My Pleas for Decorating Advice Has Been Answered

...or much to my delight, done for me!


This morning (early) I mobilized the troops and got them packed up and ready to spend the morning at one of our friend's house. By 9:30 I was back home, quickly straightened up and was ready for Stephanie.

Stephanie is one of my favorite people right now (my other being Anna, who had the boys at her house). Stephanie is our designer and today she came over to tell me what I should paint everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. We picked colors for the stairwell, the mudroom, the kitchen, the dining area, the hallway, and two for the living room. Then, we discussed this horrible place in my house: the bathroom. It just wasn't in the budget to role the bathroom into the remodel but she gave me some great suggestions on how how to make it better. One of which is to just replace the counter and sink rather than the whole vanity. So, think we'll find the money for that. Our bathroom is awful and since the rest of the house is going to look awesome in a few months, it just doesn't seem right to have such a crappy bathroom.

Then, after I was done with Stephanie I had an appointment at Sears to pick out a microwave. This microwave is holding up the order on the cabinets so I'm glad I have it done now! Everything should be ordered today and be delivered in about 5 weeks.

Finally, I asked if our new island would be long enough to double as a breakfast bar. With a little tweaking it will! Whoo Hoo...Now we have a breakfast bar!

Slight Change in Plans & Electrical is In Place

Due to this whole soffit nonsense our plans needed to be modified just a little bit. Here is what the new drawings look like:

Above the refrigerator is the soffit that was our first unexpected problem.

New cabinet configuration

A much larger island is going to installed! Who cares about the soffit, we just gained more counter and work space!

In other Ranch news, our dryer is broken. For real this time. A few weeks ago I commented that I had a suspicion that something wasn't right with it. I guess I was right! We also need a new shower head since our current one is spraying water out of places where water shouldn't be spraying. Appliances and fixtures not connected to the project shouldn't be allowed to break during the project!

Day 53 - The Day of Power

Today started and ended with power. When I woke up to go running, I started the coffee like I normally do and then went to get ready. When I came back for my coffee and flipped on the light to see what I was doing I tripped a circuit.

!#@%

The "kitchen" and bedroom lost power. That meant no A/C and no alarm. Andi was non too happy with that situation. After some struggles with turning on the right circuit and resetting clocks, I headed out and finished a quick run. After I was done and the up and dressed, promptly at 7, Kevin showed up. Two minutes later the electrician showed up.

I thought they were only coming to take a look around and get a feel for the project. Noway, they were here to work. After a couple minutes discussing layouts of switches and placements of can lights, I had to leave. When I came home today, they had most of the power run as well as switch boxes and breakers installed. The can lights were delivered and would be they are next for installation. You can see them in the middle of the floor.

These pictures you most likely haven't seen. I am standing in the new part of the kitchen and the entrance is where the bay window used to be. The pocket door and wall separating the mudroom have been framed out too.

You can see the where the switches are going to go and just to the left of the window is where the stove is going to go. They couldn't move the fridge out of the kitchen because it was so huge and for the entire project they'll have to work around it.

The next picture is me standing behind the pocket door in the mudroom looking into the new kitchen. Next to the wall where the fan is, is where the fridge will go. The can lights are in the boxes. I'm not sure when they are coming back or even what they have to do, but hopefully it will be tomorrow and we'll have some kind of make shift lighting in the kitchen.

After I came home from work, this is the state I found the progress of the work in and I was pleased to see they accomplished a lot. When I walked into the bedroom to change, the clocks were blinking.

The power had been cut again. Figures.

Day 52...I've been led to believe 6 more weeks...

Yesterday the basement was cleaned out and continues to dry (water entered when the addition wasn't weather tight, no need to panic just yet). Tuesday, much to our surprise, our dishwasher was delivered. Good thing one of the workers was here because they had to sign for it! It wasn't supposed to be delivered until we called to arrange for delivery. Obviously, we aren't ready for it.

Today Kevin and Stephanie, our designer, came over to confirm measurements for the cabinetry. Brian and I got homework for the next few days: determine where we want cable (why?), phone and pick out a microwave. There needed to be a few changes to the plans because the dimensions of the addition changed a little. The good news from all of this is that we get a larger island...that should make Brian happy :-) The bad news is that the old roof line is *&^%ing up the "seam" between the addition and the existing house. The implications is that this happens to be right where our range is going to be with our amazing hood. It looks like we may get soffits (only 5 1/2 inch ones) back :-( Brian is super pissed about this...we'll post more once we fully understand the implication. Just in case you are wondering, I don't really care. At this point, I just want my kitchen back, for it took look nice and my AC.

Not Sure What to Title This Post...

Here are some of my ideas on a title:

1. My Mudroom/Entryway is going to be sooooooo Cool!
2. WOW! This Kitchen Is Going to Be Big!
3. "I saw an Central Air/AC circuit breaker"
4. Scott's Parting Words Were, "I'll Call the HVAC Guy"
5. Scott is My New Hero
6. Day 50

A lot happened got done today; some outside work (on things I can't spell like fasia and sophets), the plumbing from the old kitchen is now totally gone, a 5 inch header was put in and is necessary given the old roof line, we have the wall separating the mudroom from the kitchen in, pocket door wall was installed and some electrical mysteries were solved.

