby went out looking for a couple of things today and found the pull-out system like we wanted. According to the specifications and the tape measure, they should have fit. Should being the operative word and less than half an inch depth being the problem. We wiggled and moved and looked at the small gap of the cabinet door not closing. It wasn’t all that noticeable, yet when you go to all the trouble that we have to get things right, you don’t want to settle for that. Aha, in careful examination of the frame, taking half an inch off the back of it shouldn’t affect the functionality and hubby has a reciprocating saw. That and a good metal blade did the trick. Hooray, and I give thanks again for having a husband who can do this kind of stuff.

The Big Television Has Arrived…….

The Big TV

The Big TV

Okay, my husband is no longer deprived of the big television with all those specifications that I neither understand nor wish to. The reason that he has done without for so long is because we actually intended for him to design and build a new entertainment center like four years ago and that was one of those things that kept getting pushed down in the priority list. When we decided to do the big remodel, that altered the idea for the entertainment center because we wanted the library ladder feature and I found the one on-line that we liked. Once that was delivered and set up, he knew the exact dimensions he had to play with and he went and found the TV with all sorts of features and the screen that literally changes the size of the picture depending on if the show is being broadcast in HD or not. There are four remotes involved between the television, the DVD player, the Bose sound system and the U-verse system. In an attempt to keep me from loosing my cool, the TV has been programmed so that all I have to do is use the U-verse remote that I am accustomed to and the Bose remote if I want to change the volume. The others have entirely too many buttons and do things that are likely to confuse me. I really don’t plan to watch You-tube on the television.  The only drawback to all of this is that we have to go out tonight and we’ll be gone Friday night which means he won’t really be able to play with all the gadgets until Saturday. Oh well, he’s waited this long. I think he can manage for another forty-eight hours.

Plan B+………..

Phasing Into Cabinets

Phasing Into Cabinets

One of the skills that comes with a military career is the understanding of having a Plan B (Back-up) and Plan C (Contingency) because no matter how carefully you craft an operation, there are too many variables that you cannot control. If those variables come into play, you don’t waste time bemoaning the fact, although liberal use of profanity does often accompany the realization that you must roll into Plan B or C.

We have most assuredly reached Plan B with the cabinet situation and have developed Plan C. This time the uncontrollable variable is the health of the cabinet maker and at this point, we do not know how that will really impact. Therefore, we are exercising Plan B, hoping not to go to Plan C. I am an organized person and Plan A was to continue to leave everything boxed up until such time as the final four cabinets were installed, the doors, drawer fronts, and crown modeling completed. Leaving the cabinets empty would make it easier for the installation. In maximizing packing the boxes, I wasn’t able to isolate only kitchen, but instead mixed kitchen and dining room items. Therefore, I can’t only unpack the dining room item boxes. Plan B is to partially fill the cabinets, putting enough items in to know where that category will go, but still leaving adequate room for the installers to do their thing. Dining room items can be put away now, and the things that can’t be placed in their permanent “home” will go into another set of boxes that can be fairly easily moved around when installations does finally occur. To say that we are not happy about this turn of events is an understatement, and the “blue air” from the liberal use of profanity has cleared.

Tinkering With the Pantry…..

Partial View of New Pantry

Partial View of New Pantry

I am not a visual person and therefore, certain aspects of the remodel are turning out to be different from what I was expecting. That’s okay for the most part and in a couple of cases, actually better. I made a mistake initially with the new pantry in not realizing that the upper shelves needed to be less deep than the lower ones. This is because when on the step stool – a requirement for much of the kitchen – having the shelves a uniform depth meant literally leaning backward to reach to the back of the upper shelf. That it not a safe motion at any time and certainly won’t be as we get older. So, it was another trip to the Container Store and then unloading much of what I had loaded, move most of the shelves we’d put in, place the new ones appropriately, then put everything in again. I understand that arranging a pantry isn’t something to really get excited about, but then again, at this stage, all progress is nice.

