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.