And. We. Have. CABINETS!!!

The moment I thought would never arrive....has arrived! Who would have thought? Yesterday our cabinets were delivered and today they were partially installed. The cabinet guy needs to come back tomorrow to finish up...but today it looks like I have a kitchen again! No longer an empty room, but a kitchen, with cabinets!

Cabinets have arrived! And they took up the entire kitchen.

Look at all that cabinet space!

Sink Wall.

I am so happy to have cabinets!

Butters is also happy to have cabinets. He found a new sleeping spot....for now.

With the cabinets a reality, I realized that I now need to actually make decisions on paint, granite, and tile! We have decided to stick with subway tile to keep the space feeling neutral, but I have yet to make a paint decision. I also found out what my problem is: I like way too many colors. Would it be tacky to have a rainbow colored room?

I really like the color on the left and the color two in from the left...now we are thinking of painting the living room blue and then painting the kitchen another color, but what color. EBear is convinced that green = hospitals, schools, and insane asylums. But I like the green with the turquoise and it matches my plates! Then I was thinking about the yellow because I found some blue and yellow curtains at urban outfitters....then I was thinking the coral (bright one in the center) would be really neat...especially with the dark blue. Then I looked at the Sherwin Williams color book thing and it was all over...I found at least double the colors I like. This is when limited choices can be a benefit!

In other house news, the Hermine damage is NOT covered under our insurance, so it looks like we will have numerous DIY projects occurring so we can save some $$. EBear is going to install gutters and a french drain where the house got water so hopefully the problem will not occur again.

In good house news, our grass in the back yard is actually growing back. In a few years time we might actually have a proper lawn.

Ziggy loves grass.....and sprinklers.

Anywho, I will be "sick" this weekend since I am getting some oral surgery done. Hopefully the dentist gives me enough vicodin to sleep through the goings on at the house on Friday :)

I think my cabinets have become a far away fantasy

What are these cabinet people on! I checked Ebear's email (no, I don't snoop...really! I was...just...you know...logging him out) and apparently the cabinet guy was out of town...again. How many times can a person go out of town in a one month span when they build things in a shop for a living. He should be working on the cabinets this week and they will be ready to install next week...so basically our cabinets will be made in one weeks time....why couldn't this one week of time happened one month ago? Sigh.

I guess it months more of eating out for us, which can't be good for our waistlines. Today we went to Cherrywood Coffee House for dinner and EBear thoroughly confused the ladies by ordering two entrees. When the lady brought our food, she asked if someone else would be joining us. And while EBear seemed to struggle at the end, he did manage to eat two pork tacos and one double cheeseburger. Let the bloating and heartburn begin!

EBear's final push to finish the second dinner!

Seriously?!

I guess I wrongfully assumed that when the cabinet guy came and did his final final final measurements he would then begin building cabinets. A call to the GC to check up on the cabinets Thursday revealed that the cabinet guy will BEGIN building the cabinets Thursday and they won't be ready to install until the week of the 27th. Maybe cabinets will actually be built this time?

Onto den news, the insurance company is apparently busy with people who got more damage than us during the storm. The adjuster will be at our house also on the 27th to look at the damage. In the meantime I am enjoying all the lovely mold that is likely to be growing in the walls. Scrambletron was not impressed, and again decided she could do a better job. Being dumb, she again demoed the wrong wall....

Scrambletron made sure to get all that drywall under the door off, and the molding...for good measure.

At least our walls are all back to normal with the texture, you can't even tell where the ceiling patch is!

With all this waiting and no kitchen it has left me thinking about the finishes, paint colors and tiles. Thankfully it has given me plenty of time to second guess ALL of my choices, ah the beauty of delays! I found an awesome website that does all colors and blends of mosaic tile, so I ordered samples and am now considering doing the entire backsplash in mosaics. Now all I have to do is pick a tile...what do you do if you like them all? The tile choice all depends on how it will look with the granite and then the paint colors will all depend on the tile we pick. And I still haven't tossed out the idea of subway tile...too many choices! Anyway, I tried to take pics of all the tile so everyone can see and maybe give an opining....

Oh the choices! We ruled out the one with the black, and are focusing on the three in the last few photos. But I am not going to be sure until the cabinets and granite are in!

More renovations on the way?

Well Hermine did more than just bring us taped and floated walls, it also brought us more renovations. This time they are of the "has to be done" variety.