My lack of optimism about the cabinets being finished today was well-founded – Monday is the new target. Maybe there have been enough delays that it will indeed come about. Allegedly, there is only one day of actual work left even though it looks to me as if it will take two. On the other hand, I’ve never hung cabinet doors and it might go more quickly than I think once the process starts.

Progress Along With Delay……

I am truly trying to not be frustrated, but the cabinet situation has more of an impact than almost anything else at this stage. I say almost because, in reality, not having a functioning kitchen sink is also a major impact. So, in the realm of frustration, the cabinet guy did not make an appearance Tues or yesterday and won’t be here today, although we have promises that all will be completed by Friday. With the weather forecast, I have my doubts. That also probably means the vent hood can’t be installed until next week, but I can deal with that. If, and at this stage, I can only be so optimistic, if the cabinets are finished on Friday, that means I get to spend my Easter weekend unpacking boxes and putting things away. On the other hand, we aren’t big on Easter, so it isn’t as if we had serious plans. And we will have a functioning sink at the end of the day, which leans more to the positive side than the negative.

New Entertainment Center With Library Ladder.

New Entertainment Center With Library Ladder.

The entertainment center did arrive, and even though the configuration is different, I think all our books can fit into it. They won’t all be on display as they were with the open book shelves and that’s okay. It is definitely the largest piece of furniture in the house and is more “ornate” than the rest, but it’s not too over-the-top. We were waiting on its delivery to buy the new televisions because hubby wanted to make sure that the big new TV he will finally get will fit. The new one for the kitchen area will be wall mounted though for the true “flat panel” look. They’ll haul the old TV away when they bring the new ones.

The Countertops Are In……..

The new kitchen Island

The new kitchen Island

All right, I confess that when I hadn’t heard from the granite guy by 11:00 this morning, I was becoming concerned. The text of, “We’re at the gate,” made me feel much better. The crew was excellent and meticulous.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we had contemplated a material other than granite, but that was the most practical choice under the circumstances. We had also thought of not having that as a backsplash and going instead with some sort of tile, to include accent tiles or a focal point. Then we stopped and considered two things. First, that would be another step injected into the process that would no doubt have eaten up more time. Second, with the kitchen the size that it is, the truth is that we don’t have as much counter space as we would like and therefore, by the time we have the toaster oven, mixer, Foreman grill, canisters, etc.,. in place, very little backsplash can be seen. Why spend the extra money and time? Plus, I imagine that in about 10-15 years I’ll want to “refresh” anyway and at that point, the backsplash can be replaced.

Oh, and the sink and faucet holes are in place, merely waiting now to be hooked up to the plumbing. The faucet we selected came with a soap dispenser and while we’ve never had one, we thought we might as well give it a try. This is the composite sink in chocolate brown that I wrote about.

It’s been a tiring day for everyone, but the counters were a major step that was holding up almost everything else and it’s great to have it completed. Ah, I can put the bar stools in place as well since the electrical outlets that still have to be placed into the island go on the side panels. We aren’t going to have outlets on the “backsplash” of the island because we wanted a continuous line across there. The real hope with the way we have the cabinets configured now is that the island can be a true prep area with only something like the knife block on it. It is more narrow than the old countertop because I wanted the two-tiered/step-down island and there is, as usual, a trade-off when it comes to design.

New composite sink, chocolate brown

New composite sink, chocolate brown

No Granite Today……….

Dining area being moved to the front room

Dining area being moved to the front room

I held off posting yesterday thinking that I would have good news about the countertops being installed today. It has slipped to Monday, although in all fairness, the discussion about today was a “might be” rather than a “will”, and I was inserting some wishful thinking. The furniture and boxes were delivered back from storage yesterday and I got word that the entertainment center has been shipped. We’re continuing in a state of semi-chaos, merely in a slightly different mode with less open space now that the boxes are stacked around. The new cabinet configuration will definitely impact what goes where, and we can’t unload the boxes yet.

