Day Seven

In the late morning, we received the contractor's revised estimate to cover our added electrical work and the cost of the subfloor. The line items were inconsistent, leaving us open to question the bid. As it turns out, we talked him down about 20%. Not bad.

In the afternoon, I started in on confirming the dimensions of the stainless steel panels for near the backsplash. I double-checked the hood measurements and somehow realized that the model number for the hood on our order from ABT was the wrong dimensions. We need an "under cabinet," whereas the hood on the order form was a "wall mount," meaning that it was twice as deep. I called ABT and left a message. Late in the day, when our saleswoman arrived for her twice-weekly evening shift, she confirmed that the change was no problem, that she could give us a price less than their web site, and that the total price was about $450 cheaper.

Our lovely, attentive Polish sales lady from the hardware supply store called to let me know that the sink had arrived. Very exciting.

Arriving home, we found a big box from IKEA that had been shipped UPS. The box contained the replacements for the damaged shelf and the defective door. I didn't have my hopes up for the door, as our customer service rep at IKEA warned us that this door was, yet again, in the same control batch as the others. (A problem she could fix on the next order, if necessary.) To our surprise, the door is okay. It's not exactly correct, as the center panel still slides around a bit. However, this one reveals no obvious gap or change in finish. Good!

In the kitchen, we found the remainer of the subfloor complete, the first of the drywall installed, and our damage mirror removed. Also, the hardwood floor replacement boards were there. The boards are as close to an exact match as we could expect. Again, very exciting. The sheen is much different, which is not surprising: 80-year-old oak boards that are in the highest traffic area of the house or a brand new finished board that was just taken out of its cardboard shipping box. We have good confidence in a reasonable-looking repair. Good!

We did some vacuuming, and I marked the wall in the den for the additional framing for the wall-mounted shelves.

It did not appear that electrical was on site today. I hope the electrician isn't holding us up.