I'd love to post pictures but Brian is right...there is something wrong with our camera/computer connections and downloading. I'm bummed, it looks like the problem lies with my computer. So, long story short, no pics today.

Today the men came to work pretty early. The first person here looked strangely familiar and once Kevin introduced us it was evident he knew me too. He was the first contractor we met with back in January or February. We felt it was obvious to that he didn't want the job since we were quoted $120,000 and we had to keep our cabinetry. Just as an FYI, that's not nearly what this is costing us and we are getting all new cabinets. Later in the day, Scott (one of the partners with our company we are using) filled us in on the contractor's story and I will no longer refer to him as, "That Jerk."

It was hot today. The boys and I hunkered down at my parents house and enjoyed the coolness of Central Air. When we came home the living room was 87 degrees. Imagine my frustration when I couldn't get the AC window unit on. After sweating profusely I determined that it didn't work because there was no electricity in the living room. Scott quickly took care of that. Before Scott left for the day he asked about the AC/Central Air switch in our circuit box. He hadn't realized that we had Central Air but just couldn't use it because it was disconnected to make room for the addition. Scott told us he was going to call the HVAC guy right away and see what could be done. Scott is my new hero.

Day 48 - No kitchen

Well, they were supposed to come on Tuesday. They didn't.

Wednesday came and went, and we were disappointed.

Thursday...we thought we heard something in the morning like a car door slam, but it was only the grounds keeper across the street at the school. I swear Andi and I have been like little kids waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. For the most part we have still been using the kitchen. After all, they only took the cabinets hanging up, we could still use the counter tops to set stuff on and even prepare.

Friday, as a family we planned on going to German Fest. So, Andi and the boys were going to take me to work with the intention of picking me up and heading to the big German party. About the time Andi got home, I got a call at work.

"They're here."
"Really?" I asked apprehensively, because I wouldn't put it past her to yank my chain.
"Ya, there's three trucks here, we couldn't park. J.J. (demolition guy) said it's going to be a whole day of work. Kevin said they're going to put in the door too.(big loud noise interrupts the phone and i can't hear her)
"What was that, I couldn't hear you."
"That was a big sawzall. They're cutting out the wall. They've already cut the window out. I have to go buy a door knob."
"You're right, we don't have one."
"I'm going to finish feeding the boys, and then we're going to Home Depot to get a door knob. Then we're getting out of here. I think we're going to the zoo."

Just like that, we officially have absolutely no kitchen. We have a fridge because they couldn't fit it through the doorway, but everything else is gone. We don't know when they'll be back, nor what will be done next time. But, if they decide to put a door in, at least we'll have door knob. I just hope it's not like when we built the garage and one day four Russians showed up and build it in a day.













This is where our new back door is going to be. The sink used to be on the left in the corner, the dishwasher was right there and the fridge was just to the right.









This is looking out the old window into the new kitchen. The fridge will actually be sitting just a few inches to the left of where it is now. Where the two new windows are is where our eating area will be.









This is looking into the old kitchen from the new. The doorway you see there leads from the side door. That whole area will be walled off, with a pocket door to create a mud room off of the new back door.










One of the things that makes the kitchen seem so much larger is that they tore down the soffits that were running along the perimeter. It looks a lot bigger with them gone.









This we post for posterity. As you can see, when they ripped out the old cabinets, the originally linoleum was able to make an appearance into this new century. I can only imagine our house with this floor and the green siding. It must have been the toast of the town.

Some Thoughts About Leisure

While in college I took a handful of Women's Studies courses. One of the things that I found very thought provoking was the emergence of hobbies and leisure time throughout history. It seems that with every generation, women have more leisure time than the generation before. This has been made possible with modern day conveniences like the microwave, dishwasher and I would even argue that Super Wal-Marts and Target with their Market Pantry have made me more efficient. Going back further in time, as the middle class began to form ordinary people could afford housekeepers to clean. Hence, more free time. We, here at Ranch Renaissance, have taken a step back in history.

Granted, we did spend the morning and part of the afternoon doing family things or spending time with friends but at 9:30 pm we finally declared it was time to stop doing "stuff" around the house. The "stuff" I speak of is laundry, preparing food in our meager excuse for a kitchen, cleaning up around the house, preparing a grocery list and washing dishes. Yes, that last one is my least favorite. I miss my dishwasher. We hate doing dishes so much that we had to make a committment to one another that no one could have any fun after the boys go down until the dishes were all done. I really shouldn't complain, it's not that many dishes. We have switched to paper plates and plastic silverware but it still stinks.

I was hoping that Brian might write about what he worked on today while the boys were sleeping but he's been dying to dig into Harry Potter. I'll sum it up: He installed a new bathroom fan (and there were a lot of problems so this was quite an ordeal but only a one Lowe's trip and that was to purchase it so it doesn't really count). If he was to write about it the title would something like: "I AM A MAN!" or "Gosh, It's Quiet Now That Andi Has Stopped Nagging Me and the Fan Isn't So Damn Loud" or "Super Cool Man Installs Super Cool Fan" or "Ah, It's Down! Now I Can Have Some Leisure Time!"