Counters Day One

The guys from Livingston, MT arrived in Casper yesterday late afternoon and began work around 8:00 a.m. this morning. As I was driving home from work I chanted to myself, "please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house" but there was. I guess installing soapstone takes longer than I thought. So they'll be back tomorrow. I had already rescheduled the plumber and electrician when the soapstone date was postponed a week and I refuse to do it again. Tomorrow at 7 a.m. the electrician will be here. I hope they all get along. They're all friendly and chatty guys. I'm sure they'll have a great time. I'll just buy even more doughnuts and pastries to ease the difficulty of having to work with extra people underfoot. And tomorrow night when I drive home from work I'll be saying once again, "please don't let there be a truck at my house, please don't let there be a truck at my house"....



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Counters Day One

Stuffed With Turkey

We took a break from the stresses of kitchen remodeling to stuff ourselves with turkey and then burn it off playing with grandchildren. Before we left, the cabinet handles were installed and we even put a few things in some of the cupboards and drawers. The counters which were to be installed last Monday were postponed until this Monday due to weather. Four guys started the drive from Livingston, MT but after 80 miles of snow turned around and headed back home. The snow was supposed to head south and they were afraid they'd get stuck in Casper for Thanksgiving. Weather looks good for tomorrow so I'm crossing my fingers they'll make it this time. The electrician and plumber are rescheduled so now we're counting down to Thursday night for cooking on a real stove and washing dishes in a real sink and dishwasher. Coming home to a hot plate is harder after you've spent four days eating awesome home cooked food.

We had a great time in Delta playing with kids, visiting, eating, playing, visiting, more eating, wishing we hadn't eaten so much and then eating even more.

Tuesday afternoon was beautiful and we took a walk along the river.

Wednesday we went to the park and played on the swings and looked for fish in the stream.


The rest of the time we played cowboys in the fort, some of us dressed up like a princess, we painted and just generally had a great time.


Except for the deer who decided to cross the interstate in front of us only 40 minutes from home everything went great. I still see the big brown eyes looking at me just before I squeezed my own eyes shut and heard the thump. If she wouldn't have decided to hesitate on her trip to the other side we might have just missed her. Dean was able to come so close to stopping that the air bags didn't go off and both headlights were still working.
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Stuffed With Turkey

Hardware and counters left to do

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Hardware and counters left to do

Cabinets and Window Well

Pictures will tell the tale. Day one of three days of cabinet installation.

The window well is in and tomorrow's dirt work day. I had my own mini meltdown (hopefully I disguised it well enough that nobody at work noticed) when the cabinet guy called me soon after I got to work to tell me the wires for the undercounter cabinets are approximately 1 inch too low. I neglected to tell the electricians I would be putting in a 3/4" maple floor underneath the cabinets. I never imagined
3/4" would make much of a difference but I know now. It's not the worst thing that could have happened. They moved the wire up and it's where it should be now. It just means I'll be putting on some drywall patches before I tile the backsplash. The worst part was that every time my phone rang for the rest of the day my heart lurched and I worried I would be hearing about a screw up that wouldn't have an easy fix. Of course tomorrow I'll worry all day that my phone will ring and if it does, my heart will lurch again. But I am the queen of worry so it would be completely out of character for me to feel calm now. The burning of worry calories is what keeps me slim.

Dean's gone to get us a pizza since we still can't really get to the fridge or find a place to cook. More tomorrow.

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Cabinets and Window Well

Box Heaven

First of all, let me thank my lovely daughter, Leslie, for making my blog look beautiful. Nice, isn't it?

Secondly, we are buried in boxes of kitchen cabinets of all shape and sizes. There will be no cooking tonight even though Dean came home loaded with groceries intent on cooking a meal.

Three out of four windows have been trimmed as well as the patio door. The fourth window will be finished tomorrow. It was a bit windy today so the installation of the window well was postponed until tomorrow. Here's a small experience to give you a bit of an idea of the type of wind we had today.

I was sitting at a stoplight on my way to work when a cowboy hat rolled down the street in front of me at break neck speed. I wondered who it belonged to as I as turned onto the street and continued to work. As I approached the next light I noticed a man off the side of the road struggling with something very large and black. His arms were stretched above his head, the black thing was blowing left and right and up and down. By the time I sat through the light and continued on I realized he'd parked his pickup and had been struggling with the plastic bed liner which apparently had been blown from is truck. By then he was standing in the middle of it on the side of the road. He was barely able to keep it on the ground. I have no idea how he was going to get it into his pickup. Maybe he didn't. Maybe the bed liner lifted off and followed the cowboy hat down the street.

