The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men... (Day 14)
Week two turned out to be an interesting one. I consider myself very lucky to have had as
smooth a time as I’ve had thus far. After all, the crew is running a week ahead
of their planned schedule. Nothing major has been found (other than three pesky
little gas leaks under the house, which have been fixed). But, inevitably,
something was bound to happen. Unlike other people’s horror stories, however, the
snafu this morning had nothing to do with my contractor. He’s been a dream to
work with and continues to maintain calm and flexibility when I, frankly, freaked
out a bit this morning.
Let me start with the GREAT news. The cabinets were painted Wednesday through Friday
and they are LOVELY! (Color is “Mascarpone”
by Benjamin Moore using their low-VOC paint.)
Today, some of the internal hardware was installed. The bottom drawers
and cupboard doors will “soft close,” a nice feature that I believe will
prolong the life of my cabinets. As you can see from the photos, I am going to
have a tremendous amount of storage space and that is very welcomed in my sweet
little bungalow.
The disappointment for today was that the subcontractor (of Home Depot) did not show up to install my countertops as planned. David called HD and they told him they’d left a voicemail message for me on Thursday, indicating if I didn’t pay that morning the sub would cancel the installation and a new date couldn’t be arranged until after Memorial Day. Seriously? If HD is acting as the "contractor," wouldn't you expect them to PROACTIVELY call the customer on Monday or Tuesday and say, "We noticed you haven't come in to pay so please do so by XXX so your install can take place as scheduled"????? I guess that is too logical and expecting too much. God bless David….he went to HD and discussed the situation with them and I have a strange feeling the install might just take place this coming week after all. We won’t know for sure until Monday, though. I’m hoping he can work a miracle (as he usually does!).
In the meantime, this week he and the crew will continue installing the internal hardware and paint the kitchen walls. They may also get started on something outside of the kitchen, which leads me to my second sort-of-not-good news of the week, but something that will ultimately make the kitchen better.
The other project planned for my home is related to the hardwood
floors; specifically, pulling up the carpet in the den, hall, and bedroom and
then sanding/refinishing those floors along with the living/dining room floors
(which are in dire need of refinishing).
Well, on Thursday David consulted with the sub and the bottom line is
that the living/dining room floors are not in a condition to survive another
sanding and refinishing. Given this news I had to come up with a Plan B and
quickly. Fortunately, David had already thought of my options. Ultimately, I
decided to replace the living/dining room floors with engineered hardwood
floors, and to leave the floors under the carpet as they are. As it turns out,
they appear to be in lovely condition (though we won’t know for sure until the
carpet is completely removed).
The challenge has been in finding an engineered wood in the
same color as the flooring I’m keeping. I spent last night and most of this morning
visiting what seems like every flooring store east of San Dimas. Ultimately, I found
two samples that look close and I just need to make the choice. When I came back to the house this afternoon,
David says, "Tim and I were just talking about the floor...."
Whenever he says something like that, I know I'm in for an idea that I will
have to strongly contemplate (because it is that good). He continues,
"This is just a suggestion, but we think it would be better if you carried
the new hardwood flooring through the kitchen to the back porch." Now, I
had considered that option way back in my “vision stage,” but had decided to go
with Marmoleum instead as part of my “greening” of the new space. David and I
put the sample of the Marmoleum and the sample of the new hardwood next to each
other, and it made me cringe. The transition would feel wrong to me. So, of
course, we needed to talk further about their idea, my larger concern now being
how a reddish/gold tone wood floor would look with the other colors in the
room. I was thinking, "Clash!" Lo and behold, I believe this flooring will
actually look BETTER color-wise than the Marmoleum. The red in the floor brings out some reddish tones in the countertop and mosaic tile - something I hadn't noticed before. It will bring more interest
to the area and will -
especially - make the island stand out more. (The brown color in the photo below
is the "Kona" color that the island will be painted.)
So, I’m canceling the Marmoleum order and may need to pay a restocking
fee in doing so. But, carrying the wood
floor through the kitchen really does make better sense and will create a nice “flow”
from the dining room into my grand new space.
The events of the past few days prove that I need not panic
or sweat when my Plan A gets derailed a bit. In the long run, everything will
continue to go well. As one friend wrote to me today, “It is looking beautiful
so far and you will be sitting and admiring it with your glass of wine before
you know it.”
After two weeks of a crazy amount of activity here at the house, week 3 was relatively quiet, thanks to my error (chronicled in my last post), resulting in a delay in the installation of the countertop. Still, some progress was made. The kitchen walls were painted with low-VOC paint in a beautiful yellow ("Soleil" by Benjamin Moore), which has really brightened up the space. 
Thankfully, all systems are go for this coming Tuesday morning for the countertop install. I wish I could take some time off work to watch the flurry of activity that will take place between Tuesday and Friday, when the contractor anticipates wrapping up the work. To meet that deadline, not only do the countertops need to be put in, but so too the backsplash tile, garbage disposal, faucet, insta hot/cold faucet and filtration system, hood vent (if it arrives in time!), switches, switch/outlet plates, pendant lights, appliances, in-cabinet lighting, and cabinet shelves, doors, and hardware. In addition, the crew will be pulling up the carpet in the den, hall, and bedroom, patching the exposed hardwood where necessary, and installing new engineered hardwood floors in the living/dining rooms and kitchen. AND the walls and trim in the living/dining rooms will be painted. ("Mascarpone" for the trim and "Oat Straw" for the walls, both from Benjamin Moore.) I imagine it will be quite hectic. Dimitri, my 18 pound scaredy cat, will be completely freaked. I keep telling him that soon the scary men will leave the house and his fear will be but a dim memory. Something tells me he isn't buying it.
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