A story of November and December
Oh, goodness. I guess it’s a healthy and proper thing that updating the world about my activities is the first thing that falls by the wayside when said activities explode into way too much to do, but I still somehow feel sad about it.
I posted some photos back when we’d taken a lot of things apart. The goal was to have the wiring done, so we could put up drywall, so we could install cabinets, so we’d have the base cabinets done before Thanksgiving. The countertop guys came and measured it all the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, made a template out of wood scraps and hot glue, and took it away to cut around on granite. In the meantime, we went to Plymouth for a day’s vacation with the Pilgrims. Then we had almost 2 weeks to install all the upper cabinets, do all the built-ins, and generally wish we had a countertop. Aside from the fact that a countertop makes it look like we’re almost done, the counter meant getting the sink installed, and having running water again! That’s the thing I missed most. After the counter (and sink) we did the new floor tile (vinyl and grout), the stove hood installation, the backsplash tile (ceramic and glass and grout) and all the doorframes and trimwork, and hanging track lighting, and patching all the nicks we put in the new walls. It was actually kind of frustrating, because it’s seemed like we were “almost done” as soon as the counters went in, yet we had a huge list of things to do, and a limited time to do it in.
The other supremely frustrating thing was that the cabinet company was not shipping out some missing parts. When we ordered back in October, there were 3 things out of stock, still coming over on the boat from China (the downsides of ordering everything flat-pack ready-to-assemble from a cheap importer. This was in October, and we needed the cabinets to arrive the second week of November; they said the stuff would maybe be there by the first of November but as it turned out the boat wasn’t in yet, but probably mid-November, so we modified.
- a 39” over-fridge cabinet just became a 36” plus a spacer, no problem
- one 21” 3-drawer base was substituted with an 18, but the other was pretty necessary to the design so I felt very clever substituting a 21” door box that we modified to accept drawer slides, and we’d just have them ship the 21” 3-drawer base later, and put the new drawers into the existing box, and have spare parts left over.
- The cabinets all came with drawer glides, but we really wanted the fancy soft-close ones. Those were out of stock, but really, what’s the big deal about not getting the drawer glides till later in the project?
The end of November, I called them to ask where our stuff was. They totally had everything, and they just forgot that I had part of an order waiting, so let’s make a new order number and get this request sent off to the warehouse, everything’s in stock now, charge my credit card for that last cabinet, and it’s all in motion. Sweet! So I call them a week later pointing out that nothing’s happened yet. But you see, they had a huge Black Friday sale and everything’s swamped, it’ll happen soon. Soon! Great. And I call them a week later, inquiring as to WTF is going on. They say the shipping department should be getting to it today, and I should hear something tomorrow. Nothing. I call them back and point out that it’s now Dec 10, the delivery time is 6-10 days, and I’m leaving town for Christmas on the 20th so it had better be 6 not 10. Oh, they say, Daniel in shipping will call you and sort it out. 2 days later I talk to Daniel in shipping, who says the earliest they could get it to me would be the 22nd. I tell him to have it arrive on the 29th, the day after we get home. He says no problem, he’s right on it. On the 23rd, I’ve heard nothing (6+ days, remember?), so I call Daniel (from my dad’s house). He says “what a coincidence, we’re just packing that up to go out this afternoon, to arrive on Thursday the 29th, you should get an email soon!” and indeed yes, I get an email confirming that it’s shipped. I figure he mostly knows what he’s doing, and don’t stress too much about the whole delivery date thing. Of course, this did not arrive on the 29th (go figure) so I call the shippers on the 30th, and they say they’ll be giving me a call on the 3rd to confirm time of day for delivery on the 4th. I have not yet called Daniel to tell him he stinks.
Honestly, we’re busy enough. It would be really great to (a) get the drawers off the porch and (b) unpack all the boxes in the basement, not just the ones headed into finished cabinets. There’s also (c) I’m kind of sad about the gaping holes in the line of cabinet fronts. But seriously, we just spent all Thursday morning unpacking stuff into the hutches, and all Thursday night cleaning the dining room, and all Friday morning cleaning the living room, and I’ll be spending all Saturday shopping, locating utensils, cooking, and cleaning the upstairs because we’re having some friends over on New Year’s, so at this late date the drawer slides would basically just be a distraction.
So, the current kitchen not-done-yet list:
- Install under-cabinet do-dads: the radio/CD thing, the knife block (by Denny), the paper towel holder (by Denny), and lights, maybe buy new since the ones that seemed good in the old kitchen now look super-dim and super-blue.
- Speaking of lights, we hung track so that we could have decorative glass pendants. My favorites are $$$$, and my second favorites are $ but involve tweaking the wiring (+$). Can’t decide. Currently have an empty coke bottle hanging over the peninsula to simulate positioning at the seating area
- Speaking of the seating area, that’s right now just a turn of phrase since we have no seats. Three 24” tall stools needed. Backless or low backs? (no arms for sure). Probably wooden not metal. Same color as the cabinets is highly unlikely, so do we go for a near miss or something else entirely? Argh!
- The drawers, of course. Once we get the slides, then we can position the drawer-fronts on the boxes (already drilled for handles thank god), trim down the ones that are going to smash one edge into the doorframe because I forgot to add a spacer, and start putting stuff away, which will almost certainly necessitate buying or making drawer dividers for about half of them.
- The inevitable buying spree associated with putting old things into a new space. I’m predicting a dozen or more new spice jars, a couple of organizer racks, throwing out a lot of Tupperware, and getting some magnetic utensil strips. Santa was good to us with new Tupperware. Also buying a couple of lazy susans and fine-tuning the pile of boxes and cans in the pantry.
- Painting the back stairwell, finishing baseboards and trim, installing a handrail, maybe carpeting those stairs. Wait, you say, wasn’t that part of the bathroom remodel? Yes. We just never finished it. Shut up. It’ll get done this time, for real! Issue - I no longer love the color (as paired with our newly gray-blue kitchen), yet we have 2 gallons of it (same color yellow as the back bedroom = 1st can, but that matte finish got filthy so we got a gal of satin for the top coat = 2nd can) I guess we’ll just see how it comes out.
- Cleaning up the basement and turning it from an active workshop area with tables and tools and sawdust everywhere into a passive workshop with everything put away and accessible, and a tidy space that won’t get anything damaged by damp in the spring thaw.
Okay, then, enough of this “writing” crap, time to go clean things! Oh, and no, I am not posting photos. That's because it would add way too much effort. Time to go do stuff!