One Week Down...

AND ONE WEEK BEHIND!

On Monday afternoon, Pam and I went to Lowes to finish the purchases for our new kitchen. They had a 10% off special when you open a new "Fashion Project" Card. Our "Fashion Project" is the kitchen, and you're only supposed to get the 10% off of the initial purchase on the day you open the account, but our salesman was nice and said we could come back and finish the purchase and still receive the 10% off at a later date. So we bought the recessed lighting for the ceiling, the kitchen faucet, the garbage disposal and air operated in the counter toggle switch, the instant hot water dispenser, the knobs and pulls for our cabinetry, and some patio furniture. We were gone for about three hours and when we returned, the soffit remover and drywaller had this strange look on his face. I walked in the door and said, "Hi!" Before I could finish the "How's it going" part of my greeting, he replied, "ummm...we have a little problem."

To make a long story a little shorter, there were wires running through all of the soffit spaces in the kitchen. A problem that Lowe's mentioned might be possible at the beginning of the project, but Pam and I never really gave much thought to. Since our new kitchen wasn't going to have soffits, the wires needed to be rerouted up through the walls. I called a bunch of electricians and found someone who could do it for us quickly. But that one day of delay basically set us back an entire week.

Here are the wires after they've been relocated; notice that they just cut pieces out of the 2X4 headers in the walls, making some space for the wires and then cover up the spaces with pieces of metal that they just hammer right into the wood. I forgot to take a before picture, but you're not missing much.

The soffits are now gone, and the wires are relocated, but the drywall was supposed to be finished by the end of tomorrow, we were supposed to paint this weekend, and the cabinets were supposed to go in on Monday. But since the drywall couldn't be finished by Friday, he's just going to wait until Monday, and the soonest the cabinet guy could get back out was the following Monday. So May 1 is now the date for the cabinet install and the floors go in on May 4th and 5th. Hopefully we won't have any more delays, but I'm not holding my breath!

In other news, the gas line was run up the side of the house, into the attic and down the inside wall so that I will have my first ever gas cook top! I'm totally excited about that, though the exterior gas line needs to be painted to match the house, it's an eyesore right now.

And, you can see that some of the drywall is in place. The flourescent bay is drywalled over and tomorrow, the recessed lighting goes in. Then, next week the drywaller will finish hanging the sheetrock, tape, mud, and sand so that we can paint next weekend! Hopefully!