Day Fourteen

Today was a big day. It was also really difficult.

I was out on a site visit and Brian was at home, trying to work, but only getting kitchen things done. We kept in constant contact on the phone...when I wasn't take a sound measurement.

The order of business went something like:

- Email/call Jim to inform him about the plug strip power

- Deal with the ABT payment--they were expecting the balance of our total order when they were bringing just the cooktop. And, the only reason we had a balance was because we had added the TV after we applied for their financing deal. I wish they had thought of that before the morning of.

- Brian and Slawek realized that the dishwasher power was also missing. It was existing and should have stayed. This is still a bit of a mystery. Not exciting for, considering the appliance people were coming for a walk through. I'm less than thrilled with Javier.

- Slawek started handles and we reconsidered the sizes and locations. (Oh, right, I forgot. Yesterday, we realized that we were a few handles short and that I'd have to stop at Ikea while in the suburbs.)

- Brian needed the phone number of the countertop guy, who was scheduled for the afternoon, to let him know about the timing with the ABT guys and his doctor's appointment. I called Jim, and convinced him to give me Geoff's number.

- Brian and Slawek reconsidered the marble plank below the wood stove. As it turns out, we may chose to replace the stone, enlarge it, and get a new stove--maybe wood... maybe gas. We have to decide that tonight. Jim was here and gave us a quote for installing in the gas line to the stove area.

- Brian called. Slawek confirmed that he needs two more trim pieces and he'd need another board in order to get the finished edges. (One of the panels I ordered was mysteriously a different width than the other. Not sure why.)

- ABT arrived. They informed us that the washer/dryer power was incorrect! The washer hooks directly into the dryer, after all. We only needed a single 30 amp circuit. Brian had me get on the phone with the installer. I gave him an earful, telling him that if ABT prides themselves on customer service and they want to carry Bosch, then they better damn well figure out how to solve this problem in the future.

- The countertop guy arrived. Our peculiar details seemed fairly straightforward to him. Brian called me with some questions. He took the sink to cut the right size hole in the shop. He's going to cut the cooktop hole in the field, as it turns out. *sigh*

- I stopped at Ikea. Got the handles, got the new panels (need to pick them at the warehouse next week). Then, I threw a little tantrum because they told me that they couldn't give me the metal hardware I needed. They told me I was wrong. They told me that the couldn't help me and that it was my fault because I didn't check the parts when they arrived. (This is the metal bracket for the false drawer fronts at the cooktop. Brian realized a few weeks ago that those drawer-fronts had never been ordered--not sure why and no one has any explanation for it. But, what we didn't realize was that it required this hardware to install.) As it turns out, they didn't know what hardware I was talking about. And, in the end, they had it in stock. It costs $8 (plus frustration).

- I stopped at Container Store to return the drawer for the composter. It doesn't fit in the cabinet, which was a bummer. Not sure what we're going to do. (Oh, yesterday, we stopped at Brian's office to bring home the composter, as it had been shipped to his office. I also forgot to mention that yesterday we brought home the stainless panels which had been delivered to my office while I was traveling.)

Tonight, we're going to try to make a decision on the stove, so we can get that in motion.

Day Thirteen

I arrived home in the mid-afternoon. Slawak and Oscar were working away. Oscar had painted the Den, Slawak was working on finishing the out the West side near the refrigerator--a complicated detail with a cantilevered cabinet and a large trim panel. They had some questions, including a door swings and handle placement. Slawak also had a piece of base board for my approval. We dug out a on old piece of quarter-round out of the surplus stock from the previous owners' work for him to match the stain.

After Frisbee in the evening, we arrived home and probably stood in the kitchen for an hour. Brian noticed that the electrical service to the west-side power strip wasn't there--or had been covered by drywall. Elswhwere we have flexible conduit whips that will service the hard-wired plugstrips.

Day Twelve

I left early, before the contractors arrived, for the airport to go to New Orleans. At that time, Brian was already on a flight back to Chicago from Vienna. I left Brian an email with a list of things to check in on with Slawek when he arrived.

In the late morning, Slawek called me. My stomach always sinks when I see that it is him calling. Luckily, this time he was only looking for the hinges, which I had stashed away in the less-dusty secondary staging area—the second bedroom.

When Brian got back, Javier and Slawek were there. I have a really hard time communicating on the phone with Slawek, so Brian called and “translated’ the remaining questions that Slawek had. Simple things like, “is the filler panel near the furnace room door flush with the cabinet door or set back?” and “does the cover panel that goes below the wall cabinets overlap the backsplash, or the other way around?” Brian and I called back and forth through the afternoon. In New Orleans, we were commissioning a renovated high school auditorium. I kept tabs on what was happening inside with the tuning of the audio system, and kept stepping outside to take the phone calls. Gladly, I only really had about an hour of fixed schedule through the day.

Also about that time, ABT called about the appliance install. While I feel that the level of service is high and that everyone is pleasant, I feel like the information sharing from ABT hasn’t been that great. Maybe we missed the “So, you just bought appliances from us. Now what?” orientation and training session. I’m kind of embarrassed that I hadn’t thought of this, actually. On the appliance install date, we will not have a countertop, which means that the cooktop cannot be installed. Duh. But, it’s kind of chicken-and-the-egg, as we need the cooktop template to fabricate the countertop. In the end, we have arranged for ABT to bring the cooktop on Thursday during their initial walk-through. Then, on Tuesday, all of the appliances except for the dishwasher and cooktop will be installed. They will then return on the following Tuesday to finish the cooktop and dishwasher. In the meantime, we pray that the countertop stays on schedule. Luckily, it’s not an extra charge for them to come out twice. Unfortunately, this means the full completion will be May 6—one day short of a full month since the start of the project.

