Close, but no cigar

Ah, so close and yet so far. If you have been keeping up with my Blog, you'd would probably believe that the countertops were installed last Wednesday and that Suzanne and I have been enjoying our functioning kitchen now for the past four days...and yet, you'd be wrong. The countertop guys came out on Wednesday, as planned, and I quickly gave them the tour of the kitchen, pointing out the little things that I felt needed to be shared before the got busy installing the countertops. I then disappeared upstairs to work and keep an eye on the dogs, and also to stay out their way downstairs. About 45 minutes into the installation, I hear Brad downstairs yell, "Hey bossman, I need you to come look at this." That has got to be the last thing I wanted to hear that morning. So I proceed downstairs, where I find Brad and his helper staring at the countertop cut out for the slid-in range. That's about when I notice that the countertop to the left of the range is about 3 inches too short, leaving a gap between the cooktop and the countertop. Brad tells me that because the range is off center in the cut out, the guys back at the shop who fabricated the countertop messed up and centered the opening about the middle of the cut out, which left the countertop short on the left side and long on the right. He then tells me that he will need to take the countertop back to the shop to get it fixed and that it will be Saturday morning before he can come back to finish the installation...ARGHHHHHH!! Well, what was I going to do other than say o.k. and wait until Saturday? Hey, it has been 3 months without countertops, what's another 3 days right?

So Saturday rolls around and Brad shows up with his 15 year old son to help him finish the installation (turns out Jr. is one of four boys in the family, 17 yrs old, 15 yrs. old, 12 yrs. old, and 3 yrs old!!). After about 3 hours of work, they finish up and low and behold, we have countertops again! I spent the rest of Saturday installing the sink, disposal, dishwasher, and water filter and by late Saturday night, we were running our first load of dishes in the dishwasher...no more hand washing!

So folks, the kitchen is functional again. I'll be picking out tile for the backsplash over the next couple of weeks (still deciding on if I want to do the install myself of just pay someone to do it for me). Then, I'm moving on to the sunroom and half-bath. I still need to finish smoothing out the ceiling in the sunroom, paint the ceiling in both rooms, paint the widows in both rooms, mud and paint the half-bath, install the toilet and sink, and paint the sunroom. I also need to install the new closet door and finish installing all of the trim moulding. These next couple of weekends should prove to be the last few work weekends before the little one arrives. Here are some pictures of the semi-completed kitchen (no tile backsplash yet).