When I checked a weather site this afternoon I saw there were gusts in some parts of Casper between 75 - 100 mph. The prevailing wind speeds for most of the day were in the 40 mph range, until it finally quit and brought cold weather and a few flakes of snow. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for window well installation.

While the cabinets were being unloaded a black lab came into the house (since every door was open) and I thought Dean had come home early. I stood out of the way of the busy box haulers talking to the dog, telling it to sit, asking it where its Dad was, when I realized it wasn't even our dog. It was Tippo, from next door. He'd broken through the fence again and made himself at home in my house. Nothing like not being able to tell your dog from the neighbor's. Not only that, I had to admit it in front of two box haulers and the window guy. I managed to get Tippo home and propped up the broken-out fence planks with some of Dean's rocks. Apparently I didn't prop well enough because Tippo was out again when Dean really did come home so now Dean's out there screwing in the planks since nails I put in over the weekend didn't seem to work. I guess that's a sign that the rotting planks should be replaced. Oh, boy, another project.

In the meantime, I'm feeling overwhelmed with cabinets, workmen, and wind and I'm ready to hunker down for the night.





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Box Heaven

Day One of Crunch Week

Today the house was filled with busy, busy windowguys. It was the perfect day to have holes in your house. The sun was shining, the wind was NOT blowing (I know, it's hard to believe) and it was in the 60's. The slide show will show you today's progress. I felt so bad I didn't have any home baked goods for these hardworking guys that we drove to 1st Street Bakers (closed), and the mall for Mrs. Fields cookies (apparently went out of business---not there). I think tomorrow, since "windowguys" will be here again finishing up, I'll just have to hit the bakery at Safeway before work and bring home some big, fat, greasy doughnuts. I hope they'll be able to force those down.

I left a message for "dirtguy" saying the basement window was being installed as I spoke. He called me back and said he can do the dirt work on Thursday and did we want him to install the window well or were the "windowguys" doing it. I thought we'd already worked this out two weeks ago and he was doing it. He, however, does not want to install the cover because if it leaks he doesn't want to be held responsible. Since "headwindowguy" happened to be there when I took the call I asked him "do you want your "windowguys" to install the windowwell" and he said, "sure" and he didn't seem to have a problem with the cover. So "windowguys" will install the window well large enough to live in as well as the cover (apparently they're not worried about it leaking) and "dirtguy" comes Thursday to backfill the well and do the foundation dirt work we discussed with him way back in June.

Dean and I also went to the tile store and brought home his baby blue irridescent tile sample. It's funny how the soapstone and the same textured tile look bluish against a blue glass tile and greenish against the green mosaic tiles.

"Tilechick" and "groutbabe": this option involves sprinkling a few 4x4 baby blue glass tiles in a random pattern mixed in with 4x4 textured tiles so we'd have some sparkle. I'm guessng this may involve more cutting but I'm not sure yet because I'm not positive I'll have a full 18" between counter and cabinet due to the height of the soapstone and 3/4" maple floors but I will measure when everything's in. Are you screaming "why did we EVER say we'd help?" yet???


Tomorrow "windowguys" are back and cabinets and appliances are delivered between 3 and 5 p.m. That means moving the same furniture we moved to make room for "windowguys" again to make room for cabinets.◦

Day One of Crunch Week

More Choices

Instead of burning off calories at the gym the past few days I spent my after work time searching carpet/flooring stores, Home Depot and Sutherlands for the perfect backsplash tile. At the first flooring business I went to I was helped by a salesman who looked like he was ten years old and sounded like his head was filled with snot which I can only assume is what he was trying to keep up in his head every time he sniffed. He was very friendly, and tried very hard to help me. While I'm sure he knew more about tile than I did, and probably felt miserable from his cold, I couldn't get past thinking he looked like he should be in grade school and the constant sniffing made me want to run for disinfectant. Strike one.

At the next flooring store I visited I was helped by a woman who responded with my request for suggestions by asking me what I liked. Duh..........if I knew what I wanted or liked I wouldn't have to look or ask for help. I'd just buy it. Strike two.

There is no hope for help at Home Depot or Sutherlands. You'd better know what you want when you walk into those stores or be able to figure it out for yourself. I was unable to do either and no tile I saw there jumped up and said "buy me, buy me." Strike three.

