One Down, Two To Go

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY — LUCK COME BACK
The marble tile is ready, but they can’t set up in the rain. We are put off another day. Luckily, the next day it’s sunny, but they still don’t complete everything as promised. The tile installers arrive at 10:30 a.m. instead of their usual 8:00 or 8:30. Then they leave for Home Depot to pick up the grout. I call them after an unusually long departure. They have been to TWO Home Depots with no luck finding one of the grout colors usually in stock. They are off to another tile store that carries grout. I suggest Lowes, but he tells me their grout will pit. The installers end up having to leave early before the floor is finished to buy the grout in Anaheim. The next day they get the bathroom shower walls and floor grouted, the main floor tiled, but not grouted, and the fireplace mostly tiled. We have to wait until after the New Year to get our plumber to install the toilet, shower fixtures and sink. The tile installers have more cutting to do, but on Monday it’s raining again.

THE KITCHEN FINALE
We are delighted to see our project manager bring us the final drawer. We also get the missing doors, including the ones above the oven. The finisher comes to clean up the little nail holes and scratches. YES, we can cook in our kitchen!!! We let our insurance agent know. I get to stop collecting and adding up all our restaurant receipts. This has taken me hours and hours over the 9 months. David has the job of scanning and faxing them to her. I never actually got sick of eating out so much because I know how special it was, and what an opportunity it was for our family. We got to eat at a lot of great restaurants that we never would have been able to. I didn’t have to take the time to go grocery shopping, plan meals, cook and clean. It was a vacation for me in that respect, but I had a lot of work managing the contractor, engineer, framers, plumbers, tile installers, and electricians myself. I don’t think I could have done the regular things well too. It hits David when I send him out shopping for New Year’s at Costco and he comes back with a really big receipt that we have to pay for. While I am so excited to have a beautiful new kitchen, I am back to the reality of my life as it was, pre-leaks. We’re still working on our bathroom and fireplace. The Blog will continue until they are done.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BETTER
Food changes: 1. We’re used to good food now – prepared the way we like it and as often as we’ll say yes. This morning before school, out of the blue, my youngest son pronounces that he really wants an artichoke. He wants it so bad, he can smell it through his nose. 2. Last night, I’m forgetting that I have to plan yet another meal. La, la, la. It’s 6:30 pm. Crap! We end up making breakfast for dinner.
Kitchen Changes: 1. We substituted our glass-top electric stove with a gas one. I really love the way it cooks! It takes me twenty minutes to clean this new stainless steel stove the first time. It even rusts when I don’t dry it right away! My glass stove took about two minutes. I’m getting better - down to ten minutes on the gas stove. 2. It’s a hide-and-seek game every time we need a utensil or bowl. We have a lot of drawers-within-drawers in this Euro-style cabinetry. But it looks good! 3. We used to have a useless exhaust fan under our under-mount microwave. Now our stove hood actually does what it’s supposed to do – suck up smoke and smells. 4. Our old disposal was loud and frequently broke down with food stuck in the pipes. Our new disposals are so quiet we have to listen carefully to make sure they’re on. There will be a lot less yelling and cursing around here. 5. We didn’t worry about water drips (not leaks) on the old travertine floor. Although durable, with our new wood floor, we’re worried about water spills in the kitchen. We still have to get some non-skid mats to soak up drips from washing dishes. 6. We used to have a Brita water container on the counter for water. Now we use Reverse Osmosis and an Instant Hot faucet. Takes up less space, the water tastes great, and we’re learning to use the instant hot for quite a few good uses. Oops, do I sound like an advertisement?

NEXT POST
The story starts at the bottom. Check back next Monday for more bathroom/fireplace remodel progression and our restaurant stories! Scroll down for the photos.