Diary of Our Kitchen Remodel: 17th of September

OH MY GOD. The NOISE! The DUST. We have a jackhammer in the back yard breaking up the aggregate that had concrete all over it from the disabled ramp. All windows closed.

The carpenters are here pulling off the siding. I fear we will have chilly night tonight.. especially as the temp has dropped so much recently anyway. I told Russ we'd need to sleep upstairs tonight but he pooh-poohed me. I think the kids and I will be sleeping upstairs in the queen size bed, and Russ will be downstairs, freezing his nads off.

The kitchen designer came at the request of the contractor today. They walked over the layout of the cupboards, to make sure everything would fit; the contractor measured each cupboard and marked the location on the floor (for the floor cupboards), or on the wall joists (for the wall cabinets). Apparently the kitchen design software made an error, overlapping two cupboards by 3". So the designer ordered a replacement cupboard 3" shorter so it would all fit. Except during the walk through the contractor measured (twice) and worked out the original size would fit after-all. The additional cabinet was paid for by the kitchen designer!

I asked the contractor to add some detailing to the top of the windows (in addition to a sil we agreed on). It would currently look something like this.

What I had asked for is something like this.

And apparently it is all extremely expensive or time consuming. You wouldn't think, would you? Well, he just called me over. It is an additional $7,000 to put a fancy header on the windows. Yup. I don't believe it myself. I kinda though maybe $3,000? But $7,000??

And its only 9.30 in the morning.

11.30 Things are worrisome. The bathtub's been uncovered, and its not what I expected. That's the problem when buying from catalogs. I had found one I liked, but the designer and builder convinced me they wouldn't warranty the tub because it didn't have a factory-installed flange. Now I've got something I don't like. Actually its not that bad. Just not as nice as the one I had initially chosen.

I asked the plumber to insulate the tub by stuffing insulation around the outside before fitting it (the bath tub with factory-installed insulation was $500 more). I had asked the contractor weeks ago, but he had forgotten to tell the plumber. Thank goodness we were re-siding the house, as the insulation turned up today :-)

The plumber also replaced the water shutoff handle and valve today. Cool. Now we'll have a handle we can actually reach. The water came on at 4.25pm.

So.. alls quiet (apart from the kids getting ready for soccer).