By Thursday I was depressed and beginning to wish I'd jut decided to do a 4" soapstone backsplash and paint the wall. As a last resort I looked up tile in the yellow pages and decided to try one more place. This business is in a rundown part of town and when I pulled up I wasn't even sure I wanted to get out of the car and walk in. It looked like a dive and only had a small sign on the outside. Until the moment I actually turned the knob and the door opened I'd wondered if it was even still in business. Who would have thought it would have the most awesome tile ever and two wonderful women who were full of helpful suggestions and eager to help. Friday I drug Dean to the store with me and we left loaded with tile samples and lots of possibilities. It renewed my faith in customer service. Below is a photo of what we've come up with so far. There are some bright baby blue glass tiles that Dean has his eye on so tomorrow we will return the samples we've decided against and grab that one for some more thought. Once the cabinets and countertops are in we'll be able to make a final decision but for now it's good to know there are choices we like and we have come up with somewhat of a plan.


So for the benefit of TileChick and GroutBabe who will be helping me with this project, here's our preliminary plan. Using 6" solid tiles we will mix in a selection of 6" glass mosaic tiles. We're thinking the frosted choice of the green (or maybe those baby blues with a blue solid tile) shown in the photo. Of course exact tiles and colors could still change but for now the mixing of solid and mosaic glass tiles is our tentative plan. The photo doesn't really show the colors well and definitely doesn't show off the soapstone but we found a piece of cherry to put above anyway. Does that sound like it's something we can do together?


Today we move furniture and take down pictures in preparation of window replacement tomorrow. Windowguys will probably be here most of the day between replacing and framing three windows upstairs and the cement wall window downstairs. Since it's a federal holiday we'll be around and I won't have to spend my vacation time meeting them. Still.....I think I'd prefer my holiday without worker bees running around the house.◦

More Choices

Stinky

The kitchen floor is completely down, the first layer of finish is on and the house stinks. The good thing is it's warm enough outside to open up all the doors and windows and air things out a little.

Here's the progress to date in pictures: floor, outside wall, and where the water went.



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Stinky

Oops

It turns out I whined and worried for nothing. There is no water in the house and everything seems to have gone well. From what I could see in the dark, the hole outside looks like a muddy mess but that's okay. As long as it's not a mess in the basement bedroom I'm okay with muddy messes outside. Dean did remove the window frame and we could peer in with a flashlight to see only a bit of dampness down below, not 2 gallons of water. Phew!

Tonight as I was washing the tupperware I'd used for my lunch today I thought to myself, "tomorrow I'm going to remember to wash my lunch dishes at work and that will be one less mess to deal with at home." That thought goes through my brain every time I wash my lunch tupperware. You'd think after somewhere between four and five weeks of washing dishes in a tub in the laundry room sink I would remember that washing out my lunch tupperware at work would save me time and work at home. But no. It hasn't happened yet. As I was washing the dishes I looked over and saw Lily sitting right by the place her food normally would have been. She has been temporarily moved, along with her cat box, food and water, to our bedroom while the wood floor is being installed. She sat there looking at the spot where her food should be, and then up at me. Then back to the missing food, and back at me. She's not very old. Even in cat years she's younger than me so it made me feel better to know she's not figuring things out very quickly either. Of course, she's only had a day to adjust and I've had a month but still ...

Here's a photo of the wood floor so far.
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Oops

No matter how many questions you ask

Okay, even after I specifically asked "man in charge of wallcutting"----- "what do I need to do to prepare for the wall cutting?" and he said, "is the basement finished?" and I said "yes" he said it would be good to pull back the carpet 2 or 3 feet from the wall because there will be 1 or 2 gallons of water that will spray through when they cut which they'll vacuum up. He even said if I didn't do that they would but I didn't trust them to get the carpet pulled away without messing it up so we did it yesterday.

This morning "actual I will cut the wall guy" tells me it would have been better if we would have cut away the drywall where the window will be because "we don't do that." Stupid me. I thought they'd cut right through the cement and drywall. So "if it's built right, the water will just run down and we'll vacuum it up. However, if not, it'll just sit there soaking into insulation and drywall." Right now, as I type, cement is being cut and water is being sprayed into my drywall, either running down the wall, through the insulation, draining out the bottom or soaking nicely into insulation and drywall--a developing hotbed of mold. Guess what we'll be doing after work? Dean'll go home at noon and see if he thinks it can wait that long or if we'll need to take the afternoon off to open it up sooner. Geez. You think you have all your bases covered....◦

No matter how many questions you ask

Some people mean what they say

Way back near the end of June we arranged with a "dirtguy" to add some dirt to our foundation, compact an area that may be collecting water, dig a hole and cut out a hole in our basement wall for an egress window. At that time he said, "I'm really busy. It could be September before I get to it and if I don't get to it before September 15 I hunt from September 15 to October 15." I waited patiently until October 15. But then decided I'd waited long enough. After several phone calls he arrived in our yard on Thursday and dug a hole for the window. Someone else will be cutting the hole for the window on Monday. Someone else will be installing the window the week after. At the same time someone else will be arriving bright and early Monday to install my maple floor in the kitchen. Events leading up to this week of activity went something like this:

Wednesday afternoon way back on June 13th-------

**I thought it smelled musty in Dean's "art" room so I went down to the crawl space to investigate and discovered a large wet spot in the dirt.

