Sunday, May 28, 2006

Murphy's Law

We have all heard of Murphy's Law.... What ever can go wrong, WILL go wrong.

This week I thought that we were going to make great strides with the house. We had several things lined up and really thought that we were making progress. However, Murphy found his way into the equation.

We had our kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanities custom made. They were to be installed this week. We weren't quite ready for the bathroom cabinets to be put in place, because we are still doing some painting and the tile has not yet been laid. So the kitchen cabinets were going to be installed and the bathroom ones brought to the house and installed at a later time.

On the same day, the tile in the master bath was to be laid, or at least the process started.
Our installer works on our floor in between working his factory job.

It sounded like a good plan....no problems. The workers were to arrive and install their respective products while we were out aquiring bath fixtures and more paint. It was a good feeling to think that several things were to be happening at the same time. We were saying, "YES....Progress"!!

So we go out, purchase the things we need and head back to the house to see all our things taking shape. We walk into the kitchen and the workers are buzzing around measuring and leveling and making the kitchen come to life. All seems right, so we go to the master bath and see that the backer board for the tile is almost completely in place. Except for the area around the tub. We then realize that the tub installer has not allowed for a floor. The tub has been installed and the granite set in place. The tub is surrounded by granite. Heavy granite.
The tile installer says that the tile should go under the granite, that the tub should have been installed with an allowance for a floor. So we call the tub installer. They are reluctant to remove it and recut it to fit properly. They say that we stand a chance of breaking the granite moving it and recutting it. They suggest that we install the tile up to the tub and have the grout seam against the tub. But part of the granite is supposed to be the access to the motor of the tub and easily accessible in the event that there is a problem. So we are at a stand still with the floor until we decide what to do. Do we take the risk of recutting the granite or just adjust the tile to the tub? If we don't recut the granite, the access part will be very hard to remove without messing up the tile. We have even thought about surrounding the tub with wood to match the vanities, but that would be an additional cost to us and such a waste since we have already purchased the granite.
Anyway........while all this is going on the cabinet installers are busy installing cabinets. Michael is on the phone with the tub installer and I walk into the kitchen to see the progress in there.
At this point the cabinets are in place and they are in the process of putting on the doors. They are beautiful, BUT have the wrong handles on them and the stack of drawers are in the wrong place. I feel like I want to cry. I get on the phone with the cabinet guy and tell him of the problem. He checks his file and says, no, that's what you ordered, but asked if I could come by the shop to see if we can figure this out. At this point I am sick. Michael wraps up his conversation with the tub guy and we head off to the cabinet shop.
Turns out that they wrote down the wrong number for the handle. When we arrived he knew exactly which handle I had choosen. The one he showed me at the time I placed the order was in his show room and had been placed in an open box of other knobs, so the wrong one was ordered. He remembered showing it to me. So........to get the proper handle on my cabinets ALL the door fronts have to be remade. It wouldn't be a big deal, but I wanted handles and they put on knobs. I hate knobs......didn't even want them on my drawers. As for the stack of drawers, I'm not sure how that happened, but I decided to just live with that.

So once again, we are sort of at a stand still with the house. We are making progress with the painting, but now have to wait for cabinet doors to be made over again and to decide how to procede with the master bath tile.

We are having the carpet and hardwood people out on Friday to measure and give us an estimate.......SURELY nothing can go wrong with that. Hopefully Murphy will move on to someone else. :)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The House



I wanted to show everyone how the house is begining to take shape. We are beginning to add some color to the walls. The kitchen tile is finished and we have the bathroom tile. The cabinets and bath room vanities are ready to be installed, just waiting to coordinate with the cabinet maker a day that they are available. We are in the process of chosing light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, med. cabinets, mirrors, hardwood, etc...etc... So many things to decide and to make blend together. I like the shopping part, but spending the time picking out things and trying to get them where you need them when you need them,is a bit of a challenge. It is coming together though slowly, but surely.
The pictures are of Lindsey's room. We still have some trim and doors to paint , but her room is close to being finished. I'll take more pictures and post them in the near future.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Me.....I'm working. I've been in retail for going on 8 years and it still is amazing to me how many people are out bright and early on week end mornings. But keeps me in a job I suppose.........

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Smoky Mountain Fun



It's been a while since I have Blogged. I have been VERY busy. Between working, working on the house, homework, cooking, cleaning, etc...etc... I hardly have time to breathe. Add in a school trip to the Smokies....whew...I'm beat.
Lindsey is in the Richardsville Elem. Chorus and they for the second year in a row have attended the Smoky mountain Music Festival. They have been the only Elementary School in this competition. They have competed against Middle and High Schools. For the second year in a row they have come away with not only the first place trophy in their division, but a proficient score of 97.6 . They placed 3rd overall with the top highschool score only being 1 and1/8 points higher than theirs.
We spent 3 days in Gatlinburg. Arrived on Thursday and just strolled around the parkway. Sang on Friday and visited the Aquarium. Then on Saturday went to DollyWood. We had a GREAT time. I have attached a pic that we had done while there.

Talk to you soon.
I'll try to get some updated pics of the house on her pretty soon.

Jeanette