Let The Long Weekend Begin

Posted on November 26, 2014November 26, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Good evening folks! I don’t have new tile in my kitchen but I do have a new electrical panel…in my living room. It’s the law. You can no longer put that ugly box out of sight in a closet and because of where the old panel is located there was only one place they could legally put the new one. I haven’t quite figured out how to hide it yet. I’m thinking on it.

My own electrician came in and got me all set up for the Microwave range hood. The new hood will arrive sometime next Thursday, December 4.

Rocky has finally begun to get used to all the door bell ringing and men coming and going. He isn’t cowering behind the furniture. In fact this afternoon he was snoozing under his heat lamp when the Electrician came back with the bill for the panel. I don’t think Rocky even opened an eye. Tim (that’s the electrician) laughed and laughed over him. I explained how the heat lamp had come about and he thought that was interesting but the thing that really got him was the way Rocky was sprawled under it and paid no attention to a stranger in the house.

All of the people who have worked on the kitchen have asked about the heat lamp. Most thought I was nuts or that I was taking spoiling over the top. Once I explained I got the lamp in hope of correcting Rocky’s habit of over grooming and how it worked, they all changed their tune.

This evening I was channel surfing (I should have been putting more stuff away but…) and they had something called “Ballroom Blitz” on. I’d never heard of it before so I checked it out. OMG I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It captured that world so perfectly from the expense of lessons and costumes and travel to the addictive nature of the sport. It made me miss it. As much as I wanted to turn it off because of the emotions it was pulling out of me, I was glued to the set. If I ever win the lottery I know I’d be right back at it. Its been long enough that I could be an amateur again. I could dance for exercise and the fun of it.

Just not at Arthur Murray’s. Nope they will never get another dime from me but that’s a story for another day.

Slowly but Surely

Posted on November 25, 2014November 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Sorry there was no update last night. I got caught up in the sorting, cleaning process. Yes I now have water in my kitchen sink. The plumber set up my facet and spray and the other gadgets completely backward to what I am used to but it works. Maybe he is left handed or maybe I’m the backward one. 🙂

The plumber said he had never seen cabinets and counters like these. He kept checking them out. He said most places he’s been have had wood grain or white cabinets. He thought my off-green (the color name is “Ocean Floor”) was a nice change of pace.

The cabinet guys came back too and made custom shelves so my new cabinets are ready for stuff! They were impressed with the counter tops too.

I went a little nuts at Bed, Bath and Beyond for expandable drawer inserts and a holder for cookie sheets and other baking pans. Then I discovered that I can order them through Ebates.com and get back some $$$. So I finished my order there and earned $5.00 back! It gets paid quarterly so I may do more ordering through that web site. We’ll have to see.

I ran some of my decorative dishes through the dishwasher . They seemed to have a thin coat of grime. I guess the cooking oils had coated them and then the fine sanding grains all stuck to them. They didn’t come clean so I did an internet search and found out that a light scrubbing with baking soda , of all things, should cut the grease and clean them up. And it worked! Cleaning the Kitty Kat Teapot now.

Who new that baking soda would become my new go-to cleaning product. This old dog just learned a new trick!

My electrician is coming tonight to put in an outlet box so the tile people will leave a space for a new outlet. Then tomorrow the condo association is sending their electrician to upgrade my electrical panel.

The tile people are due sometime tomorrow too. Is the end in sight?

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!