Tag: home improvement

Demolition: Underway

The contractors are here. The demolition of our kitchen is underway. They got here a few minutes before 8:00am, spent a few minutes going over the details, and here we are at 9:19am and most of the kitchen is already gone.

On top of that, half of the cabinet boxes are already put together. They are blowing through this at world record speed. It’s amazing. Maybe they will be finished by tomorrow night like they predicted.

Maybe they know what they are doing and I should stop worrying about it and just let them do their very impressive thing.

Kitchen Demolition Starts Tomorrow

Our kitchen cabinets are going to get nuked into oblivion starting tomorrow morning. The plan is for the new installation to start on Saturday. They told us it would only take a day. I will believe it when I see it, but I am also really hoping that prediction is accurate.

I still have a few things to move out of the kitchen before they come tomorrow but I figured I’d take some pictures for posterity’s sake.

The appliances (except for the microwave) are staying, though one is moving to a new location, but the cabinets and the counter tops and the shelves are all coming down and being replaced. While I am at this, let me also post pictures of the piles of boxes that IKEA delivered to us over the last few days. Again, just for posterity’s sake, but also sort of just for shits and giggles.

I’ll post a follow up to this after they leave tomorrow so we can see the changes.

I am both ready for this project to get started and ready for it to be over. Please let it end quickly. I want my kitchen back.

Avalanche

Ikea Avalanche…

Ikeavalanche…

Ikevalanche…

I think I like that last one. Ikevalanche. That describes what happened to our house. Ikea exploded and it caused an avalanche in our living and dining rooms. Ikevalanche, babie.

The cats are oblivious.

Bill of Lading

Lily is laying on top of a pair of multi-page Bills of Ladings.

IKEA delivery complete. 170-something boxes. One item shipped incorrectly and one item missing. Neither of them are mission critical. I have to pick up a few more things from IKEA tomorrow after work. Other than that, we’re good to go.

What a Day

This morning has been the toughest month in years.

Tomorrow is going to be worse. A lot worse. Wednesday will be tough, though mostly after work. Same with Thursday. Friday and Saturday? Nuckin’ Futs!

I need a nap. I need to go to bed early tonight but we all know that won’t happen. I will get up ridiculously early tomorrow too. Same with the next day and the next day and the next day.

As crazy as it has been, and as crazy as it will continue to be in the near future, I am good with it. I am ready for all of it. It’s going to be rough, but it’s also going to be worth it.

Bring it on, babie! Bring it on!

Okay, Robert. Back to work with your bad self. You have stuff to do before the day ends!

Step One: Complete

The first baby step of the kitchen remodeling is complete. We had a plumber here who disconnected everything in the kitchen. Next step is the first of the IKEA deliveries. It’s only supposed to be a few boxes. The landslide/avalanche of IKEA stuff happens tomorrow.

The cats are hiding. Will they remain in hiding until the project is complete? Maybe.

Kitchen Crazy

Daily writing prompt
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
View all responses

I do a lot of musical DIY projects, but that isn’t my answer today. I’m right in the grip of my 17th RPM Challenge. I’ve done the 50 songs in 90 days challenge a bunch of times and have even succeeded on a few of them. That isn’t it though.

Our kitchen is about to be remodeled. The project starts today. It is not a DIY project though. We hired a contractor this time.

This time.

The last time though… We’ve been picking at the kitchen for a few years. The last couple of little changes were DIY. One of them was hanging a cabinet and counter top that we bought from IKEA. They have a neat system for hanging things. I thought it was going to be beyond us, but we pulled it off… mostly. It was a little crooked on one section. Just a little.

I am pretty sure that counter and cabinet are not going to survive the new project. We looked into having the contractor move it, but there doesn’t really seem to be enough room. That’s okay though. It was always meant to be a temporary thing until we figured out a way to do the real project. The real project being the sucker that sort of starts today.

Big changes coming to our house. We’re pretty excited to see how it goes. Wish us luck.

Upcoming Stuff

The IKEA kitchen deliveries are happening on Monday and Tuesday. A few boxes on Monday and almost 200 on Tuesday. The plumber is coming to disconnect everything on Monday. Demolition of the current kitchen is Friday and installation of the new kitchen is Saturday. They are telling us they only need one day to install but that seems crazy to me. The plumbing hookups, electrical work, and the addition of the backsplash all happen at some point after the install. When? We don’t know yet.

Both of my step kids are going on trips over spring break. They are coming home the week after the kitchen install. I have to take a day off to drive them both to the airport. We have Harry’s flight information already but not Bellana’s. Not yet at least. The following week we’ll pick them back up at the airport but as of now it doesn’t look like I’ll need to take time off from work for that.

I also have five days to finish the RPM Challenge. I have three songs finished, six ready to mix, six ready for lead guitars, and five waiting for vocals. Two of those five have lyrics and a melody written. I did those earlier today. I am hoping to get to the other three before I sleep tonight so I can get them all recorded tomorrow morning. If I can’t get through it all tomorrow I’ll have to finish up before work on Monday. Then I just have a ton of lead guitars to record and multiple tons of mixing to do. I can get to it all, but it’s going to be tough. I have some late nights and early mornings in my near future.

There are so many things to do in the coming weeks. So very, very many things. It’s going to be pretty crazy around these parts. I’ll post lots of pictures as things progress.

Don’t Do it Again

The last time I was in the office I sat at the same desk I’m sitting at right now. When I left for the day I forgot my laptop charger and had to drive back in the next day to get it.

Robert… moron… whatever you do… don’t forget the damn charger again, m’kay? Forgetting your laptop charger is bad.

On a mostly unrelated note, all of this extra working from the office stuff has thrown my personal, internal calendar into complete chaos. I have been 100% convinced all day today that today is Friday. Guess what. It’s not Friday. Not even close. Tomorrow is Friday. It’s just plain old Thursday.

I was hoping this weekend could be a total downtime weekend. I don’t think that’s possible. I want to finish hanging the blinds and curtains and make the last couple of changes to the bed room setup. I also want to put together the tent/shed thing we bought for the back yard. Unfortunately it’s going to rain all weekend so that’s out. I have four songs that need to be finished by the end of the weekend, so there will be music in the car and at home. I still have to finish writing two of those four songs. Way to wait for the last minute, Robert. Dope. Next month’s music plan is a full 10 song album in a month deal using my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I haven’t even plugged in yet. Dope.

It’s looking more and more like I will be able to work from home for the second half of the day. Fingers are still very much crossed. My stomach started acting up about half an hour ago but it was just one of those, hey dope you are hungry stomach aches. I ate a snack and now I am fine. I won’t get home until well after 2:00pm so I am not sure what to do about eating lunch. I’m hoping for some chicken and maybe some french fries, but I don’t want to ruin dinner. It’s crazy how reliant I have become on being able to cook lunch and dinner at decent, routine times, and how shuffling those times even a little bit messes me up.

I am hoping I’ll be leaving the office at about 1:45. Fingers intensely crossed. I wanna go home. Just don’t forget your charger, you dope.