The Kitchen that ate my life...and my bank account.

Tomorrow is the day that I meet with Rona and the rep from NHB (the kitchen cabinet manufacturer) and work out the financials of my kitchen. I'm going in loaded for bear and hope to recoup some of the extra costs that I have had to incur because of their incompetence.

They are coming to my home tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM to do a "walk-through". I am assuming this is to ensure that I didn't install two kitchens or any extras from all of the bits and pieces that arrived and had to be sent back or exchanged or reordered. No problem. When they arrive they will find a kitchen (almost) identical to the to-scale drawings I provided them at the beginning of this fiasco. The only reason that they are not identical is because, a few of the items that were ordered incorrectly, we finally caved to, and installed anyway rather than wait another six weeks for the proper one to arrive.

Last word from my contractor was that they said they were already a few hundred dollars in the red for the items. This does not break my heart since my extra expenses are in the thousands.

In some ways I just want this to be over. Finish already and get the hell out of my house. But I don't want to give in just to have it over. They cost me money, they caused me stress, they caused an epic inconvienince and there are days, weeks, months that I will never get back.

How do you put a price on not being able to entertain, not being able to throw a birthday party for your child, not being able to accomodate a visit from family members or friends, not being able to sit anywhere in your house except your bed to eat or have a cup of coffee, not having running water or anything to prepare food for weeks. What is the price tag for all of that? (and more) I'm not sure, but I intend to try tomorrow and with any luck I can finally put all of this behind us and start living my life again.

Cross your fingers for me.

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to wish one of my favourite people on the planet a Happy Birthday! Jules, have a great day and know that you are being held close to our hearts today.

Kitchen Renovation Update...

I have been avoiding the blog lately. The renovation of my kitchen has had me in a blue funk for so long that I decided that I didn't want to burden you with the depressing details. But, alas, progress has finally been made.

A majority of the counters have now been installed. The plumber is due today to hook up my sink and dishwasher. I will finally have running water in my kitchen once again. No more paper plates or washing dishes in the bath tub. Hooray!

The natural gas technician should be coming tomorrow to hook up my stove top and fireplace and to check out my furnace. The roof got shingled. The skylight was replaced. (Not without some drama when they realized that the one they ordered was the wrong size.)

My contractors are off this week to go deer hunting. God, don't you love it when deer hunting takes presidence over finishing a renovation? They should be back on Monday and if all goes well...the hard wood should be finished in the diningroom and hallway, the painting should be finished, the desk area will be installed, the granite counter guy will be back to finish installing the rest of the counters, the light fixtures will be put in place and I can think about moving some of my furniture back in.

And all of this has only taken...about three months. It should have taken six weeks.

The hardwood in the bedrooms will be postponed until later. We will clear and paint each room one at a time and then have the contractor come in for a day to lay the flooring. We have decided to renovate our walkin closet by installing units for storage and god help us, we have already decided to re-do both bathrooms.

We have met with Rona to discuss all of the many, many items that have gone wrong and will negotiate our final payment for all of our cabinets once the kitchen is finished. I have only begun making their lives miserable to compensate for the chaos that we have been forced to live in. I'm not sure if they fully appreciate how calm and reserved I've been to date. Cross your fingers for me and let's hope that all of the delays are now a thing of the past.

The kid will finally get his belated birthday party and if all goes well we plan to hold a house warming party in the first part of December. There will be a gathering of good friends, great food and many martinis. Finally something to really look forward to. Hope to see all of you there.