Friday, February 17, 2012

A new week, a new plan

Thursday will be our starting date for the remodel now.  Bill needs to complete a job he is doing for a friend of ours (Mike L.).

One extra day to pack boxes, and speaking of boxes, I had to buy another fourteen boxes Tuesday and made a trip to The Bellingham Herald to buy paper mill ends to wrap dishes in.  I have always had two drawers in the kitchen full of dish towels.  One drawer is filled with towels that are pretty enough to have out when company comes.  The other drawer is filled with once pretty towels that have mopped up a few too many spills to be presentable to anyone outside the family.  Having about seventy-five to one hundred towels has come in handy since I have used the towels to wrap the china that my parents give me in high school.  A set of dessert dishes that belonged to my grandmother and a set of Anchor Hocking Burple green ice tea glasses that my mother bought filled with tea when they were brand new.

I have a set of snack plates and cups, a few milk glass pieces, my china, and a set of crystal champagne flutes that are packed safely away in my studio.  Everything else is packed and stored in the dining room.  We still have all the platters, casserole dishes, trifle dishes, punch bowls, everyday plates, cups, bowls, and ceramic serving pieces to pack up, but the cabinets are looking empty and my house looks more like we are moving out.

The subway tile is out of stock but should arrive within two weeks and I will order the accent tile after a final measurement.  The sink and faucet still have to be ordered and I need to find Edison light bulbs, cheap, because we need five bulbs for the new chandelier over the island.  Our canisters are worn out so I am looking for a new set but not sure what I want, so I guess I’ll just keep looking and hope I find something I love or I am not buying anything (I’ll wait…I have patience).

It’s Wednesday and I didn’t realize how much “stuff” we owned and even though the thrift store pile is growing, I am out of boxes and paper again.  10:30 PM and we are headed to Wal-Mart for more packing supplies.  Bill and Bob will be here at 8:30 AM Thursday morning and my part must be done.  It is amazing how quiet our little town is at this time of night, locked up and almost deserted.  Wal-Mart looks just about as deserted except for all the clerks restocking the shelves. 

Home again and back to business.  There is no way the 50’s lounge chair is going to fit in the dining room because I had to rearrange boxes just to get the door closed.  Whoops…forgot to empty the dishwasher and pack those dishes.  With the cost of boxes and packing paper, maybe I could have chucked all the dishes and just bought new ones when the kitchen is done and saved both of our backs.   Three boxes to spare and it is 5:30 AM Thursday morning. 

I wasn’t ready to roll out of bed but not only does demo start today, I have an appointment with Jeannie at Argyle Salon to get my hair cut and a permanent because I am blessed with stick straight hair.  A quick stop for Starbucks coffee and I was ready to let Jeannie wash, perm, rinse, cut, and style my hair.  The bonus to all this was Argyle has a new esthetician named Stacey and she introduced herself and asked if I would like my hands massaged.  Wow…I could almost fall asleep I was so relaxed.  Jeannie laughed and said with the lack of sleep and my new state of relaxation I might not be able to drive home.  All good things must come to an end and soon it was time to return home and see what our home looked like.

No matter what I envisioned, walking in the door and looking straight ahead to the kitchen with the island, the appliances, and fifty percent of the cabinets removed was enlightening.  Larry has been asking me if I was excited about the remodel and I was, but there was so much planning and thinking of details that I couldn’t slow my mind down long enough just enjoy what was to come.  Now it was exciting.  Now the talk was behind us and it is all a forward motion to a kitchen with a transitional contemporary design. 

The boom box is playing loudly, Bill is singing, and Bob is laughing.  They make a good team.  I snapped a few photos as I left the house this morning and left explicit instructions for Larry to take lots of photos (he thought an occasional shot would be okay) because I had to miss the first hours I wanted to be able to relive what I missed.

Cabinets hung from the wall, stuck on with paint and age, even after the screws holding them to the four by fours were removed, they refused to budge.  Crow bars, hammers, shear muscle, man against cabinets, the cabinets finally lost but not before giving up a good fight.  The carpet in the kitchen has been removed and only the orange pad and tack strips remain. 

Friday the rest of the carpet, the hardwood, tack strips, the half wall, and ceiling will come out.  The wall will get opened up for the plumber to begin work Monday and then we will also be ready for the electrician.  So this was the good news. 

The bad news?  Behind the pantry cabinets there was no sheetrock covering the plumbing stack to the upstairs backrooms.  They were wrapped in insulation but the original builder, rather than deal with the one quarter inch protrusion from the wall, just hid the problem.  Bill moved the insulation around and realized a sheetrock patch will fit flush.  Problem averted.  But I would have loved for that to have been the biggest, baddest problem we would encounter.  We also have some weak plumbing pipes under the house that must be replaced, several pipe joints are not even glued together, we have two sewer leaks in the pipes, a leaking seal on the toilet in the guest bath downstairs and maybe dry rot. 

Friday I will be shopping for a new toilet, sink, mirror, and light for the guest bath and the bathroom will get a new subfloor if we have dry rot and new sheetrock to replace the questionable wall board that is passing for sheetrock in the bathroom.  Of course the previous owner cut the inside door molding to accommodate the bathroom vanity so we will need new molding, paint, and flooring. 

This sort of reminds me of watching HGTV and one of those renovations gone wrong…except this is it…from here on out it will only be good things….it will, it will, it will.  Now I will click my heels three times, toss a penny over my shoulder, check my horoscope, and then I will ask God to watch over this renovation, to guide us, direct us, and bless us.







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