Methomania Monday

methomania ~ morbid craving for alcohol

There’s no joy in reno-ville today.

It’s amazing how something that started out so promising went down the crapper so quickly. Where do I start?

I got a call last week from the company that makes our cabinets. We aren’t getting the missing cabinet, the trim, or the replacement doors until the week of, brace yourself, January 15. They said something about not wanting to pay the contractor to come in twice, despite the fact it was their error that the cabinet was missing from the original shipment.

And by the way, the proper doors for the cabinets will cost us an extra $450.

We were getting impatient about the counter guy coming to measure for our counters and finally called the company only to be told they were waiting for a deposit before he was sent out. This was the first we heard about it – this is something the designer at Home Depot should have told us about. So the hubby rushed out to make the deposit and the guy is coming some time today.

So in preparation, the hubby pulled out the sink we’d bought last year when we started talking about renovating the kitchen (the son-in-law got us a really good deal on it). Uh oh. There’s a problem. It’s an apron sink, which means it hangs over the edge of the counter, and our counter isn’t built for that.

Off to Home Depot we went yesterday to find a new sink but of course they didn’t have any copper coloured ones in stock so we had to special order it. The good news is that it’ll be here this week. The bad news is, the counter guy may not take our word for the measurement and decide to delay things until the new sink is here, which means the counters won’t be here until the new year.

Meanwhile . . . the hubby noticed that if you took out the spaces between the sets of lower cabinets where the sink goes, it would pull the side cabinets forward and we wouldn’t need to change the doors. So we called the contractor to see if this was possible and he said maybe, but he wouldn’t advise it, but we could get an electrician in to do something with the wiring for the stove so we could push it back further and then we could open the cabinet without changing the door. At least we get the satisfaction of calling the cabinet people and telling them to cancel the extra doors.

So in the meantime, I’ve continued filling what cupboards I could. The hubby suggested I use one of the two wide cutlery drawers as a tea drawer, but I found I needed a little more space than that:

Okay, to be fair there's a can of coffee and some hot chocolate in there as well, but most of it is tea. :-)

And my favourite (and the most expensive) cupboard is the pantry:

And there was one upside to the cessation of work in the kitchen, the hubby was finally able to start laying the floor in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. This shows the comparison between the old floor and the new:

And this one shows the living room with the new flooring. We almost hate to cover it up with the throw rug:

Now everybody cross their fingers that the counter guy has good news for us regarding the delivery date for the counters. Otherwise I won’t have a kitchen again until the new year.

Malinger Monday

malinger ~ to feign sickness in order to avoid duty or work

I have to say, our contractor is amazing. And I have the pictures to prove it.

Just to remind you of how things looked, here’s a picture of the corner we had for the coffee maker before the renovation:

And here’s the same corner afterwards:

No, the dishwasher will not be going beside the counter, it’s just sitting there to keep it out of the way. We plan on running the stone counter all the way to the edge of the wall, and there’ll be space under the end of it for a stool or recycling or something.

That tall, skinny cabinet in the corner is the pantry. The door opens and there are wire basket shelves on both sides. The ones on the door aren’t adjustable, but the ones on the inside are. My only complaint is that there aren’t more of them. There’s a lot of wasted space inside.

Next we have the corner where you can see just the edge of the sink and where we had our dishwasher:

And here’s what it looks like now:

That empty space is where the dishwasher will be moved to. And see that bi-fold door on the lower cupboard in the corner? That opens up to a large space with a lazy susan on both the upper and lower shelves. I plan on putting baking stuff in that cupboard. Pans and cookie cutters and what have you on the bottom, and flour, sugar, etc. on the top. I can’t wait to start filling it up!

However . . . they’ll need to access that cupboard to run the line for the dishwasher so there’s no point in putting stuff in there just to have to take it out again. Plus the hinges are on the wrong side of the doors, so they have to be re-ordered.

I was able to start putting stuff in the pantry and in the cupboards above the lazy susans late last week. We don’t really have more cupboard space, but we do have more shelves in them and the shelves are adjustable! And we’ll definitely have more counter space because the counter is going over the dishwasher as well.

But . . . as I was filling the upper corner cupboard with our every day dishes, I wrenched my shoulder trying to lift the stoneware and now I only have limited movement on my left side. And when I say limited, I mean it. I can’t hold anything with any weight to it, nor can I raise my arm more than waist level. Ouch! That's going to slow things down considerably.

Plus, I can’t start putting stuff in the coffee cupboard (the one beside the pantry with the empty doors) until the glass has been put in. We picked out some fancy glass but it’ll take another couple of weeks to arrive at the glass place.

And they haven’t been in to measure the space for the counters yet. Once they measure for it, it’ll take a week or two for it to come in. But the contractor can't put in the sink and hook up the dishwasher without the counters in place first. Also, notice anything missing from above the stove?

There’s supposed to be a special microwave cupboard/stove vent in that space, which somehow got lost in transit. So it had to be re-ordered. The woman said she put a rush on it, but the cupboards took forever so I think we’re still looking at a couple of weeks.

And have you noticed how things are locking down again? I just hope we get our kitchen done before this happens.

Dear Santa . . .

Microsomatous Monday

microsomatous ~ having a small body

Warning! Picture heavy post ahead

Welcome to the chaos that is my life! The kitchen renovation is well under way, so I have lots of pictures to show you. First up, this is what my dining room looks like. This is only what I deemed essential stuff. There are 16 more bins of kitchen stuff in the hubby’s office down the hall.

