Starting to look like a kitchen again

The counter tops finally arrived. The installation was a two day job which worked out well since one of the pieces broke in transit. They installed the main side in one day and had to reorder the other side. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to get the new piece and a few days later it was in.

We were really lucky because they cut the piece in the near side of the photo above in one chunk and it was heavy as crap and barely fit. The floor installer was over to take a look and he ended up helping the counter installer manhandle the piece in place. It never would have gone in if there wasn't some auxiliary testosterone in the house.

The general contractor that did my demo and reinstallation had trouble with my dishwasher and fancy new faucet so I had to hire a plumber for that. It worked out since I wanted a real plumber to put in the new RO unit.

Just 5 months later and I have a functioning kitchen again!

Houston- We Have New Cabinets

I decided the design differences in the cabinets were something I just couldn't get over. There was one corner that I couldn't cope with and I decided the time to do it was now rather than live with it and regret it forever.

The first version of the cabinets had a nifty corner unit with the bi-fold door which was snazzy. But I didn't spring for the big lazy suzan in it so I had a little opening to a cavernous cupboard. Couldn't get anything big through the door. I also had a skinny cookie sheet cabinet on one side and a little regular cabinet on the other side with a little drawer.

The new ones have the old-fashioned blind cabinet that tucks behind its neighbor, but the door is big enough for my mixing bowls and the neighboring cabinet is larger so now I have two good sized drawers instead of one tiny one. I'm happy with my decision to redo it and can't wait to unpack!

The counters will be templated this week and installed at the end of the month.

I called the floor place to let them know when I'd be wanting my floors so they can order the materials if need be, and discovered my wood is on sale again. Now its even cheaper than it was when I picked it out! Its going to save me $300. When does that happen?

Houston, We Have Cabinets

The truck showed up yesterday morning and in less than two days, the cabinets are finished.

There are some minor differences in design that I'm going to have to get used to but overall, its fantastic. My old cabinets were made of junk but were well designed; these are made of quality material, but the box frames take up more space than the old so the door openings are smaller. Feels like I have huge cabinets with tiny doors.

They're coming to make a template for the counter tops on Friday and two weeks later I should have counters and a sink again.  They had to take out my shop sink to install the cabinets so that means two weeks of no water in the kitchen. Fun.

Construction Must be Preceeded by Deconstruction

My new cabinets left the factory last Wednesday so they should be here any minute, but before the project could move forward the last of the old cabinets had to come out. I hired a contractor recommended by the great guy at Idlers who designed my kitchen and he did the last of the deconstruction and patched the drywall that was damaged by the water and the cabinet removal.

 

They also got rid of the tile and what they called an "absolute crap-ton" of thin-set used to install it for a fraction of what the floor guy wanted to charge me in preparation for the new floor installation.

He even finished the drywall my ex didn't bother to put in when we built the addition on the front of the house so the cabinet installers would have an even surface to work with.

The kids helped me touch up the paint and we are prepped and ready to go! Now where the hell are my cabinets?

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.

Separate Lives

   I lead two very different lives.  In one, I'm a single working mom with two kids, my parents, and a dog. I do math problems at the dinner table and read Harry Potter at bedtime.  I deal with therapists, music lessons, and Girl Scout meetings. In the other, I'm a single working girl with a dog and an amazing boyfriend. I have discussions about negligence of duty and the nesting habits of migratory rock pigeons.
   Usually these two lives transition over the course of a work day. I go to work from one life, and come home to the other. Today one life ended roughly 30 hours before the other could begin. I didn't quite know what to do with myself so I watched lots and lots of The West Wing.

Mac and Cheese

I had a weekend alone with the kids recently. The weather was mediocre at best so we didn't want to do much outside... bring on Jammies Day! We spent most of Sunday in our jammies with the blinds drawn, curled up on the couch in a blanket watching movies together. We finally had to emerge from our comfort cave sometime in the afternoon to procure some sustenance.

I had declared that the kids were in charge of dinner both nights as a project for them, and because I hate deciding what to eat. I hate it so much that sometimes I forgo the decision process entirely and just don't bother eating. Not a smart habit to instill in one's children. Anyways, Lorelai chose Saturday night and Spencer got Sunday. They got to pick anything they wanted but there was a catch: they had to cook!

Lorelai went safe and chose pizza. Trader Joe's pizza dough and sauce and some cheese and voila! dinner.