**With trepidation I told Dean, who also went down to investigate and came to the conclusion our foundation was collapsing due to a leak somewhere in the sprinklers or water coming into the house from a break in the water main.

**At 6:30 p.m. I made a frantic phone call to the plumber. "We are leaving tomorrow morning because our daughter is having a baby on Friday. Please, please, PLEASE call me early so I can arrange a time to meet you when we get home so you can look at the crawl space. Pleeeeeeze."

Thursday morning June 14th

**plumber calls bright and early, comes over and determines that no, our foundation isn't collapsing and no, it isn't a leak from the water main or the sprinklers. Maybe it's a collection of water that was created when the sprinklers leaked the year before. Our house won't fall in but we should have someone do some dirt work around the foundation.

Friday, June 15th Pierce is born. We spend time with the kiddies in Delta and then come home after a little more than a week.

The last week in June:

**"dirtguy" comes over, says he can do the dirt work around the foundation, and compact the ground. We say, as long as you're here, would you be able to dig a hole for an egress window too?

**"dirtguy"/of course. I can even cut the hole and install a window well but "you'll have to find somebody to make a cover. I don't do that. And oh, by the way, I'm really busy so it'll probably be September before I can get over here.

**Me/okay. We can wait til September. In July I order a honkin' window well with its own special cover. It is so large it has little steps in it. I don't have time to find somebody to make a cover and who the heck would I call anyway? And as long as we're putting a new window the in the basement I figured I'd order three replacement windows for the ones upstairs that don't close unless you go outside and push them shut.

**Now we wait. In the meantime every now and then I touch base with "windowguy". "Nope, haven't heard from the "dirtguy" yet. He must be hunting. "

October 16th to the present

**First of several phone calls to "dirt guy". Portions went like this:

**Me/Do you know when you can dig the hole?

**DirtGuy/My "big project" isn't going well. I'm behind. It'll be a while.

**Me/I found someone else who can cut the wall. He can come Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Can you dig a hole by then and do the dirt work later?

**DirtGuy/No way. I'm having back surgery. I'll call you on Friday.

**DirtGuy/My surgery went well. I think I can dig the hole Wednesday or Thursday.

**Me to WallGuy/He thinks he can do it Wednesday or Thursday do you know when you can cut the wall?

**WallGuy/Tell me when there's a hole. Time is money.

**Me to WindowGuy/I'm sorry I can't get anybody nailed down. The hole might be dug next Wednesday or Thursday but I still don't know about the hole cutting. I'll call you when we're ready to have the windows installed.

**Me to WoodFloorPlace/If they cut a hole the week the floors are put in when is the polyurethane being laid so I make sure nobody's around?

**WoodFloorPlace/The floor guy's on jury duty. He might be behind.

Finally........ the hole was dug. This Monday "wallguy" comes to cut the hole. That same Monday "woodfloorguy" comes to begin the floor installation. The next Monday, November 12th "windowguy" installs the egress window as well as the 3 upstairs. That same day the cabinets are delivered. Two days later they're installed. The week after the counters are installed.

So............things are happenin' again. In the meantime today I spent some quality time removing the remainder of the linoleum paper from the kitchen floor. Stupid me, I asked "woodfloorguy" if what we'd removed was good enough. Dean got up early and bought me my own special paint scraper to use on the floor. He was so proud of it and handed it to me with a big smile on his face like it was a dozen roses. That lasted until I determined that I really did want to be able to use my shoulders after today so I got out the sander and things went much more quickly after that.

Dean has enjoyed spending his Saturday outside repairing the sprinkler line around the honkin' hole we had cut. Even though we'd had the sprinkler line moved out from the house earlier in the summer in preparation of the hole to be dug, it wasn't quite enough since I purchased a window well large enough to live in.

All that's left is cleaning up masses of dust from today's sanding, pulling the carpet away from the bedroom wall in preparation for the hole cutting, covering the carpet with tarps, placing plastic up on the doorways to cut down on dust from the floor sanding, fighting over the heating pad, meeting all the "guys" at their appointed times, nailing down "dirtguy" for a date for the rest of the foundation dirt work, and small other projects we've yet to remember. Stay tuned.

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Some people mean what they say