Sunday, August 22, 2010
Cabinet Progress
We spent the majority of the weekend installing the cabinets we did recieve. Hopefully the rest of the cabinets will arrive this week. Very rough right now, but already a vast improvement. Can't wait to finish up!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Big Day Tuesday: Cabinet Delivery
So, as most of you know, we took a chance getting our cabinets through a small, wholesale cabinet distributor that we originally found posted on Craigslist. We’ve been really impressed with the experience thus far. Not only did they furnish the very best bid for the most upgraded cabinets, but the cabinets also came in very quickly, something that from reading reviews online was most people’s main gripe with the company. My greatest fear in going this route was that the cabinets were going to be shoddy. When we put in our order, we really didn’t get to see a good display of the cabinets, and I feared that perhaps they were going to be poorly made.
In receiving our cabinets yesterday, my fear was put to rest. They are really beautiful, well-made cabinets. The paint job is superb and staining is even. That said, I was slightly deflated when I learned that we had been shorted about nine things from our order, including three cabinet bases and multiple small add-on’s such as crown molding, fridge panels, cabinet spacers, ect. Worst yet, when we called the company to inquiry, they were completely nonchalant and unapologetic for the shortage. I am truly hoping that we’re not going to have some long, drawn-out ordeal on our hands. As the company sources their cabinets through Canada, I am guessing that rectifying any mistake made is not going to be a swift process.
We’re just really praying about things. We’ve already paid for everything, which doesn’t give a company much incentive to try to work with us. As we got an excellent price on the cabinets, I am okay with some minor discrepancies and hiccups, but I am really hoping that this will not leave me kitchen-less for an extended period of time.
As for next week’s dinner party that I was so hoping for cabinets, countertops and a sink. I think it might just be tough luck.
In receiving our cabinets yesterday, my fear was put to rest. They are really beautiful, well-made cabinets. The paint job is superb and staining is even. That said, I was slightly deflated when I learned that we had been shorted about nine things from our order, including three cabinet bases and multiple small add-on’s such as crown molding, fridge panels, cabinet spacers, ect. Worst yet, when we called the company to inquiry, they were completely nonchalant and unapologetic for the shortage. I am truly hoping that we’re not going to have some long, drawn-out ordeal on our hands. As the company sources their cabinets through Canada, I am guessing that rectifying any mistake made is not going to be a swift process.
We’re just really praying about things. We’ve already paid for everything, which doesn’t give a company much incentive to try to work with us. As we got an excellent price on the cabinets, I am okay with some minor discrepancies and hiccups, but I am really hoping that this will not leave me kitchen-less for an extended period of time.
As for next week’s dinner party that I was so hoping for cabinets, countertops and a sink. I think it might just be tough luck.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Smoky Slate & Turtle Dove
We’ve got a big, exciting weekend in front of us. The sheet rockers finished everything up yesterday so we’re ready to start the painting process. We vacuumed sheet rock dust for what felt like an eternity last evening and hung painter’s plastic over all the windows and doors. Tonight we’re going to prime all the surfaces with a paint sprayer and come in tomorrow morning and spray the ceiling paint.
For generally being an extremely decisive person, I had a heck of a time picking paint colors for the kitchen and porch. I finally decided on ‘Smoky Slate’ for the kitchen and ‘Turtle Dove’ for the porch. Both would fall into the green/gray/blue color family without being overly pronounced as any of the three. For me, the hardest decisions in the course of this remodeling process have been the light fixtures, the paint colors, and the cabinet hardware (still not selected).
I know we’ve been really bad about posting pics as of late. It’s just that we are so tuckered out by the end of the day and uploading pictures takes forever. Once the cabinets arrive on Tuesday, will get some current pics up.
For generally being an extremely decisive person, I had a heck of a time picking paint colors for the kitchen and porch. I finally decided on ‘Smoky Slate’ for the kitchen and ‘Turtle Dove’ for the porch. Both would fall into the green/gray/blue color family without being overly pronounced as any of the three. For me, the hardest decisions in the course of this remodeling process have been the light fixtures, the paint colors, and the cabinet hardware (still not selected).
