The past week of work down the shore has been incredibly frustrating.
First up, the gas line finally got installed and now I’m in a holding pattern waiting for the inspector to come inspect. I haven’t even gotten an expected date yet. I even saw the inspector on my block this week! But he did not come to my house. None of the gas appliances can be hooked up until he signs off on the lines so… more waiting.
Chris and I got the over-the-fridge cabinet installed and pushed the fridge into place… only to realize that when I measured the fridge I did not take into account the door hinge. Which is a solid inch and a half taller than the rest of the fridge. So now I have to pull out the fridge, take down the cabinet, move the mounting hardware, etc etc. It’s a solid couple hours of work and it requires another person to help. Mostly I’m just mad at myself for mis-measuring.
The painter we hired to do the kitchen and living room was just awful. In theory he was supposed to come back and finish up but I decided I don’t ever want to see him again. So tomorrow another painter is coming out to give me a quote for fixing what the other guy screwed up. And while they’re at it I’m going to have them paint the two remaining bedrooms because I am so incredibly sick of painting. Also I’m really not loving the color I picked out for the living room. I’m debating having them change it. PAINT EVERYWHERE.
I got the kitchen flooring installed. You can see a cutout in the middle for the island (since it’s a floating floor nothing can be anchored to it directly). Unfortunately I effed up my measurements ever so slightly and the holes in the back are off by about an inch. Which means that the holes will peek out from under the island. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to deal with that yet.
On Tuesday someone came to measure the cabinets to fit the countertop. Then I got a call from Ikea: there’s a $1000 upcharge. I’m sorry, what? Yep, it turns out that the person who calculated the initial cost was off by 15 square feet of material. Because he entered 10 inches into one of the measurements instead of 10 FEET. So they quoted me for 25 feet instead of the 40 this project requires. Even with a 20% discount it’s a surprise expense that is not fun.
On Monday I sprayed the primer onto the custom wood doors. Overall the painting went really well, and the sprayer gives a really nice even coat of paint in no time flat. Unfortunately I did not account for bugs and bird shit, both of which are in abundant supply in the back yard. Immediately after I sprayed bugs got themselves stuck (and then died like the dinosaurs) and birds took dumps on my freshly-primed doors. I have to give the doors a quick sanding before I can enamel them anyway, but this means that for the final coat I need to find somewhere free of living things. I think I’m going to turn one of the downstairs bedrooms (which is getting all new flooring) into a spray booth. Yes I will wear a respirator.
While assembling the cabinets I realized I was missing more parts from Ikea, parts that were never on my order in the first place. So back to Ikea I went, and of course they are still out of stock on some parts that have been back ordered since I placed my order in April. More are expected to come in at the end of this month, but seriously Ikea GET YOUR INVENTORY SHIT TOGETHER.
I ordered two twin beds from Wayfair for one of the bedrooms. When the boxes arrived two were damaged and one was the wrong box. Wayfair is replacing them for free, but it’s still one more thing to deal with.
So right now I’m pretty fed up with this whole process. I’m heading down tomorrow to meet with a new painter, but no major projects are happening this week. I have to fix the fridge cabinet before the counters can be installed but I should have two weeks before they’re ready.
And someday, maybe someday, I’ll have hot water.