We have a plan

 

The cabinets have officially been ordered! I've upgraded materials and we cam up with a smarter design... all within my budget. The construction estimate is 4 to 5 weeks and I've got a guy lined up to do the last of the demo and rip out my kitchen tile a few days before that. I couldn't be happier.

 

Progress... Sort of

I met with the cabinet designer today and saw a mock-up of his ideal design. Its fabulous, and within my budget. How on earth did that happen? He needed a couple measurements to give me an exact price on the counter tops, and when his bid is written up I'll go back to cement the details. I picked out real wood cabinets, painted white to coordinate with the built-ins in the living room, and I'm leaning towards Corian counter tops that look like beach sand with a fused-in Corian sink. No more white that shows every crumb and the pale sand color will look good with my new floors.

I also went in to the flooring place and got an invoice for the materials for my hardwood floors. Its fabulous and the wood is on sale so its within my budget. How on earth did that happen? I picked out a carbonized woven bamboo. Its purrrdy.

So, once the final details of the cabinets are picked out and they can be ordered, it will be 6-8 weeks for construction. In the mean time, I have to get the old tile out, take down the old crown molding over the remaining cabinets and prep and paint the walls and ceiling so its all done before they hang the new cabinets.

Bills

I was expecting my water bill to be much higher this month but it was actually less than the previous bill. I guess it doesn't take much water to do a ton of damage.

Interestingly though, it takes an extra $200 worth of electricity to dry that little bit of water.

Decisions, Decisions

It took about a week and a half and there's a check in my bank account. The original appraisal seemed a tad low but what do I know? It still seemed to be enough to do everything I wanted so... groovy. I received a piece of advise though, and went back over it line by line and discovered there was no listing for replacement of the broken counter top. I called the adjuster and he claimed he didn't know it broke, which is bunk but whatever, and said he'd send a revision to AAA right away. Just a couple of days later and I got an email from AAA with a revised estimate and another check is on the way to replace every square inch of Corian in my kitchen so it will all match. Let the shopping begin!

I've had the flooring installer guy out to give me an estimate for hard wood installation. According to the estimates, installation of floating wood and glue-down wood is about the same cost-wise which was a surprise. The glue-down wood is a little cheaper but the glue is megabucks so it looks like materials would be about the same too.  Anyone have an opinion? I've gotten conflicting notions on the benefits of each so I'll take a poll I guess. They've got a bamboo in both versions I like so I'm torn. But the easiest decision is the last one I need to make, no floor before the kitchen is done.

The lady in the cabinet department at Home Depot was a bitch so screw them. I went to Idler's (locally-owned kitchen appliance and design place for any non-central coasters out there) and their guy was super nice. He came out to look and measure yesterday and he's got some ideas for replacing everything within my budget with better quality than I had before and better crafted than the stuff MacGyver built. It will unfortunately take a week for him to give me numbers because I'm 4th in line for his attention. I'll take that as a good sign though, popular business means good work, right? Add the fact that cabinet manufacturers take lots of time off during the holidays and it will be at least 6-8 weeks for my new custom cabinets, once I actually pick something. Two more months of no kitchen.

Two months of hand washing or paper plates is too much so I brought my dishwasher back in and hooked it up. I'm putting it on the other side of the sink to see if I like it there since I hated where it was before. Nice opportunity for a trial run. Anther bonus is it has a horizontal surface that with the addition of a hunk of plywood I had in the garage and I have another work surface! (Yes, I'm using black garbage bags on my "counters" so I have a wipeable surface. Its what I had handy and it works fine, if a bit trashy looking... get it? trashy? hahah).

Deconstruction

Friday I headed back to work, not really sure what was going to happen at the house. Intellectually I know they said the cabinets were shot, but I hadn't quite emotionally grasped that they were going to get ripped out. It was a bit of a shock when I got home.

The water had swelled the press-board cabinets, which isn't reversible, and they were trapping water in the wall between the kitchen and the garage. If they stayed in it couldn't dry which was risking mold growth. They had to come out. In the process of removing the Corian counter top to get the cabinets out, the Corian broke. In the process of separating the pantry cabinet from the floor, the tile broke. Just two days ago I thought I might be able to get new carpet and suddenly I'm looking at new everything: cabinets, counter tops and tile.

