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.”