Since we are doing a number of tasks in this process, we have several things that we can do in the meantime to keep us moving along the path to completion. Hubby has the lion’s share of those tasks to do and he’s been working more than usual for this time of year. He’s teaching an interesting mix of people though and he loves what he’s doing, so it’s not a bad trade-off. I can manage the lighter pieces of furniture and later today (or it might slide into tomorrow), I will modify the placement of the dining area. It’s almost where I want it, but not quite. We’re being really careful with the floors and I ordered a rug pad to go with the new round rug with palm frond motif, The pad is actually slightly larger than the rug itself and I think that I can successfully trim that which will then allow me to tweak the placement. With the way that we entertain, it will be better to have an extra dining spot instead of the previous extra seating area. That recliner love seat and recliner, plus end table went to a good home.

Doors and Baseboards……..

The sound of whichever saw the guys are using means another day of progress. The door to the pantry goes up today, the frame to the new door of the master, and all the baseboards go in. That means with painting of the baseboards (we’ll be doing that), the furniture that will be delivered from storage on Thursday can be almost put back into place. The actual placement can’t occur until the baseboards are painted and that will depend on hubby’s schedule. However, even if the pieces are a few feet away, that means we only have to push them back. We haven’t bought the new televisions yet for because we want to have everything in place before we have them delivered and hooked up. We will be able to load up the pantry though and that means the area of the master closet and the upstairs linen closet serving as temporary pantries can be freed up.

If the counters get installed Friday as we hope, and if the cabinet guy can come Monday or Tuesday of next week, that opens the way for the sink, dishwasher, and kitchen-related electrical to be completed in one day after the cabinets go in. The additional electrical that we need will have to be worked in on a separate schedule, but that doesn’t affect our ability to put everything else back into place.

After today, we can also move the makeshift kitchen and dining room into the kitchen without interfering with the next steps and that will allow us to have a more normal “flow” of day-to-day activity. Not having a functioning kitchen sink does still restrict us, but we can be at, say the 60% mark of operating in regular manner.

Spotlight on the Appliances……..

New Refrigerator

New Refrigerator

There was never much doubt that we would go with stainless for the appliances. Hubby has wanted those for ages and while I am not nearly as big a fan, it wasn’t important enough for me to want to change that. The smudging part is my concern, although I am being told that the specially treated wipes are effective. I guess we’ll find out. We went up the scale on make and model, but not to the way high end. The French door configuration with the freezer on bottom will take some getting used to and as it turns out, hubby is going to arrange the garage in a way so we can keep the old refrigerator out there. That’s a boost for us between the amount of entertaining that we do and having the extra freezer space for buying meat in larger packages. Also, the thing that I absolutely wanted was a counter-depth fridge and that does cost a couple of cubic feet of space. By the way, counter-depth is not the same as “flush”. Counter-depth means the fridge itself is flush with the standard counter, but the door sticks out. Still, it reduces the depth of the fridge by about four inches to give a cleaner look.

The dishwasher isn’t much different from the old one, but the stove will take some getting used to. It’s convection with “conventional” mode, with no visible heating element. That makes cleaning the inside much easier, although the cooking times will be shorter and that will be an adjustment. There are also five burners; a small one in the center for simmer only. That should be nice for sauces. Probably the thing that will be the most difficult to work with for me is that it is digital instead of having knobs. So, you press the button to turn on the burner and to set the cooking level of I think it’s 1 to 6. I’m sure we’ll have to experiment with it and I foresee a new set of pots and pans coming out of this. The non-stick set we have is fairly old and scratched up from a lot of use. Oh, another reason to move the microwave as I discussed in previous posts was to allow hubby to have a real range hood instead of the one that is incorporated with an over-the-stove microwave. The new hood will be installed when the upper cabinets are.

New Stove