The ho'ike on Saturday was amazing and the most fun performance of my dancing career so far. Probably because I was so busy freaking out for days beforehand about my house being ruined that I didn't have any energy left to freak out about my stage fright. I just did it for the joy of the dance and had a blast.

The crew reconnected the stove and put the fridge back so I could cook if I felt the need, but I didn't have a sink to do dishes in so we ate out a lot. By Monday they declared the house dry enough to remove the noise and heat makers. On Tuesday a plumber came and hooked up a temporary sink and I added a plywood and saw-horse counter and I almost have a functioning kitchen again.

 

Next, to wait for the paperwork to get done before I can start to rebuild.

AAA To the Rescue

After realizing that I had insurance I thought it might be worth a call. Heck, I might even get my carpet replaced for just my deductible. The nice lady on the phone first scolded me for waiting until morning to call her, and then told me the cavalry was on their way. Oh, and she'd be waiving my deductible.

Within 2 hours I had three guys in my house. The leader of the trio was a tall, young, majestically bearded guy named Jimmy. He pulled out his infrared gun, pointed it around my living room, and discovered that the water had ruined my carpet, climbed a good 18 inches up into the drywall of my living room, ruined my kitchen cabinets, and saturated the wall behind them on its way into the garage. Commence demolition...

 

Out came the ruined carpet pad, off came the baseboards, and in came the fans and dehumidifiers. 

 

8 fans and 2 dehumidifiers are loud. And warm. Within hours it was 80 degrees and humid as a jungle in my house. It would remain so for days.

 

Did I mention this all happened three days before ho'ike and my parents were coming to visit? Good timing. 

 

Thursday morning the guys were back with boxes. They packed my kitchen. Packed it for me. Two guys took all my stuff, wrapped it carefully in packing paper and packed it in boxes. Packed it for me. Then they stacked the boxes neatly in the garage. Stacked them for me.

I headed out to spend an enjoyable afternoon with my hula sisters making fresh la'i leis for the ho'ike.

I came home to my parents, and a spookily sealed-up kitchen.

 

 

I hadn't yet quite wrapped my head around what was coming the next day.

 

 

The Flood

Last Tuesday I came home from work after 9pm and the first thing I noticed when I shut the door is that it wasn't quiet in my empty house. In fact, there was the distinct sound of running water. But there was no one home. I turned on the light and was greeted with the sight of a half inch of water in my kitchen and more pouring out of the cabinet under my sink. The water had made it around the corner and in to the dining/living room, and through the wall into the garage.

My first reaction was a very unladylike expletive.  I then shut off the water under the sink to stop the torrent coming from my broken RO unit, and grabbed my shop vac. Two hours and four shop vac loads later I said screw it and went to bed.

In the morning I had the brilliant realization that I have homeowners insurance.

Thus begins my adventure...

My Love Affair With Fitbit

Recently my brother commented on Facebook that he was now the proud owner of a Fitbit and I made the typical little-sister snarky comment about needing one in order to add another facet to my life-long competition with him. I'm only competitive with him because he's smarter than I am and it pisses me off; but I have more college degrees, so there. Anyways, I had been a little curious about them for a while and decided what the heck. Today I went out and bought one, its pink since Lorelai helped me pick it out, and it's bitchen.

The technology they fit into this miniscule computer is amazing. And it's pink and has flashing lights on it.

In the 9ish hours I've had the thing I've noticed a few things.

1. It gets a little confused if you put in a target weight over your current weight. Yes, over. I want to gain weight but don't want to do it by sitting on my ass and eating potato chips. Not that that doesn't sound fantastic in its own way.

2. Apparently the average Fitbit user doesn't drink much bourbon, its not an option in the searchable foods. Yes, bourbon is food.

3. I find myself more than a little irritated I didn't get "credit" for the 5k "run" I did this morning before I bought the thing. I'm a little worried I'm going to get obsessive about this thing. But it's ok because it is pink and has flashing lights on it.

Empty Blog

Tonight I had an idea for a post and was shocked to discover its been almost a year since I posted anything... I was also surprised to discover the drafts of several posts I wrote but never published. You see, the only time I really have to write is late at night and generally only bother to turn on the computer to do so if I'm fired up about something... I write stream of consciousness and when I've read what I wrote, I decide its either too personal, snarky, or opinionated to put out there, or that no one would care anyways, so I don't bother.