It's amazing how disruptive it is to have your living room, dining room and half your kitchen packed and splayed throughout your bedrooms, garage and back yard.
We've been trying to go about our lives - but it's not easy.
The Level 7 State gymnastics competition for Southern California was held over the weekend. It was nearby, so we were able to watch Megan's teammates on Saturday (the state meet is divided by age and the 13-year-old session was Sunday, so that took up the whole weekend).
One of the crew that's been working on the house thought they only had one more day to go and we were pretty excited about it. Unfortunately, he was a little on the optimistic side. There's more work to be done to fix the problem -- the new estimate is that they will need all of this week.
The contractor's crew have been quick and efficient - and he has been mindful of the fact that we don't have unlimited funds. He handed me his invoice for the first week and I was surprised at how reasonable it was. We just might get through this without too much more pain.
Of course, now my house is a blank slate, and all I want to do is explore our options for putting it all together. After dropping Megan off at gym last night, I dragged my mum-in-law to Home Depot, where we looked at carpet, tile and kitchen cabinetry.
Our kitchen ended up being untouched - but my husband has been insisting that this is a golden opportunity to tear down the wall that separates the dining room and kitchen and open up the space. Most of my friends agree. However, that wall holds two large cabinets that usually contain our dishes, mugs and a lot of spices and canned goods. If we tear that down, we lose a huge amount of storage space. So the idea is to replace the current counter there with a double-sided peninsula.
"So why are you looking at all new cabinets?" my husband asked when I brought home the catalogs.
I guess it never occurred to him that it would have to match. Or that the cabinetry we have is woefully inefficient. If we are really going to do this, shouldn't we improve the space?
I'm not talking about changing the location of the plumbing or gas lines or even replacing our ugly stovetop and rickety oven. Just shiny new cabinets with pull-out shelves and lazy susans. And a smooth granite counter. And pretty tiled walls.
I have a feeling that when I cost everything out, we may decide it's not such a golden opportunity after all.
However, we can't do a thing with the floor until we've decided one way or another about the kitchen.
It's all moot right now. The woman employing me for virtual assistant work (who has been very patient while I've been dealing with the craziest month of my life) needs me to get back to work. So catching up on that will be my focus today. Adventures in home decorating will have to wait.
Recent Comments