Handling It

I took the day off work today so I can stay home for the last day of the remodel. Turned out the last day wasn't really the last day. The finishing tasks are small but many, and they just were not able to complete it today. Louis and Mike showed up around 9:00am. There was much to do. Mike put handles on all the cabinet doors and drawers. The drilling was done yesterday by Billy. Louis finished installing the dishwasher. Our dishwasher is not new, we got it about two years ago. However, a week before the remodeling started, it leaked. We bought a new valve for it and they installed that yesterday. Louis turned it on yesterday and it leaked again. So he investigated and brought a clamp with him this morning. It worked! The dishwasher ran through a whole cycle and didn't leak. That's good news. I don't want to buy a new dishwasher since this one is only two years old. Plus we've spent enough money already on the remodel. Mike installed the new oven. The gas cooktop was installed yesterday. They both work now! :) I was too excited to take a photo, so I hadn't cleaned off the oven yet. Notice the missing cabinet door and two missing drawers? They need to make a new cabinet door for us, because Billy drilled wrong holes on it for the handles. Yikes! The good thing is that these are custom-made cabinets, so it should only take a week. Maybe? They also need to shorten the top two drawers by the oven, because the oven power and the cooktop gas hookups are behind them. They also need to install the two pieces of glass in the little cabinets above the cooktop, and also our exhaust hood. I realized I haven't taken many photos of the kitchen from the view from the entrance, so I took one today. We ran into another problem installing the microwave and the trim kit. Basically, they built the cabinet space too small for the microwave trim kit to fit. So now we're stuck about what to do. Hopefully they'll come up with something next week that is amenable to everyone. Louis worked very hard today. He installed the towel hooks and towel bars (not pictured) outside of our shower. And I know this is probably only exciting to me and not to any of you, but he installed our new toilet in the master bath. Louis said something that made me appreciate my job and my life more today. He asked if I had to work weekends, and I said no. He said "you're lucky, I work on the weekends too". He said he can't do this type of physically demanding job forever, so he's gotta work a lot while he can, so he could save up money. This was the second time during the remodel that someone said that to me. Mike the tile guy also said I was lucky that I don't have to work on the weekends. So I am, and I am thankful. I took the remodeling set-backs today in stride, mainly because I was too tired from this whole week to get upset. But also because I've learned it doesn't help to get upset. This company we hired to do the job has integrity and they will make it right. So far they've proved that.