I should say that Brian, after not having seen the room for a number of days (since before the floor went in) was very excited about the progress and pleased with the look. He sent me some photos in the evening (they were big files, so I couldn’t upload them to the blog right away). Here they are.

Day Eleven

When I emerged from the bedroom, Oscar and Slawek were here and getting started. Slawek was already reviewing drawings and sorting through hardware. I went over the plans with hime and he caught on immediately--what the starting points should be, how the trim pieces should align, and how the legs heights and elevations worked. Feeling useless, I checked in with Oscar about the cable passes and headed to work.

After lunch, I got a voice mail from Jim. Two issues: Slawek was missing some pieces of Ikea hardware and they questioned the cantilever of the countertop near the den. I let Brian know and whipped up some sketches for us to talk through the different options for the counterop. Like all of the design issues, we came to an immediate agreement and I sent a reply to Jim. As far as the Ikea hardware, I'd have to wait until I got home to check how critical the parts are to the installation.

Next, Slawek called. He had the oven cabinet in place (already!?) and that the outlet for it wasn't in the right place. (Crap.) Slawek measured it and (sure enough) it is not where it is shown in the drawings. I told him to let Jim know that it'd need to be moved.

Brian, in Vienna, and I talked more in the afternoon. He pointed out that Thursday was the appliance install walkthrough and that I had scheduled an all-day site visit. To sort things out, I called ABT to give them Slawek's phone number so he could let them in. While on the phone, Vida asked if I had been given a call back about the washer power. (Oh, boy.) She then informed me (despite what I had been told in my previous three phone calls on the subject) that the washer requires a 30 amp circuit. Good timing for this news since the electrician was coming back in the morning for the oven outlet.

My dread of coming home in the evenings increases each day. "What next?" It all looks pretty good. Slawek had done everything correctly, following the Ikea directions exactly and tending to my specifics about the cover panels. The wall cabinets on the west were all installed, and two of the base cabinets were in place. There is continued progress on the drywall and finishing, but I kind of expected a full finish paint job before the cabinets went in.

The missing Ikea hardware is not critical for advancing the installationg--it just affects the plint on the East side. Otherwise, we're ok.

Weekend 2

After working at Savor on Saturday morning, I reserved an iGo car to
drive to the lighting store to pick up the track lights. I think this
is the last of the 'owner-purchased' items, with possible exception of
the composter, which it probably at Brian's office.

In the afternoon, I took a walk to run a couple of errands and to get
an early dinner. I spent the evening organizing the stacks of
receipts, invoices, and bills.

On Sunday morning, a took a Zipcar to the laundrymat to catch up on
two week's worth of clothes. I think I'll be able to hold out, now,
until the appliances are installed.

In the afternoon, I started reorganizing the dining room and cleaning.
It was kind of like playing one of those puzzle games where you have
to move all the squares around to form the image, but you only have
one blank space.

By the end of the night, the cabinets were lined up in order of
installation and all of the boards for the trim panels were labled and
marked with instructions. The picture, here, is from early in the
evening; it is still light out.

Day Ten (evening)

OK. I'm home now. And, I've calmed down.

Mirrors - great. Like it never left. And, the edge at the wall is better than before since it hasn't ever been painted.

Floor repair - great. Not shiny any more with all that drywall dust. The only criticism is that the boards aren't exactly level. This isn't a surprise at all consider there is no subfloor below them, as we have learned.

Drywall - great. It's really looking good.

Cable outlet move - moved laterally to center of wall, not moved up. Not quite sure why this happened... but, it's not a problem.

Cork - great, but now all covered up with paper and cardboard. The amount of work that is left to do, with the finish floor in place, kind of makes me nervous. But, it's protected, and I can't really do anything else... but worry, of course.

All-in-all, it's been a good week. Just go back to Day Five for a moment and check the photo. Yeah.

Day ten (afternoon)

> The morning started off well. And for all I know it may finish that
> way. But, for now, I'll ride the Green Line back and forth.
>
> In the late afternoon, just as I was attempting to finish editing a
> portion of a major proposal, I got a friendly message from my
> contractor (pause. I nearly just had my iPhone stolen. Would have,
> if my Green Line intuition hadn't kicked in.) which killed my mood
> and capacity for original thought.
>
> Three things:
> - there was some ambiguous message about the cable outlet that was
> moved. It was in the right place to start with. I'm pretty sure that
> Oscar know what was needed, which was that the cable pass needed to
> be installed. I sure hope Jim is wrong.
> - no cabinets until Tuesday and maybe no work tomorrow. This is only
> a problem because Tuesday is the only morning during the whole
> project on which Brian and I will both be away. I need to set up a
> meeting with the installer for Monday, I guess.
> - the mirrors were installed. This I found out just after Brian
> called from Poland and asked specifically if the guys on site knew
> that we wanted the paint cleaned up at the edge of the old mirrors
> before install. I assured Brian that the mirrors would not go in
> until next week.

In my distraction and haste at the end of the day (I sure as hell
wasn't going to stay late on a day when I had already taken half of a
vacation day), I left my keys on my desk when walking out with Greg
and Evelyn to go get a drink. (The toast was to "survival.") I only
realized when I got downtown to transfer to the Red Line. So now, I
ride the Green Line back and forth with the bandits who are encouaged
by the warm weather wonderingvwhat the status of the kitchen really is.