Next we have the breakfast nook after I just started clearing out:

Followed by the breakfast nook after the cupboards had been ripped out:

Here’s what the sink side of the kitchen looked like before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

Surprisingly, cooking in the kitchen isn’t too big of a problem because the stove is still hooked up. But coffee, tea and toast needed a creative solution:

Cleaning up, however is a royal pain in the butt!

And you think all of the above is bad enough? The very next day the new cabinets were delivered. And even with the old ones torn out, things are pretty tight around here. This is the view from the living room side:

And this is the view from the kitchen side:

The installer is supposed to be back on Wednesday to start installing the new cabinets, so at least we’ll have some space to move around. But the kitchen won’t be finished until the counters are in, and they can’t even order the counters until the cabinets are in. No counters means no sink. If they do their job right and we’re lucky, we might get counters in early December.

Seriously, what were we thinking?

Mofussil Monday

mofussil ~ provincial; rural

It was too beautiful a day on Saturday to spend it inside, so the hubby and I took a road trip to Peterborough. We dropped off a load of kitchen donations and then went down to the park downtown and took a walk along the river. Without our coats on.

Yes, it was that nice outside. It was, in fact, 23C, which is about 73F – in November! No Global warming here, I’m sure.

I think my purple plant is a lost cause. After I took it out of its plastic bag I rinsed it off and repotted it (cleaning out the pot first) and put it back on its isolation table. After a few days it still didn’t look very happy and I’m pretty sure the bugs are coming back. I’ll give it another day or two, but if I’m right the plant is toast. I like it, but not enough to keep this up.

As for the kitchen renovation progress . . . I’ve emptied as much as possible from the kitchen cupboards. What remains is stuff we use on a daily basis and our small appliances (toaster, coffee maker, microwave, toaster oven). I know where most of the stuff is going to go, but I’ll wait until Tuesday night before moving it all.

As you can see, most of it is stacked up in the hubby’s office (my old one) across the hall from my present office. The rest is on and around the dining room table that’s been pushed against the wall in the dining room.

We finally heard from the cabinet people, the cabinets will arrive on Thursday, the day after the old ones are scheduled to be ripped out. At least we’ll have some place to put them.

The wall paper’s been stripped from the walls, and what repairs could be done with the walls not covered by the cupboards. As I sit here typing this in my office, I’m looking at a haze of drywall dust in the hallway and breathing it in.

No, there’s no actual dry-walling going on, but the walls aren’t in the greatest of shape and needed some minor patching. But this means drywall dust, and drywall dust gets everywhere. Cleaning up after it is not just a slap dash with the dust cloth. Everything is going to have to be washed down – floors, walls, windows, plants, knick knacks . . . And it’s not just in the kitchen and dining room. Like I said, I’m breathing it in sitting here in my office. By the time the kitchen’s done it’ll be through the entire house.

Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe dusting? I would rather do anything else in the world than dust.

I feel a headache coming on.

Malm Monday

malm ~ calcareous loam used in making brick

So last week . . . I don’t even have the excuse that it was a holiday, I just didn’t have much to talk about I guess. I don’t have much to talk about this week either, but I’ll give it a shot.

You know fall is well under way when you have to use the snow brush to brush the leaves off your car in the morning. I wish I’d taken a picture of it, it was pretty funny. The neighbour’s maple tree overhangs our driveway and it seems to like dropping its leaves on my car.

Update on my purple passion plant: even after using the soapy water on it, the bugs came back. I’m not sure they’re aphids – what do you think?

I ended up getting a commercial insecticide spray. I took the plant outside, sprayed it, and tied it up in a clear plastic bag before bringing it back inside. I’m cautiously optimistic I’ve got those little buggers licked, but the plant is on a stand by itself for now.

And my wandering jew that was doing so well outside? I waited too long to bring it back inside. We had a heavy frost one night and it did a very thorough job of killing it. Oh, well. I do have a couple others still living, and they’re pretty easy to propagate.

The gardens have been put to bed for the winter. What remains of the vegetable plants have been pulled, the roses are covered, and my bulbs are still sitting in their bag because I forgot I had them.

The new cabinets for the kitchen are supposed to arrive sometime this week. When, exactly, we have no idea, just any time between the 2nd and the 6th. And where are they going to go? No, seriously, I’m asking you. They’re coming directly here and the actual renovation isn’t starting until next week. So meanwhile, we’ll have cabinets stacked up wherever there’s room in the living room/dining room.

I’ve been steadily emptying the old cupboards and it’s quite the job, I tell you what! I’ve got nine bins stacked in the hubby’s office, and that’s just stuff we won’t really need for the next month. I’ve also got two bins of donations so far, and filled one of the super sized garbage bags for the dump. I’ve moved the dining room table and chairs against the wall and the wing chair that was in the dining room is now in my office.

I’m trying to be as organized as possible, but it’s not easy. It’s hard to figure out what we’ll need the most access to. The baking supplies aren’t as necessary as the food from the pantry cupboard, so that’s in a bin in the bottom of the stack in the dining room. I’ve got a protective layer on the dining room table where we’ll have the toaster, coffee maker, and toaster oven – we’re not sure if we’ll have access to the stove.

The old cupboards are getting ripped out starting on the 11th, but we don’t know how soon the new ones can go in. Will the walls need fixing as well as painting? Do we need to put the new floor in before the counters go in? And while the old sink is getting ripped out with the cupboards, the new one won’t be going in until we get the new counters, which is the last thing going in.

Oh, I can see fun times ahead.

Not.