Last night, before bed I noticed Scrambletron's bed in the living room was wet. Assuming she decided the "executive crapper" had been moved to her bed, I promptly started the cleanup. As I was cleaning I noticed that there was a lot of what I assumed to be pee. When I say a lot I mean like someone poured two gallons of water all over the floor a lot. I wondered if the house has somehow leaked? I checked the window and it was dry, so I continued to assume piddles was all over the living room.....lots and lots of piddles.

Fast forward to this afternoon, I showed Ebear the yet to be washed bed. He thought that there was no way it was piddles....the main reason being that there was no smell. We looked at the wall where all the "liquid" was and decided it would be best to check behind the couch, which is where we discovered the wet and peeling drywall. Now, as we wait for the insurance agent, I wonder...is this the start of even more renovations?

Wet drywall starting to peel.

Make It Rain

Thanks to Hermine the drywall guys had a free day so we now have taped and floated drywall!

Look at that drywall!

I had to run home and contain Scrambles before the drywall guys came. After I promptly contained her and Buttery I got a message from the contractor that Scrambles was out! Luckily he was able to lure her into the living room and shut the door.....disaster averted!

Since I feel like the kitchen progress is at a stand still, I decided to drag Ebear to the HD to pick out tile and paint colors. The glass mosaic section is limited but I at least got an idea. And I got to grab up on some paint samples too! At least I have a better idea now of what colors I need.

Idea for backsplash with paint colors.

Close up of paint with tile, I think we will get square glass tiles instead of the blue bars.

Sample paint on wall, I think I will do kitchen in blue, pool table room in green (or vise versa) and the hallway in yellow.

We did massive amounts of yard work Monday...I learned to edge! We also trimmed our Texas Lilac bushed into trees, I was all excited to take photos but Hermine put an end to that.

Speaking of Hermine, we decided to go to Hyde Park bar and Grill for dinner tonight. As we ran to get inside the lights in the restaurant suddenly went out. What do you do when the power to the restaurant goes out? You go eat at Central Market.

Its all about the little things

Came home Thursday to find the trailer of trash that has lived in our driveway for over a month gone! I never realized how nice it is to have a driveway..I was totally spoiled and didn't even know it.

My car is happily parked in the driveway

The cabinet guy also came by today and took a final final measurement for the cabinets...how many final measurements does a person need. Then he proceeded to inquire about permits...I guess he didn't see all the permits posted on our windows! Argh!

Cabinet guy also says that the doors will be ordered on Tuesday so maybe we will have cabinets in two weeks? People in Austin are slow, I think two weeks might be asking a lot :) We got danged on those cabinets...hard.

One month and a week down....how many more to go?

Cabinet drawings

We thought the cabinet construction was underway five weeks ago, hoping to return to see them being installed.  We had a mix up coordinating; the contractor and cabinet guy had not worked together before.  The cabinet guy needs half the money prior to commencing work.  We made payment when we returned from our vacation and and hoped for the ball to start rolling, only to be informed that the cabinet guy was taking a vacation.  He could start making them in ten days.  Day ten would have been this past Monday, last week of August.  After many reminders about they pony wall being longer than initially planned, there is still some confusion as to the length of the stove walls base cabinets to the left in drawing.  It is still exciting to see these plans, and hopefully the new wall can be measured or dimensions conveyed so building these cabinets can start sometime.  We're thinking once the building begins, about two weeks (maybe 1.5) for them to be ready to install.  We'll see... in the mean time, my salt and taco consumption has skyrocketed since no kitchen equals eating out every night.  Groupon, and Luch Deal, collective coupons, have come through with many deals to keep my wallet fat and my belly full...or maybe it's the other way around.

Beneath are the cabinet drawings, which will stay pretty much the same, except there will be one more base cabinet about 20" wide to the left of the last one on the stove wall drawing.

Note about Ziggy:

She has been doing really well inside, with the exception of last night.  We came to find some paper towels ripped up.  That's fine no big deal.  Then as I was putting some water in the fridge I noticed something.  No telling how long it was there, one to three days.  I don't go to the fridge that's near the front door to often because we're never cooking.  So my trip to the fridge led to a turd apocalypse.  

Note to Ziggy:

We are remodeling the kitchen, that's all.  There are no plans for an 'executive crapper' next to the pool table.