...seriously, I'll wait for you to pour a glass of wine or settle into your jammies.
Saturday morning the madness began after trips to the gym for our hero and to ballet for our heroine. We arrived at Garvin to find the crew having completed laying the tile in the entryway, the kitchen, the laundry room and everywhere else that they had already done it. Long story short, all the tile was in place and ready to grout. On top of it all being done, it meant that we got to take stuff back to the tile store. Unpossible!
In case you didn't see it yesterday, here's what that looks like.
Figure 1. Yeah, it's dirty, so what, we're not done yet.
Figure 2. Kitchen tile in place
Figure 3. It doesn't look much different when it has grout. ...or does it? You'll have to wait and see
Figure 4. Good grief, I think we know what the tile looks like now, ok?
Of course, while the hired guns were busy, we were also getting our hands dirty trying to burn the house down doing some electrical work. After removing the big-growy from the entrance light, we thought it'd be appropriate to replace the broken, dangling top with a new one. The new lantern is displayed in all of its fully-functional glory below.
Figure 5. New Lantern that really does work, I swear
Having dusted off our electrical skills we moved from the swamp like outdoors to work inside, where it was hot and muggy as hell with even less breeze. There, we installed a couple boob lights in the laundry room and master bathroom. We figured we'd splurge and let the crew have some light in the rooms that they were working.
Figure 6. One of the boob lights. Proof that our electrical skills are (mostly) functional, too! The other one looks just like this, but in the laundry room.
It was just after this that I was bragging to everyone that we were the best electricians on the planet that we decided to hang one of the fancy lights in the closet. Yeah, it's not fancy, but it's not a boob light, so I'm calling it fancy. We got a little careless (relax, Ma) and were doing the wiring here without shutting off the breakers (sit down, Ma, we're fine). Well, we slipped up a bit and the hot wire touched the base of the light and arced, scaring the bo-jeezus out of Wife (hi Wife!) and bringing our hired help over to make sure I didn't need new underpants (we're both fine, Ma, and I didn't, thanks). With that little hiccup out of the way, we shut off the breaker and proceeded, despite having burned a hole in the base. Shh, no one will ever see it and it gives it a little character, anyway. Either way, I'll let you, the reader, be the judge of whether or not this is worth the eleveneteen pictures that Wife took of this.
Figure 7. The searing ball of death!
Figure 8. See, you can't even see the damage, but look at the fancy lighting.
Figure 9. Seriously, three pictures of one light. I'm not that good a writer.
With lighting in place the crew was able to grout the tile work. Ta da!
Figure 10. The front tiles don't look much different with the grout, but it's done, I promise.
Figure 11. Another view of the same stuff. Bor-RING.
Figure 12. Not sure what this is supposed to show you.
This just about wrapped it up for the day. ...for the paid help. But do you think Kelly and I quit just because it was late, we were hot and sweaty and completely disgusting? Well, Kelly wanted to, but I'm a slave driver and the crew thought they'd be ready for cabinets so we went to Ikea to spec out a kitchen. Now, Ikea isn't my favorite place, but they certainly didn't deserve the funk that I unleashed on that showroom and those poor employees. I think the cloud was visible from greater than 50 feet. Despite this, the kind folks stayed well past closing to help us spend more than should be appropriate for people of our station in life.
Seeing as how it was 11:30 at night, with a full day's work behind us, it was time to head BACK TO GARVIN TO KEEP WORKING. Ok, not entirely true, but given the chance of sudden downpour, we considered it best to drop off the massive load of flat-packed crap that we bought. But first, shout out to the under-appreciated 1997 Ford Ranger, woot, WOOT!
Figure 13. Look at that, didn't think it was possible, didya?
Figure 14. Gratuitous booty shot!
Figure 15. Figured I'd throw in a 3/4 shot for the auto magazine readers out there.
With the drastic overhang of the toe-kicks and complete overloading of the capacity of the truck itself, we were likely at least as unsafe as some of the drunks on I-4 en route to the house.
Having unloaded all that, we called it a day as we watched Sunday roll in. By the end of it all, Kelly was OVER IT!
This would be a good opportunity to refresh your beverage and settle in before Sunday's activities are recapped.
...I'll wait.
Please put your phones away or on silent, thanks!
After such a trying Saturday, I thought it'd be nice to have breakfast in bed, but Kelly didn't cook me anything so we both got up. Oh well.
By the time we got to Garvin, the guys were doing some plumbing work to reconnect the spigot in the backyard. I'm not sure they were expecting so much flat packed loot when we told them that we'd be bringing cabinets for the day's work. Feeling confused, they decided to attack some very important features of the bathroom, namely the vanities and the toilets. The neighbors are likely the most pleased that we have a functioning toilet as it means that, well, I won't go there, but let's just leave it at the fact that they're probably grateful.
Figure 16. The throne awaits!
You may also notice that the master vanity is in place. You would be correct. The guys also trimmed out the floor moulding with some quarter round and touched up a few other odds and ends. It's almost really done, really, almost! Really!
While Kelly went to get a few more supplies (lollygagging, probably), the three of us that were left attempted to piece together the vanity for the guest bathroom and were mildly successful. Turns out that our finely crafted pieces were off by a smidge in a few spots. But, it too is getting closer to home:
Figure 17. This is kinda like those pirate-ships-in-a-bottle. I mean, it shouldn't fit in there. ...but it does!
But, while all that was going on, some decent, legitimate, real, tangible progress was made attacking the cardboard monster from Ikea. We made a serious dent in the cabinets and assembled most of the lowers.
Figure 18. Yeah, so no doors, tops, backs, whatever. Stop picking nits!
By the time we made all that progress we were pretty well wo' out and it was time to get some food. In the next couple of days we'll continue to evaluate the appliance situation, doing some more trim work, paint, yadda yadda yadda.
Either way, it's a whole lot closer now than it was a week ago. ...and with that, it's time for me to hit the sack, cause I'm TIRED!
