Week 3: Plaster work, paint and the floor demo

Mon.- Thur. 8/17- 20 : The taping and plaster is done expertly so that you can't see where the room was divided and the new walls are blended into the old.

Wed. 8/19: The brother-in-law of the nice lady who does facials at Spa Simply Skin comes over in the evening to give us an estimate on tile. We consider either tile at both entryways, or all the way across the floor between island and cabinets. The kitchen place asks us which hardware we want, and we have no idea. Turns out they don't have the samples of the styles we are interested, except one or two. We keep looking at the pictures on the Internet and try to narrow it down. They will bring samples wit the cabinets Monday.

Thur. 8/20: I ordered the slabs from Daltile after getting estimate from Marcos, Capital City Granite. They should take about a week. The sink and slabs should arrive about the same time - we hope. The plastic sheets are all down, and we get used to coming in the garage door and walking through the kitchen.

Fri. 8/21: We go to Manuel Joseph and order the downdraft. We learn some things about telescoping downdrafts and our guide confims Cynthia's recommendation that the GE Profile is the best. As with the other appliances and sink, we open and account to get 10% off and 6 months to pay - thank goodness everyone needs our business! The oven and cooktop are due next July, the dishwasher , exhaust and sink are due in January, haha, right after Christmas.

We saw a Jenn-Air cooktop on a deep discount and couldn't remember how much the one I ordered cost, which was a Maytag. John decided the knobs on the Maytag were a problem. We were all ready to take the other one back and buy this but needed to look at the one at home. Once home, we saw that the Maytag cost less, so we decided we were quite happy with it. Does seem sort of odd - the cooktop made by the washer company; but I think they bought out another mfr. The walloven is a GE profile, and really neat, because it's not only convection, it's a double oven in the space of most singles. It can roast a turkey in the bottom and cook a pizza or cookies in the top. The dishwasher is a Sears Kenmore; not the most expensive but lots of cool features. Anything would be better than the old one we had, which only ran water on one side and forgot to rinse.

A comment about shopping: I buy fairly often online because I don't like taking the time to go to stores. However, I spent hours and hours on the Internet shopping for appliances (and the sink and faucet) and found everything locally for less. If you are lucky and flexible you might find the perfect thing on a deep discount from Overstock.com or a big distributor back East. But I picked out the brand and model I wanted first, then looked only for those, which eliminated random sales. Online you pay shipping but no tax. Here you pay tax but usually no shipping. I was happy to support local business and keep money in California.

Sat. 8/22: We go to Home Depot, learn about primer, go home, tape and wrap, and then we
all three spent a grueling hot afternoon rolling and brushing. John did the backbreaking ceiling; Richard did the walls, and I did walls and trim. John said I got carried away because I had to do the fireplace. It was time for the pink wall to go. I had to go back for more primer, but we were able to return two unused cans the next day. We even went back to the store again and found the perfect faucet. All that is left to buy is the disposal.

Sun. 8/23:
We were going to get Richard up early to paint, but he was up late and exhausted, so John and I went to the store, picked out a white from about 23, came home and finished in a couple hours. It wasn't as hard as primering, although I did the entryway and as much of the living room as I could.



Later that afternoon, we attack the floor, having to remove the masonite underlayment before the cabinets can go in. Turns out the masonite is attached with about 500 1-1/2" staples. This requires another trip to the store for more tools, since the tool we rented does not work at all. This was probably as hard or harder than the demo of the cabinets and countertops three weeks prior. Imagine trying to get some lift on material that is literally stapled every four square inches. What actually happens is you rip off the masonite, leaving behind hundreds of bent and broken staples, so that the floor looks like a medieval bed of nails.

That night and the next two, John and I became obsessed with pulling the staples out, because of the cabinets and wood floor going in. We have not heard anything from the tile guy, and we wonder why. The staple pulling results in yet another trip to the hardware store for special tools. We develop great staple-pulling skills. John yells at me to stop at midnight.