Commitment Papers Needed
2008-01-29, 11:51 a.m.

Day 1256

Oh boy. Bit off a chunk last night. A big chunk. Here�s what the kitchen looked like Sunday, while dinner was cooking:

That while dinner was cooking bit is my way of explaining the dishes, etc. drying on the counter.

Here�s what the kitchen looked like last night, just before Cindy got back home with our take-out pizza:

In case you can�t tell (cuz the lighting sucks and there�s dust bunnies galore on my camera lens), that wall that�s straight ahead in the first view? Gone. It�s actually sitting in the garage, all busted up into little tiny pieces.

Sunday night I was trying to finalize the list of cabinets we needed for this remodel. We�d designed a peninsula into the new kitchen. Part of our putzing around Sunday included moving the table out to where it�s going to be in the new kitchen. In doing that, I could see how much room there was between the table and the existing dining room wall (not a lot). Being the curious sort, I did a little measuring and figured out where the peninsula cabinets would sit. This was a disturbing revelation. There would be less room between the new cabinets and the table than there currently was between the table & wall. Is that clear as mud? In essence, we�d have less seating area in a kitchen that�s 50% bigger than our current one.

I drew lines on the floor with sharpies. (hey, it�s getting yanked, what do I care?) I pointed out my concerns to Cindy, but she was busy trying to line up substitute teachers for Monday. She had 5 folks call in Sunday evening, on top of the few subs she had already arranged for. Poor girl. She was having a rough go of it and really couldn�t spare the bandwidth to stare at my pretty drawings on the floor.

Monday morning, I get a call from Cindy. She�s all � �Hey, if you�re worried about the peninsula, table position, spacing, etc, why not just yank the wall out tonight instead of waiting for the weekend? If we need to change the cabinet order, we need to know now.�

Thus a new plan was put into motion. Zach came by to provide a little added muscle. Plus, he�d been jonesing to yank that wall out for weeks, I couldn�t deny him a little demolition fun. In a matter of 3 hours we had the wall out, rooms cleaned up and a new decision. The peninsula was out. As it turned out, where the cabinets are currently located was a possible new location for the peninsula � if we shrunk the sink base and re-arranged some wall cabinets. That alternate area was a foot wider than what I had sketched on the floor Sunday night, and it STILL was a wee bit too tight. So. Peninsula gone. Expensive cabinets replaced by much less expensive base unit. Probably knocked nearly a grand out of the cost.

In an hour I�m sitting down to meet with the cabinet manufacturers rep. with my new list of cabinets needs. I�m curious to see how they compare to the price we got from the big box joint. This rep has an ad running claiming to have prices 70% off. Off of what, I wonder? We�ll see soon enough.

Outside of that? Not much else going on. That lawyer we were supposed to see had to cancel. Flu, sore throat, cold � something. Nothing he wanted to pass along to his clients. I thanked him for his lack of sharing and offered to reschedule once he got back to the office. At least that little anxiety got put off for a bit. By tomorrow, I ought to know when the new appointment is so I can start getting all worked up about it again.

For the record � all this family bidness is really on Cindy�s side. On my half of the family tree, there isn�t any real accumulation of property or money to fret about. My mom has her pension, social security, her house and a bit of money left from Dad�s life insurance. We�ve (my brothers & I ) told her to go out and have a blast. Go places, see things, do things. Don�t fret about �leaving some for my family�. Boy, is she doing a good job of following our wishes!!

Only Tuesday morning and I already can�t wait to get to bowling on Thursday. It�s terrible what one good week can do to you.

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