Two Giant Leaps

Well, the last two big parts of the kitchen remake took place over the last couple of days. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week the floor was installed, and today, the countertops were installed. Almost done.

The floor was a two-day process. The first day they laid the tile flooring and got it stuck down. They worked while I was at work, so I came home to find a floor with tile down and all the little plastic spaces in between each tile. It looked sort of funny actually. Thursday they came back and added all the grout to the tile and put the new stove and dishwasher in place and installed. It was a fairly quick process watching them work on the grout. Nothing felt better than watching the stove go into place though. The replacement for 'ol yeller was finally there and in place and in working order. Of course I refuse to use it until the whole kitchen is 100% done. Partly out of wanting it to be done first, and partly because I still have no sink, so if I did use the stove and cooked, I couldn't clean anything up.

This morning, the marble company came and installed the granite countertops. It was two guys, both fairy strong looking, and they struggled to get the two bigger pieces in there. They were pretty heavy. They got them in there and got the dishwasher secured and everything and only took them a little over an hour and a half. It was a lot quicker than I thought it would take, but the countertops are on and the sink is in.

I did hit one stumbling block though with the faucet/garbage disposal/plumbing. I know I had talked about doing that part myself to save money (or more appropriately, having someone I know do it for me), but I thought I decided to just have Lowes take care of the whole thing to make it easier. The contractors talked the whole time about how the countertop people would do that, but when those guys were here this morning they said they never do the plumbing stuff. So I called Lowes and they said it wasn't in the original contact or payment for the job. I looked at my copy of everything and they were right, there's nothing in there about kitchen plumbing installation. So I guess I may have goofed there. I'm going to look into it more because I was certain I decided to have them do it, but I guess it got left out of the work order somehow.

Anyway, what I thought was going to be a fully completed kitchen today after the countertop installation is not quite complete. I talked to a friend of mine's dad this afternoon and he said he could stop by Tuesday or Wednesday to hook up that plumbing stuff for me, which will be great. I'm sure he won't charge me the $350-$400 that Lowes would have charged.

So it's almost over. The long journey is coming to an end. I thought it would never come. And then I realized today I still have a major hurdle left, even after the plumbing gets taken care of. I have to paint the walls. Which opens up a whole lot of other problems in trying to decide which color to paint it. This could be a long drawn out issue because: 1) I'm so particular, and 2) I am the worst color coordinator in the world. Just ask my sister.

Oh, and here's an update on the eating list: Tues 7/13 - Wendys, Wed 7/14 - Macaroni Grill, Fri 7/16 - Red Lobster, Sat 7/17 - Steak 'N Shake, Mon 7/19 - Max&Ermas, Sat 7/24 - Dominos, Sun 7/25 - 54th Street Grill/Dairy Queen (dessert only), Wed 7/28 - Little Ceasers, Thud 7/29 - Longhorn Steakhouse (treated a friend to dinner on her birthday), Fri 7/30 - Steak 'N Shake, Sat 7/31 - Penn Station, Tues 8/3 - Penn Station (again), Wed 8/4 - Racanellis Pizza, Thur 8/5 - Red Robin (Yummm), Sat 8/7 - Milo's, Tues 8/10 - Red Lobster for friend's b-day, Wed 8/11 - Houlihans, Fri 8/13 - Mr. Goodcents, Sat 8/14 - Bandana's BBQ, Sun 8/15 - Pasta House.