Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Kitchen Continued

More kitchen fun.  But now we have a floor and a frame for a closet.  So that's not nothing.






 After much prodding, I have been assured that they "should" be able to finish up by September 14.  How that could possibly be possible, I have no idea.  But the term "cruising" was thrown out there, as in from this point on the crew will be "cruising."  I think just showing up everyday might be a nice start.  I'm hoping that in 3 weeks, this frustration will all be a distant memory and CavanaghSpawn2.0 will be coming home to a functional household. I just need to figure out who can give us a ride.

In other news, we took another trip to the farm.  The weather was rainy most of Saturday and on Sunday I woke up with some horrible allergies, but I did get a few pics of the Rupper and his BFF Louis.


Work it.

Friday, August 22, 2014

More Kitchen Fun

Some updated photos of the very slow construction process:

First batch:






Second batch (from this morning):




The main things I see done is that they've built out the back wall to even that out, ripped out some of the wall presumably to extend the plumbing to the corner, started the framing of building up the floor in the back, and (not pictured) ripped out the ceiling in the back in an effort to even out that space between the existing kitchen and the back.

I've given up the dream that this project will be anywhere near done by the time CavanaghSpawn2.0 arrives in early September (2.5 weeks.. tick tick tick).  Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised?  I highly doubt it.  3 days ago I informed the project manager and his boss that they will need to suspend work when she arrives.  No word back.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

On-truck-chin - Day 2

The construction crew graciously decided to come back today after being absent Friday and Monday.  4 weeks and counting.  Tick, tick, tick.  I knew that this had potential to be a bad idea, let's hope it doesn't completely make me insane.  I wonder, are all contractors like this?  Did I get fooled into thinking that these guys would be different?  The lack of communication is staggering.  Messages unreturned, promises unfulfilled.  I'm sure I will love everything in the end and will be happy, but in the meantime having my living room overrun with appliances and just hoping beyond hope that CavanaghSpawn2.0 stays put til she's supposed to is driving me a bit mad.  Anyway.  Photos.

Good bye, sink.  We'll miss you the most.

No more dish nook.  Soon that whole wall should be gone.


No more weird wooden wall.  And more important, the world's grossest carpet is up!

View through the look through - all the way to the back wall.

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Catching up Stateside and Kitchen Renovation Day 1

The first few weeks that my dad was in Vietnam, it turns out, he was in kind of a military limbo.  He didn't know where he was going to be assigned and couldn't give my mom any kind of "permanent" address.  That in and of itself wasn't particularly interesting, except that it meant that the first dozen or so letters are kind of like ships passing in the night.  Mom received letters from Dad, but she had to wait to send hers to him.  I was kind of amazed how much was written about finances - what money Dad was sending home, how she was meant to cover bills and what would go to savings and that she should let him know if she found she needed more.  Just one of those little insights into how a couple works.  When I was growing up, money was never an issue between them, at least not that I ever saw.  So it's kind of interesting to see the foundation of that trust and communication being laid between them as newlyweds.  In some ways I find it sort of intimate.  

And then there was this (from Mom to Dad):

I was checking the ‘69 calendar.  It seems I’m a bit overdue for the World series.  Only 4 days since I should have had one if I were still on the pills.  I’m saying that my system is used to being off of the pills, I feel symptoms of a “series” - it’s just a matter of waiting for it to show up.  Wouldn’t it be too much if?  That we don’t need at a time like this.  I’ll keep you posted. 

If you only had to read that once, then good for you.  I had to read it 3 or 4 times,  so very confused and all the while figuring the math and think that the World Series would have been well over by the time this letter was written on November 16.  But then it dawned on me.  Yes, it would have been too much, and definitely not what they needed.  Spoiler alert: she wasn't pregnant.

But it's just one of those things I'd love to ask her.  What was that like?  What was it like to be sitting there for 4 days, thinking that you could possibly be pregnant, your husband a million miles away and the future so uncertain.  At a time when minutes probably dragged by already, they must have become glacial.    

In other, more modern news, kitchen construction is underway here in the EFPN (Eventually Fashionable Petworth Neighborhood). 

The first two pics are from when we first moved in.  Just for reference.
I didn't get my act together to snap any photos this morning.
Just a little different.

There's no going back now.










This room is so gross.  The carpet needs to be burned.