Another day of great progress.
We pretty much focused on the pantry. We got the pantry cabinets in place but not totally screwed in yet.
We spent most of the afternoon scraping on the deck railing. It is really long and tedious work. More tedious than scraping the kitchen windows down to bare wood.
We are very close to completing all the scraping. Next, it will be taping off the deck and then hitting everything with Primer. Susan is quite adamant about the Primer.
We had Shaun for four hours today and we made the most of it.
As I began, my goal was to remove it intact so I could hang it in the garage or someplace. It soon became clear that it was not coming out in one piece.
So, I pulled out the Sawzall and went to work.
I had everything set up so when Shaun got here, it didn't take us too long to install the new cabinet.
We also got the second pantry cabinet cut down to the proper depth, so we will be getting those cabinets screwed in next.
So that's how we spent our Memorial Weekend.
Shaun came by today at about 2:30 and I was all set up for us to get to work. We got the other large pantry cabinet out into the yard to get the back cut off. Shaun wanted to finish the first cabinet and get the backing on it to see how it would all go.
Just as we were finishing the back, it started to rain. And once it started, it poured. My rain gauge shows almost a half inch of rain in about an hour.
We had to rush to get everything stowed but we did manage to finish the one cabinet. We still have to drill holes for the shelving and of course, got it all secured to the wall.
We have been spending the last couple of days working on the railing on our back deck. It has been 5 years since we painted and it needs it. We are kind of under the gun because we want to get it painted before the arbor posts and covered with hops and grape vines.
Shaun has been helping us with kitchen stuff during the evening so we are free during the day to scrape the railing. In addition, I have replaced a post and four rail posts that have pretty much rotted away.
It’s the start of the Memorial Day Weekend so I’m sure this isn’t sitting well with all the people heading to the campgrounds. We don’t have anywhere to go other than the Hub, so it’s no big deal to us.
Okay, I just checked my rain gauge and it was only up to a quarter inch. I’ll have to wait and see what the weather service says. The way it was coming down, it felt like a good couple of inches fell. But, that’s why I put up a rain gauge.
Tonight we fired up the oven and cooked some chicken. Everything seemed to work as it should and we are starting to figure out the particulars of this new oven...at least, new to us.
Today was a long day for both of us. Susuan was at church for most of the day helping with the Church Basement Sale.
I was at a neighborhood event directing traffic at a free Dump Day. I think I said this the last time I worked a dump day, but I have never seen so many unwanted mattresses. We filled nine 8 yard dumpsters with garbage, one with yard debris and two with metal stuff. A lot of bikes, barbecues and washers.
We had planned to go to the Lilac Parade tonight but were so wiped out, we stayed home and watched it on TV.
The high temperature today was 89, which broke a record. I did not take any sun screen with me and am paying for it now.
Our first bank of cabinets is almost finished. That's only taken three weeks. We had a disaster with the oven. One would think that when you order a cabinet, it would come with the correct size hole for the oven. One would be mistaken.
During the whole ordering process, I don't really remember what happened as far as the oven hole goes. I thought we gave them the make and model of the oven and they would get the size from that information.
I do not remember the cabinet people talking to us about this little detail but they do not seem willing to accept any responsibility for the difference and said that is the standard way oven cabinets come because there are so many different sized ovens.
The good news is that the oven works. It has been sitting in our garage for at least 15 years and we are happy that it has endured the test of time sitting out there.
Progress continues in the kitchen. Today, we got the oven cabinet in place and got the plug wired for the oven. Unfortunately, the hole space that the oven fits in is wrong. We need to cut 3 inches off the top and bottom, and narrow the sides by 3 inches. It's not perfect but it will come out okay...I hope.
We have done nothing on the kitchen since Friday. Susan did some painting and I installed the outlet for the garbage disposal in the sink cabinet. Unfortunately, it’s not working. No power. In fact, when I trip the breaker, it clicks right back off. That means we have a short somewhere. Jerry is coming Monday to help.
Yesterday we had the annual .08 Hub Tavern Fun Run. We go south from the Hub, two blocks to the Mosey Inn, drink a beer and back to the Hub. We did it in about 10 minutes.
Every year there is a theme. Last year was “Batman and Joggin’”. This year it was “The Big Jogbowski”. Here is a picture of our winning costume entry.
After the run, we returned to the Hub for the Kentucky Derby. We then followed that with Carbo Loading at Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant.
So you can see with all this activity that we had no time for the kitchen.
The Carbo Loading was in preparation of today’s 47th running of Bloomsday. Susan did it, not me! She ran and walked the 12K course 1:46:26. That’s two minutes better than last year. She has now done Bloomsday for 36 consecutive years.
So no time for the kitchen today.
We’ll be back on it tomorrow. Or the next day. Or whatever!
For reasons I cannot explain, our water heater is working fine. I don’t know what happened to make it go cold for a day or what I did to bring it back but it is working. It may be a sign though, that it is dying. We’ve been here 18 years and the water heaters were here before us.
In revenge news, I got an email from Century Link today asking about our recent interaction with their Tech Support. I think I did a pretty good and fair recounting of the whole mess and expressed my displeasure with their weekend technical support.
Let’s see if we get a response.
I am finally writing from the comfort of my own house. I've had to go to Starbuck's the last few days in order to keep up in my e-mail, of which there was A LOT!
I finally called Century Link about noon because I wanted to be sure I was still on the schedule for a Technician to come by.
Since it was a weekday, I actually got to talk to a live person. His name was Ernest.
Ernest had me go up to the router and reset it, which of course did nothing. He asked me for some numbers off the router and suddenly, the red blinking light changed to green and we had internet back.
The system did a complete reset which changed my internet name and the password. But it is all back now.
I asked Ernest to cancel the technician and he said he showed no record of a technician being scheduled for us.
I'm a bit upset with myself for being upset about no internet. I have always said I do not want to be attached to my phone and I really don't want to be attached to e-mail or the web itself. But dammit, I am.
In Cabinet News, I have done my homework that Shaun had me do as has Susan. We can now relax until Shaun shows up.
6:49PM: Shaun called and is not going to make it. I'm not going to complain because he is doing us a favor by helping and I want to do it right.
We might have a problem with our water heater. It does not appear to be heating anymore. Susan discovered the problem this afternoon. I'm not sure what to do about it yet. It's not a disaster because this house came with three water heaters. One of them started leaking and we just pulled it from the system.
Anyway, something else to keep an eye on.
We are well into Phase Four of the kitchen remodel. I think it's Phase Four.
We hired Shaun to come and help us. He has a regular job doing remodeling under his own company. He showed up about six after his regular work day and spent a couple hours getting us started.
We got two cabinets installed. We have a few things Susan and I need to do tomorrow before Shaun shows up again.
In other cabinet news, Shaun says that we can cut the pantry cabinets down to the proper depth ourselves. That's the way I think we are going to go because we are looking at 4 to 6 weeks for new cabinets to be made. Plus, if we do the work ourselves, we get a thousand dollar refund.
That will help to pay for Shaun.
