Unfortunately, I have not been keeping up with this as well as I had originally planned and that results in a loss of some of the particulars of various hiccups along the way. I will touch on some of them, but if you ever have a specific desire for a more detailed account of anything, let me know. I don't want to bore everyone with every detail.
Well, the countertop install went fairly well. It took the guys several hours to install the counters, but there weren't any major problems. Because we chose to do an undermount sink, the sink had to be installed at the same time as the countertops. It was hooked up (plumbing-wise) the following day. Over the course of the next few days, I got the dishwasher, refrigerator and stove installed. Of course, the range and dishwasher wouldn't just slide into their new home, so that took some extra cussing and finagling, but eventually they were in and happy.
The backsplash has yet to be installed. My original plan was to attempt to tackle it myself, but with the impending arrival of the next generation, I think we'll pay someone to do it. I'm dragging my feet right now because I became tired of spending money and worried about possible financial obligations associated with the family expansion. I am finally relaxing a little and will probably get the ball rolling on that soon. There are some other "punch list" items to which I need to tend. I need to spray a few cabinet doors. I have a couple of sheetrock repairs. Eventually, Jenny wants a new shelf unit built, painted and installed, but she has told me that there's no rush.
There was a bit of kitchen sink fiasco which I don't feel like delving into. The kitchen sink got clogged up, I tried to straighten it out and couldn't. I called a plumber out (see previous posts to get a feel for my love of plumbers). The plumber was friendly enough and not pushy. He got the sink working again, but not before telling me that the cast iron drain pipe has rotted out underneath the slab. It will eventually have to be replaced. This costs north of $2K and will involve breaking up the slab in our dining room under our new tile floors in order to replace the offending section of pipe. He reassured me that this is not uncommon and that he has presonally had to do this to over a dozen homes in my neighborhood because of the cast iron pipes that were used in construction 50 years ago. Awesome.
In an effort to end on a positive note, we are thoroughly enjoying our new kitchen. We are happy with how all of our ideas came together. I have spent the last week and a half working on the new nursery so a blog post and pictures of that will follow shortly. No, really, I mean it this time. I will post again soon. :)
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