The Kitchen... Day 2...

Having gotten what we need, we head back to the house.  We decide that it would probably be smart to do one side then the other.  Yeah, that way if something unforeseen happens the ENTIRE kitchen isn't torn up at once.  So far this is all working.

"Wait!" she says, "how about if we take the bottom ones out first.  That way they will be out of the way."

"BRILLIANT!" I said. "Great idea!"

We start happily taking down the cabinets.  Suddenly, my electric screwdriver runs out of charge. "No Electric Screw-Driver, WHY NOW!!" I lamented.

I take down the last one with the good old "Standard" screw-driver and put my electric one on the charger.

Wife, "You know my brother has one of those really good electric drills.  I bet he would let us borrow it."

Hating to have to borrow yet another tool I grudgingly say, "Yeah, I'll run over there.  I have to pick XYZ at Lowe's anyway."  She calls, all is set.

So I go over to get the tools from the wife's brother.  OK, not only does he have the screw driver, but a Skill-Saw and reciprocating saw in the little tool bag.  AWESOME!!  (I love tools, can you tell?)

I get back with the tools, "Man I'm glad she thought of these!" I think as we continue.  We quickly get the old cabinets down and out to the garage.  The new cabinets go in.  It looks great! Now we are moving along.

The Sink:

I've never liked dealing with plumbing.  I absolutely HATE the idea of missing something and having a leak that won't go away or worse be hidden until you have tremendous damage.  I knew that moving to 'Plan C' required me to do more than my swapping the faucet and drain.

I remove the old sink, drain, disposal AND this gigantic filter/expansion tank.  Then the fun starts. I go to remove the cabinet.  NO, can't do that.  Whoever installed this cabinet decided to arrange the pipe so that it's through the cabinet and then makes a 90-degree turn down where the valve is.

OK, I decide to turn the water to the house and just saw off the end of the pipe where the valves are to get the cabinet out.  (Yes, there was probably a better plan but isn't there always.)  OK, we are moving forward again.  We just can't use the bathroom.  Luckily for me, this house uses that plastic pipe (PVC) for it's plumbing.  Not the best pipe to use for plumbing but very durable and usable.  PLUS, I learned how to deal with this stuff growing up on a farm.  If it had been copper I would have been in a fix since I have yet to learn how to do that.  I get the old cabinet out and repair the water lines so we can put valves back onto the ends.  One little thing, have to wait 6 hours for the glue to totally set up...  We made it.  Not the most fun afternoon.

Stay tuned.....

The Kitchen... Day 1...

So we move home - GREAT.  First thing, find somewhere to live.  For those of you who don't know Franklin, it's a rather small town.  There aren't that many apartments. And we were on a tight time frame. OH, and did I mention that my wife was still in PA and I did all the looking?  This meant meeting our Agent, going to the house, taking lots of pictures and emailing them to her.  Some times with a very crude layout of the floor plan using that lovely Paint program in Windows.

Anyway, after many nights looking at photos while talking over long-distance and discussions of the pros and cons of house A over house B, we finally decide.  Yes, this house wasn't exactly what we wanted.  But it had a lot of what we did want.  One level (old knees don't like stairs), all brick, nice level yard, nice neighborhood.  Yes, this will do.  We know due to some of the circumstances of our purchase that we will have to do a few things here and there.  No problem.  We've done small stuff here and there.  We can do this.

Our first big project is the Kitchen: (don't you love that wallpaper!!)

Needless to say, the lovely wallpaper and the nice off-shoot cabinet there at the end just seemed to give me a sense of extreme claustrophobia with just a hint of vertigo.

At first we thought, well we can just move that one cabinet, and put the refrigerator there.  Yeah, that would work.  And we would replace that cabinet there on the end with a book-shelf.  And we'll take out that corner cabinet without a lazy susan in it too.  Why in the world would someone install a corner cabinet with no lazy susan in it! What were they thinking?  Have they not SEEN HGTV?

Minor stuff!!  We could definitely knock this out in a weekend.  I have tools!  I have the Home-Depot 1-2-3 Do-It-Yourself guide from 1995!  We can do this.

