Final Kitchen Photos

The project is not technically finished. . .we still have contractors letting themselves in with no notice at all hours of the day (note: the dogs LOVE that), but we have a usable kitchen!

We passed final inspection last week, after we failed the first one. There was a problem with the hood, which is actually commercial grade and requires a separate breaker. I should have suspected there might be an issue when I turned it on and it sounded like a 747 was landing in my living room. Don't get me wrong--this thing is awesome--but it required just a little more electrical work than expected.

These are the pictures taken by the cabinetmakers--we never got a chance to take a "finished product" shot, since the movers came at the same time as final installation was occuring. We're very pleased with the results--it was a pain in the ass to get here, but worth it!

Nolong

As a colleague of mine put it: In the race between the contractors and the contractions, the contractions won by a long shot!

So, if you haven't heard, our little Xmas baby surprised us by arriving on Thanksgiving! Nolan Christopher Long was born 11/21 at 12:35 am. Despite being 5 weeks early, he is in perfect health and did not have to spend any extra time in the hospital. Pictures are up here and here. Margie and John have christened the kid with his official Long handle: Nolong.

Because the timing was awesome, Nolan was ready to come home before the floors were ready to be dry. Finishing was happening at the same time, and the smell was overwhelming even for adults, so we checked into the Four Seasons for a few days. We are home now, and the kitchen is nearly complete. Stay tuned for a post on the kitchen.

OMG! My Kitchen is a Kitchen!!

I came home today to discover that my first floor is now a LIVING SPACE, no longer a WORK SITE!! All the garbage and shit is cleaned up, the paper covering is off the floors, and the appliances are mostly installed. It actually looks like my house again. Check out the photos--they're a little dark because the lights haven't been installed in the kitchen yet.

Of course, the big challenge is still the floors. Floor guy is blaming the wood once again for delays--which is convenient since it can't defend itself. The boards are installed, but now they need to sit again. Uh, didn't they just sit for 2 f'ing weeks? If this wood sits around any longer it's going to have to go on welfare.

Paint and Tile

The tile backsplash has been mostly installed. There's still a weird little section that's not finished, and it looks like they have some grouting to do. Also, it looks like someone was having fun stacking little plastic buckets on the counter.

They have simultaneously been painting the room. The paint is Benjamin Moore Harvest Gold, which sounds like a hideous appliance color from the 70's, but the color looks great in the room. It's pretty close to what was in there before, but is a little richer and warmer. I love that the way the painted soffits look against the white ceiling.

Granite

What was formerly known as the biggest project bottleneck, the granite countertops, are now installed! Here are some kind of dark pictures of the counters. They look much better in the daylight, the stone is flecked with blue eyes that show up if you look at it from an angle.

The honor of biggest remodel pain in the ass now goes to. . .THE FLOORS! For some reason the wood is not acclimating to the house. Don't even ask me what that means, but $200 worth of space heaters are down there trying to suck every last bit of moisture out of it as we speak. I am hoping that they can actually start installing the shit in a few days.

Floor Genesis

Work on the floors has begun. The contractors put the plywood down in the media room, to even out the bare concrete floor that was under the carpet. It looks a little like a shooting rampage happened in there. . .the floor is littered with .22 caliber casings. Seems appropriate for Halloween.

Whatever you do. . .

Don't lose your iphone. And not just because it's expensive--you will spend days trying to get the goddamn thing working again. I love my iphone, but all the SPECIALNESS makes it a complete pain in the ass to deal with if there is a problem.

I stupidly left mine on a plane, and a very nice gate agent rescued it, but I think I have spent about 5 hours total trying to get mobile again. In two days. Because if you read this blog, you know I don't really have anything else going on, right??

Monday, 3pm. Lose phone. Call ATT and ask them to suspend service. This they can do, but you lose all voicemail and access to the number. Fine. Also, I learned that once a SIM card is killed, it stays dead forever. No resurrecting or reusing.

Monday, 5 pm. Find old phone-- Samsung BlackJack-- which is an ATT branded product, and was previously registered to the same number, same network, everything. Yes, phone can be reactivated, but I have to bring it to an ATT store and pay $40 for a new SIM.

Monday night, 7pm. At ATT store. Get new SIM. Have to totally change mobile and data plan because iphone is SPECIAL and Samsung IS NOT. Phone appears to function.

Tuesday, 10am. Voicemail is not working. Gives busy signal instead. Call ATT and explain problem. They tell me that iphone has SPECIAL visual voicemail, so they need to turn that off and give me the NON-SPECIAL voicemail instead. Am perplexed as to why I was told all about how my data and calling plan had to change at the store, but they neglected to flag the more important issue of totally different voicemail requirements. 11am, fixed.

Tuesday, 3pm. Recover phone from airport. Totally unrelated clusterfuckiness ensues, but we don't hold Apple and ATT responsible, but rather UNITED. Am very tired of dealing with the issue so put off reactivating iphone until tomorrow.

Wednesday, 8am. Turn iphone on, tells me SIM card is not valid. Call ATT, who tell me just put the card from the Blackjack in, and everything will be great! Great! You know where this is going, right? Voicemail still no worky!

Wednesday, 9am. Call ATT to explain ongoing voicemail problem. They walk me through resetting the voicemail, and they supposedly re-enable visual voicemail, again with plan changes for SPECIAL phone.

Wednesday, 10:00am. OMGWTF voicemail still not working!! Come back to my desk to discover 4 missed calls, all from people I know would leave voicemail. I call the phone myself, and get a message asking me to re-enter the phone number I am trying to call. Fuck, call ATT AGAIN. This time get one useless tech after another, including an escalation rep who got pissy because I actually had a better grasp on the use of the phone than she did (and I am a tech idiot, where are they finding these people??)

10:30 am. Transferred to India, I mean Apple. Get a rep named Kim who asks me right out the gate "Are you familiar with our AppleCare program?" Probably not the best time to upsell, Kim. 40 minutes later and multiple test calls later, the problem is fixed. To her and Apple's credit, Kim is the most competent person I have spoken with so far. She sounds really relieved once the problem is resolved. I think she knew I was about 10 minutes from postal.

To recap: Still love my iphone, but am really questioning my devotion to it after spending 4-5 hours trying to get it working properly. For a product that prides itself on usability and out-of-the-box easiness, this is just stupid. I just hope the next time I hear the little Marimba ring tone it doesn't send me into pre-term labor or something.