Wednesday, November 12, 2008

There's good news and there's bad news

The good news is: My kitchen is getting a much needed makeover/remodel at no expense to me!

The bad news is: I have to move everything out of my kitchen, including the refrigerator, TONIGHT, after work!

It all started with an inspection, due to the new owner taking possession. The kitchen door that goes down the back stairs to the basement drags on the floor (it's a long story) which makes it nearly impossible to fully open. So the landlord called last night to let me know they will be fixing the floor today.

There were other maintenance concerns so he agreed to meet with me this morning and after a 20 minute walk through and discussion, I'm now getting a ceramic tile floor (any color I like) in the kitchen, a new *bigger* refrigerator (well, new to me) since my old one as of last night, knocks steadily and loudly while it cycles for 15 minutes at a time on and then off, possibly a new stove and a hood/vent for it installed! Also, the radiator in my bedroom which does not work at all will be looked at to be fixed. Oh, also he's fixing the lighting in the basement so I can turn it on and off with a switch in the stairwell instead of leaving it on all the time unnecessarily. This is great, practically a brand new kitchen to use...for free!

The bad news is, there's an immense amount of things that must be done in just one evening. Especially since I will have to get up early again tomorrow (only had 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night). I will need to make many trips out to the trash and many trips down to and from the basement which is 2 floors away taking laundry back and forth. There is much to be accomplished tonight, almost an impossible task for just 2 people who aren't in the best of health/strength. Tonight there will be no time for church or to sit and contemplate which wine of the month club to give Aunt Marge for Christmas.

But won't it be worth it?! After talking with my mom, who is staying with me, I've decided to seize this opportunity to reorganize the kitchen and pantry making it much more accessible and utilize the spaces better. Right now the pantry items we use most often, live on the table because the pantry is in such a disarray. I'll need to be off work tomorrow 'just in case' I'm needed for anything, like picking out tile or cleaning the "new" refrigerator for use or anything like that. Yes, this will be alot of work but so worth it! I mean, hello, heat in my bedroom finally, after only 4 years!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's so great! I'm right there with you, girl. The Project Of The Week is that we're having our kitchen rearranged, too. As in, move the sink and take out some cabinets. This will allow us to move the dishwasher from in front of the back door and out of the way of getting from the sink to the fridge or stove without squeezing through. So that requires moving plumbing and we're getting new lights and a suspended pan rack. But that requires the ugly drop ceiling gone, too, which I wanted anyway, but I was told there was nothing up there, but there are wires and holes and peeling lead paint. Oh, and we decided not to paint the floor but get new linoleum down instead just because it would take several coats and although I could do it myself, I don't really want to not use the kitchen and try to keep the cat out for days a time. So the worker guys are going to put down the floor, too, but that was a last-minute decision after they got here to start working. We'd asked them if they could paint it, but they said the linoleum would be easier. Right, so they guys were *here* and now I have to buy tile, and they go to start moving the kitchen pieces and now they tell us that they can't save the countertops. They just crumble when removed. No surprise, since most of this house is in pretty old and falling apart! But now I have to pick and buy new countertops to include the other bit of counter that they weren't going to touch because now they won't match. Did I mention they were actually already working on it?? So I had to go to Lowes and Home Depot and get all this stuff and figure out what would look good and could only look at what they had in stock because I needed it *right now*. That was Tuesday. They didn't finish, so I had to take off yesterday. They moved the sink all day yesterday and put on the new countertops. And we discussed what they could do with the ceiling. So now, I we are both at work all day today and tomorrow, and we have dinner plans with friends on Friday. So we only have a few hours tonight to get everything out of the kitchen so they can put in a new ceiling and floors. Oh, and now we have to get the paint colours finalized because they are also going to paint as long as they are painting the new ceiling. They'll be back at 8am on Saturday. I have to work that day to make up for being home yesterday. Fingers crossed!! But all of my kitchen work isn't for free :-/ Can't have everything. But I love the way things are shaping up in there. It feels so much bigger now that there aren't too many things squeezed into one tiny spot. Did I mention it's 6' by 11' and that includes two doorways, so it's effective space is really only a 6' by 3 1/2' space and a 4' by 6' space?

Can't wait until it's all done! For both of us :-)

A