Remodel Madness

Sometimes I love how people can just type the way they talk. I am thinking that maybe this is a blond thing. Take Jackie, for instance, part of what is fun about her blogs is that she rambles on paper ( albeit electronic paper)just like she talks. It is random and goes 20 different places at once. It makes me laugh, because she talks JUST like that. Ollie is another one. Tracy is also quite good at it, and then it dawned on me. They are all blond. Do you think that is it? Laugh girls, I am old and senile and allowed to be this way!!

Well we got hit with MAJOR remodel madness over the last couple of weeks. First it was the floor. My lovely tile, that we put in about 5 or 6 years ago is just what I love. The plan was to cut out as little as possible and just replace what was needed. NOT! Tile doesn't stay in fashion that long. First problem was too much tile ended up being destroyed (Okay, they warned us about that one). Problem 2: after finishing our great paint job, they called to say they could not find any matching tile. I had just finished painting colors that expressly matched my tile. Worse news! Our tile happened to be "Italian" tile. Don't get too excited, it was the rage a few years ago until we americans got caught up in tile making, now we make "American" tile. Low and behold, we have different measuring systems (ie, metric versus inches). So while American tile is constructed on 12 or 13 inch tiles, Italian or European tile is done differently. Hence mine is about 12 1/2 inch squares. No matchy!. We were depressed and had actually resigned ourselves to having to rip out the entire floor and start all over again costing us thousands of dollars. But Reed would not be daunted. He went to work on the internet and entered the series name and color of our tile. He found some, but before you get real excited, it was from a catalog and web site that had not been updated since 2001. But we were blessed and they had only one color from the series still at their warehouse and low and behold, it was our color. The floor was saved!

Major problem #2: The appliances arrived and they started to unpack them. The refrigerator was not like I remembered it. Realize that it was months ago that I picked all this stuff out. Then it hit me. There was no water and ice accessable from the door. This may sound trivial, but you must realize that I am going through 3 bags of ice per week during the remodel. Besides, I am old and I want what I want! Okay, so maybe it wasn't MAJOR, but still.

Biggest Major #3: The cabinets are starting to be installed when we notice that there is a BIG space between cabinets and island. Too Big! Somebody measured wrong and the electrical cords and lights in the ceiling are 2 FEET to far into the dining room. That means that the table and bar stools would back into each other, not good. Add on top of this that I have already finished painting and they hinged one of the cabinet doors on the wrong side after I had expressly said which side I wanted it on.

So today they tore up the floor again. Thank goodness they have not done the tile yet. They moved electrical wires in the floor for the island. The ceiling is still to be conquered. The only good news is that I have been told, that I don't have to fix the painting errors and that all costs will be covered by the construction company - not me!!
Here are some updated pictures!