Look away now if you are bored by the ongoing saga of Kitchen Nightmares, Part ENDLESS.
When last we blogged (I got lazy and bored, Rob got sick so meh), the painter had arrived. The sink and dishwasher were supposed to be installed that Friday. But oh, ho, ho, ho. That would be way too easy for this clusterfuck we call a kitchen repair. The plumber showed up Friday morning, delivered the dishwasher and then told me he had an emergency in Lodi and could he come back late that afternoon. I said yes, as it was the same guy who delivered our temporary sink right before Christmas. Only this time, it didn’t go the way I liked.
He never came back. The next morning, SATURDAY, I phoned M2. He said someone would be there by 2 and he wasn’t kidding. Frank, the grizzled prospector plumber (seriously, he had eyes that didn’t line up, the shaggy handlebar mustache and boots), came through for us. The sink and dishwasher were installed. And everything ran perfectly. And there were no leaks. Amen.
It works. And it’s fantastic.
There’s been a lot of radio silence since then. An entire week, in fact, where not one workman graced our front door. My mom and I painted the doors and window sills, as apparently that’s not covered by the insurance scope of work. They left us all the paint so it was just a matter of doing it. We did it last week though because we thought the flooring would be installed on Friday. As you’re probably well aware by now, the plot remains the same. No flooring on Friday. Held up by the polar vortex/iceageddeon/never ending winter storm that has left CA nothing but dry and sunny for 3 months.
After we finished painting, we lined shelves and drawers. When I moved into this house in 2006, I didn’t want to bother with contact paper. I hate it and it’s a pain to put in and remove later. So I left everything bare on the painted wood. But this time, I wanted to do something different. No contact paper.. oilcloth!
The cupboards are bright and colorful.
Love seeing this red toille under my silverware every day!
It went in super fast and we only used 4.5 yards. So far, we love it. We secured it with double sided tape and if it starts to pull up, I can tape it back down easily enough or secure it with a thumbtack (drawing pin for my UK friends).
We weren’t expecting anything else to happen until I heard from the flooring guy. But then unexpectedly this morning at 9am, the tile guy showed up with our tile! We thought it would be at least another week but no, it arrived last Thursday. No one bothered to call us to see if we were home or not but we were, even though neither of us was quite awake yet.
The mudding went smoothly and they re-mounted our soap dish. Just the blue tile and the decorative metal strip was nearly $900 because of how impossible it is to find. I said I didn’t care how much it cost because the insurance is paying for all of it. Tomorrow, they lay tile and grout.
We’re so close to the end! All that’s left is flooring and finish work: placing hardware on the new cabinet, baseboards, quarter-round moulding and touch up paint.
After a few nights of being able to cook for ourselves again, we’re back to Mom and Dad’s as the kitchen sink is taped up. The dining room is back from being our extended storage area for the kitchen and we can actually have a meal there now. I dare not hope that we can be fully back in the kitchen by the end of the week.