Saturday comes.  We get up early (no later than 8:30 or 9:00 am).  We are excited.  Our new kitchen will be so cool!  We take everything out of the cabinets.  We put on our work gloves.  "Honey", I said "time to take down some cabinets!"

I get up on the ladder, I get my trusty Black-N-Decker cordless drill. I'll write about my wanting to build a statue to the person who invented the electric screwdriver another time.  Let's just say that person is high on my list.

But back to the story, I get on the ladder with my trusty electric screw-driver.  The wife is there ready to grab the cabinet as it comes loose.  We are a well choreographed team of home-improvement pros.  Oh, this isn't our first go-around.  Remind me to tell you about the "Tile" project.

Down comes the first cabinet.  SWEET!  It was SO EASY!!  We can do this.  We'll have this done in no time. So we get the cabinet down where the 'book-case' will be.

Plan B:

Well, the book-case wasn't going to work out like we hoped.  No big deal we can work around it.  We take out the corner cabinet under where the book case was to be.   We are going to slide that cabinet on the other side of the kitchen into this spot.

"Wait a minute..."  "This isn't going to work.."  "Wait we measured this!" "We thought about this!"

Plan C:

Well, the cabinets weren't going to go in as smoothly as we thought.  Plus in the original plan, that's Plan A - subsection b - amendment 2.43 for those keeping up, actually said we were going to have to buy a cabinet for that spot there...

We stop and think it over again.

"You know, these cabinets ARE in pretty bad shape anyway." I said.

"Yeah I wanted to paint them anyway, I hate that shade of oak anyway." she said.

"Well since you were going to paint them anyway, why not just get some of those unfinished ones at Lowes like "Ken" and "Barbie"*?   (*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)  I said.

"Yeah, that would just be better.  That way they will match and we don't have to search over high-and-low for just the right thing."

"Good plan."  I said and went to get the measuring tape.

Well, we need 2 of these, one of those, one that is 18-inches, one that is 36 inches....  We got the paper out and sketched it out.  We talked over what we wanted.   I measured.  She measures.  I measure again.  She measures again.  You have heard of that old rule 'measure twice-cut once'?  Yeah, something like that.

We head out to Lowe's.  They have 3 styles that we can buy off the shelf.  One that is the basic-basic.  One is the same color but different style to what we had.  But the third.  Yes, the third was perfect!  It was a nice dark wood, it was sturdy, it was perfect.  We get what we need and head back to the homestead.

Stay tuned.....

You just know it's going to be a great day when....

You tip-toe out of the bedroom after getting all of your stuff, get to the living room, and drop your shirt into a big pile of cat-hair.

Then, after using 3 sheets on the lint-roller to get it off every inch of fabric (that stuff gets everywhere), you start to work only to find the blower fan isn't working.  No Air conditioning.

THEN, you get about 10 feet from your desk and realize you left your coffee in the truck.

The to-do list and other musings.

Well, so what is happening. We've been in the new house a few months now. We have also decided that we are NOT waiting for a few years this time before we do 'all those projects'. So, so far, the Kitchen (new appliances, new washer/dryer, new cabinets-sink-faucet, light fixtures. So far we haven't gotten the floor yet, but it's in a "as soon as we find the right thing" status.

I have to admit, I've kind of enjoyed moving back to Franklin. I wanted to move closer to home. PA was a great experience and met some great friends I hope to have forever. But home is home. I really like being around my family. Yes, we have our issues like every family. But it's family. I am not sure I had the appreciation I have now if we hadn't moved to PA for a while.

I got to go to the FIRST nephew birthday party. Yes, it's not much but it was AWESOME. I know I'm a little biased, but my nephews are so cute, and funny, and such a joy. Yes, they can be too much some times. But hey, they are only acting their age. Pure, innocent, curious.

I sometimes wish I could go back and learn it again. I wonder what type of man I would be today. That is not to say I'm not proud of the man I am. I am self sufficient. I have probably the best wife a man could ask for. I have friends who care about me, and that I care about.

The only thing I really wish I could have changed, is who I lost while I was in PA. No, I'm not saying that if I hadn't move it would have changed anything. But it doesn't remove the big hole I have. I won't type more on that, it just makes me cry.