Saturday Night in Vegas

Posted on January 27, 2015January 27, 2015 by Dusty Roads

When you think about it, JR and I did an amazing job of coordinating our arrival and finding each other amid the lights, bells , whistles and people in the hotel and casino. As you can imagine after spending 3 days and nights on a greyhound bus, JR’s first priority was a shower and change of clothes. I was in better shape as I’d had a shower and fresh clothes before I left San Diego.

The Hotel we are staying in is the LINQ, a part of the Caesar’s Palace empire. The Hotel was billed as one of the newest jewels in the Caesar Crown and I fell for it. I paid the upgrade because I wanted JR to have a great time as it was his birthday gift. It was a rip off. The hotel room was very basic. It didn’t even have a dresser or a coffee pot. The closet door was a curtain. The bathroom door was a sliding “pocket door” and it was shower only, no tub. Our cruise ship cabin was almost as big!

About all I can say for it is that it was clean. The room was on the 18th floor but no balcony and security was tight. We had to show our room keys to a security guard whenever we went up in the elevator. At least that made me feel safe.

View From Our Window , 18th floor of the LINQ

We decided not to lug the cameras the first night and just roam around until dinner time. Anything interesting could be captured on the cell phone cameras and there was a lot of interest. One of my favorite things were the characters. It was almost like being in Disney.

There was Olaf, Mickey and Minnie but there was also Elvis and Darth Vader, Marilyn Monroe and on and on.

We enjoyed a very loud dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville and wandered over to the Bellagio for the fountain show. Along the way we passed the Eiffel Tower and Paris and The Flamingo Hotel. For neon lovers, Vegas at night does not disappoint!

Yummy Pina Colada

On our return we stopped at the Linq Promenade for more colorful fountains and our first look at the High Roller, the biggest Ferris Wheel in the World! The pods make me think of Star Wars!

LINQ Promenade and High Roller

Back in the hotel it didn’t take long to hit the hay. I was asleep before JR turned off the TV. Tomorrow I have the obligatory presentation ( a 60 minute sales pitch) and then we’ll check out the mono rail and decide what we want to spend the day exploring.

Renovations Continue

Posted on November 21, 2014November 21, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Oh Oh! After the cabinet guys left I discovered that shelves in the new cabinets (not the refaced ones) were unstable. My observation … they are too narrow but I am not a cabinet maker.

Even so they need to be stabilized so they don’t fall down all the time. I called the 800 customer care line and explained my problem. They said they would let the project manager know and have him call me. That was yesterday morning.

7 am my phone rang. The counter folks were early! They were out front and ready to start the installation. I told them give me 5 minutes to get dressed and I’ll let you in. By 9 am the big pieces were in. It took another 2 hours for the back splashes, holes for the facet etc on the sink and the caulk. I don’t know how anyone else will feel about the counters but I absolutely love them!

Such an improvement over the old white counters. The greens in the pattern match the soft green of the cabinets perfectly too. You never know if that tiny sample will really look as good in real life as it did in your imagination.

Everything has to set and dry so the plumber won’t be out until Monday. 🙁

About 9:30 the phone rang again. It was the project manager. I explained the problem with the shelves to him and he said he’d send the cabinet guys back…if not today he’d send them Saturday. I told him I could wait til Monday because I needed to go shopping Saturday for new shelf liners and a few other things to organize the cabinets. I want to start putting stuff away.

I scheduled the tile install with him for Wednesday and Friday. I guess they do all the tile first then come back the next day to caulk. Since Thursday is Thanksgiving we’re going to do Wednesday and Friday. The kitchen will be functional to cook even if its not 100% done.

This is dragging out longer than they told me but it’s partly my fault. I couldn’t go Monday – Friday because of work commitments on Thursday. That made the job spill over to Monday.

The tile people could have come Monday but I want to add another outlet near the stove so my electrician needs to get here to put in the box for the outlet before they tile. I need to give him time to come in first. I am scheduled to work in the Foxboro office on Tuesday so can’t have anyone here then so Wednesday was the only logical choice. But we are making progress!

Cabinets Are In!

Posted on November 19, 2014November 19, 2014 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Day 3 and the cabinets are all installed! I picked such simple clean lines. I love them. I hope the plain doors will be easier to clean than my old ones. The cooking grease used to get into the ridges in the old doors and nothing I did would get it out.

They closed in the soffit above the upper cabinets. I didn’t realize that. I thought they were only going to remove the railing and cover the wall in back. OOPS. Oh well, this looks good too. I think I will need to stencil a design of some type on the blank soffit.

Tomorrow will be a day off for them. I have to go to our Foxboro office in the morning, dentist mid afternoon and the Somerville office at 5 pm so no way there’s any time for workmen.

Friday the counter tops go in! Yay! The stove has to be disconnected and pulled out for them to install the counters. I hope they turn it back on once the counters are in. I’d hate to go the whole weekend without a stove or oven!

Day 2 of the Great Kitchen Makeover

Posted on November 18, 2014November 18, 2014 by Dusty Roads

I awoke to a flooded kitchen! Yup the bucket containing the drip had overflowed during the night. I grabbed a bunch of old towels and began the mop up. Right at 8 am the door bell rang and my two perky installers arrived ready for a full days work. I explained that the pail had over flowed and we pondered the problem for a bit. Then they started on their main business, the cabinets.

I went out to locate our property manager who then called in a drain specialist to address the water problem. They only made it worse so the cabinet guys came up with a plan that seemed to solve the drip. They diverted it to a higher point so it was now running downhill into the drain. After all water can’t run uphill.

The cats were underfoot all day! The noise was deafening with the sanders and hand saw. You would have thought they would have stayed hidden with all the commotion!

The plastic drapes were hung today as a lot of sawdust was being generated, They had their big shop vac running to add to the mayhem.

But I am beginning to see progress. Can’t wait til the doors go on and I can really see the new look! A lot different from those old dark cabinets.

I think the kitty cats are down for the count. Should be a quiet night!

Let The Tear Out Begin

Posted on November 17, 2014November 17, 2014 by Dusty Roads | 4 Comments

Things really started happening fast. Friday the counter top people came in and made templates of the counters. Then Saturday I got a call from Home Depot that the materials had come in and they were ready to start. They wanted to start Monday!

I had Sunday to take everything out of the cabinets! I am now living in boxes. That show about hoarders has nothing on me.

I used the clean out as an opportunity to toss all the old plastic containers that always seem to get saved and accumulated. Do I use them? Sometimes but much less since I’ve been working from home so bye bye. I’ll just start collecting again.

2 guys from Home Depot arrived right on time at 9:30. It was a nasty rainy day out so they didn’t want to set up all their equipment in the rain so all they did was the tear out. Good bye yellow tiles! They were done by noon.

The cats had a lot of exploring to do.

The guys left the fridge pulled out for me so I could vacuum the coils and mop the floor behind it. They found a treasure trove of cat toys. Both of the installers told me they had cats a of their own at home so they found Buddy’s antics funny and they saved all of the toys from behind the fridge!

They found a leak under the sink but since a plumber will be coming out anyway we just stuck a bucket under it for now.

While they were tearing everything out I got a call from the counter people. They will come out between 8-9 on Friday to install the counters. Everything should be done by Friday!

The plumber might have to come out on Saturday but we are hoping not. I have to buy the over the oven microwave and arrange for my electrician to come out and we will be done!

Wow!