Spence tried to play it safe and chose mac and cheese. I said that was fine but he was going to learn how to make real macaroni and cheese, not the blue box. We found a recipe online, went to the store for ingredients and with a little help measuring from me, he made dinner.


The result looked yummy:

but didn't come out so hot (shame on you Alton Brown and your meh recipe!)

The proud moment for me was that they were both troopers and made a valiant effort to actually eat the resulting product.

Moral of the story: when you want mac and cheese just make the Kraft. Face it, its what you really want.

Tongue-Tied

I know... I haven't posted anything in months. I suck as a blogger. Thank heavens I have a day job. The problem is I still don't feel like I can share the things I want to say. I've started posts in my head every couple of weeks only to abandon them as being too much information. I've even considered starting another blog, not linked to me in any way, with names changed to protect the innocent (and guilty I suppose) just so I would have a place to organize and vent my thoughts.

I mentioned months ago that I wasn't comfortable sharing what was going on in my life. Unfortunately, all that crap is still going on. My last trip to court was in September and the divorce STILL isn't final. Actually, I guess it doesn't matter if the paperwork is done or not since that wasn't really my reason for not sharing. I don't feel comfortable saying anything here that I wouldn't say in front of my kids. My closest friends and family know the details of my life, all the crap that has gone on over the last 8 or so years, and the final straws that led me to file for divorce but the kids have been sheltered from the truth.

That's not to say I've lied to my children. I have never told them anything that wasn't true. I've just left out some of the uglier bits. They are too young to absorb and analyze the facts of the situation. My daughter has accepted the fact that we're divorcing but she recently let me know that she was mad that no one had told her why we split. I gave her an 8-year-old-appropriate version of some, but not all, of the reasons. She absorbed it and seems to have moved on but my son still doesn't get it. Its almost a year and a half since we separated and he still asks me why Daddy doesn't live at home anymore and when Daddy is moving back. I give him the politically-correct, good co-parent lines about us not being able to make each other happy anymore, how we're both able to be better parents to him if we aren't together, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. We've had that conversation over and over again... and he still doesn't accept it. I can't tell him the truth. He's 5.

Who Am I?

I had assumed I would keep my married name after the divorce was final simply because it would be less complicated to have the same last name as my children, though I actually hadn't really given it much thought.

Until yesterday afternoon.

After we were done yesterday, my attorney let me know he still had some questions to ask (even though I'd testified for almost 3 hours already). They were the basic required questions to establish that I had filed with the court to dissolve the marriage, that there were irreconcilable differences, and if I was requesting that the court restore me to my former name. That got the wheels turning last night.

I thought about the pros and cons, considered the simplicity of sameness, and the issue of explaining a change to the kids. I realized that many children have different names than their mother, whether by divorce or design. After all, some women never take their new husband's name upon marriage in the first place.

Then I thought of how it would feel to be a Beck again.

So when my attorney asked me the question on the stand this morning I said that yes, I was requesting the court restore me to my former name. From that point on my attorney referred to me as "Dr. Beck" and it felt fabulous.

I made the right decision for me.

Bedtime Stories

I remember when reading bedtime stories involved me reading to them.

The Game of That's Mine, This is Yours

I had one of those marriages in which there was no "yours" and "mine"... there was only "ours." That goes for stuff, the house, savings and debt. In my case that was a big mistake. I suppose in many instances that kind of arrangement works perfectly. Perhaps it worked in the bygone days of a single-income household in which the earner has the spender on a budgeted allowance. However, when one works and just trusts the other to spend appropriately, a certain level of integrity must be present in the spender.
I am now spending hours trying to recreate the past... finding statements to bank accounts, 401ks, IRAs, and credit cards for the past umpteen years. Apparently it doesn't matter who spent what and if the other knew it was being spent; a credit card is "community debt" which the non-spender must pay half of. Apparently it doesn't matter who had the income; a 401k is a "community asset" which the non-earner is entitled to half of.
Doesn't really seem fair, does it?

The Autopia

If you're anything like me, you hate the Autopia. The line is always unreasonably long, the cars are uncomfortable to sit in, the pedal is too hard to hold down for the whole ride, and your kid thinks its more fun to slam the car against the rail down the center than to try and steer with it.

However, if you're anything like me, you'll gladly endure all of that just to see this look on your child's face. Worth it, don't you think?