I know we’ve been really bad about posting pics as of late. It’s just that we are so tuckered out by the end of the day and uploading pictures takes forever. Once the cabinets arrive on Tuesday, will get some current pics up.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Happy Husband, Happy Wife
The beast, otherwise known as drywall is now complete. Granted, it took us every moment of the weekend to finish, but I am not going to complain. The mudders and tapers arrived at 7 a.m. this morning and it feels great to hand off the next phase of dirty work to someone else for a change. If all goes as planned, they will finish up by end of week. As for the most exciting piece of news, our cabinets are coming next Tuesday. Ready or not, here they come. In between now and then, we have to get the ceiling and walls primed and painted and install the hardwood floors. There is a very strong, gleaming light at the end of this tunnel. I am one excited girl!
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Overall, this remodeling process has taken very little toll, that is apart from eating all things microwavable, spending less time with our friends, putting large debits in our checking account, living amidst uncontainable clutter, and working every weekend ALL weekend long. Seriously though, this has been a great experience. I love the constant flurry of activity, I love building something from the ground up, and admittedly, I even love the physicality of the project. But most of all, I LOVE seeing transformations.
This is not to say that there hasn’t been some really challenging moments. Last weekend we experienced the “ugly” in home renovation. Pure mental and physical fatigue coupled with long, hot, grueling hours on the roof made emotions run very high. There was some bickering, some crying, and a whole lot of “woe is me.” Thank you dear husband for putting up with me at my worst. You’re my rock solid companion and I love you.
We’ve also encountered some “bad” jobs along the way, but certainly taking the cake would be roofing and insulating our house. Though insulating is not heavy, back breaking work, it is terribly uncomfortable. Being covered in specks of fiberglass makes you cough, eyes burn, skin itch, and nose run. Now add in a day that is 95 degrees and 100% humidity and you’re in for a real treat. Now try crawling under your house in the dirt to insulate the floors in a 2 ft. crawl space, add in the heat, sweat, and shards of fiberglass and it’s like a dream come true.
Even amidst some of these unpleasantries, there has been such an abundance of “good.” Scott and I were lucky to have a couple days off this week and we got through about a week’s worth of work in a two day time frame. We passed our insulation inspection with flying colors, which is our last inspection until final, and we sheet rocked our ceiling. Our brother in-law, Travis stopped by yesterday evening to help Scott put up some of the wall boards, and my parents are coming over tonight to bring us dinner and help us get more rock on the wall. Hopefully Scott and I will be able to finish the job on Saturday so we can take a much needed day of rest come Sunday.
We decided to bite the bullet and hire someone to do the muddying and taping, they are also going to do a knock down ceiling in all the common areas in our house. They start bright and early on Monday morning and I expect they will be working through Friday. This means we’ll be painting by next weekend, better yet, it means we’ll be installing cabinets in less than two weeks. Calm my beating heart—I cannot wait!!
This is not to say that there hasn’t been some really challenging moments. Last weekend we experienced the “ugly” in home renovation. Pure mental and physical fatigue coupled with long, hot, grueling hours on the roof made emotions run very high. There was some bickering, some crying, and a whole lot of “woe is me.” Thank you dear husband for putting up with me at my worst. You’re my rock solid companion and I love you.
We’ve also encountered some “bad” jobs along the way, but certainly taking the cake would be roofing and insulating our house. Though insulating is not heavy, back breaking work, it is terribly uncomfortable. Being covered in specks of fiberglass makes you cough, eyes burn, skin itch, and nose run. Now add in a day that is 95 degrees and 100% humidity and you’re in for a real treat. Now try crawling under your house in the dirt to insulate the floors in a 2 ft. crawl space, add in the heat, sweat, and shards of fiberglass and it’s like a dream come true.
Even amidst some of these unpleasantries, there has been such an abundance of “good.” Scott and I were lucky to have a couple days off this week and we got through about a week’s worth of work in a two day time frame. We passed our insulation inspection with flying colors, which is our last inspection until final, and we sheet rocked our ceiling. Our brother in-law, Travis stopped by yesterday evening to help Scott put up some of the wall boards, and my parents are coming over tonight to bring us dinner and help us get more rock on the wall. Hopefully Scott and I will be able to finish the job on Saturday so we can take a much needed day of rest come Sunday.
We decided to bite the bullet and hire someone to do the muddying and taping, they are also going to do a knock down ceiling in all the common areas in our house. They start bright and early on Monday morning and I expect they will be working through Friday. This means we’ll be painting by next weekend, better yet, it means we’ll be installing cabinets in less than two weeks. Calm my beating heart—I cannot wait!!
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