The counter top dudes were right on time this morning. Laid cardboard all over the kitchen floor and drop cloths from the door to the kitchen. They started in cutting the plywood and screwing it into place. After they finished with the screws, one of the guys grabbed a sander and started grinding out half-moon circles around the screw holes, which caused sparks to fly everywhere. It looked like the Fourth of July in the kitchen.
I had to double check the refrigerator to make sure there were no burn marks on it from the sparks.
Somehow, through all the madness of today, I managed to write three offers for clients. Two for one buyer and an offer for a buyer I showed homes to last week. She called me out of the blue and wanted to write an offer. I could not drop what I was doing -- having to supervise and all -- so I quickly prepared the paperwork, emailed it to my transaction coordinator at Lyon, she printed it out, the clients came in and signed, and then she emailed me the signed offer along with a FAX copy of their deposit check. Thank goodness for technology, huh
What I want to know is just how many cell phones does one guy need? See the guy on the left? Looks like he has three of them. They are busy drilling holes into the quartz for the Danze Parma prewash faucet and the airgap. I was a bit confused when I looked at the faucet. I've never seen anything like it. The only apparatus that seems to go down the hole are the two connectors for the hot and cold. I made the guys show me that everything would actually fit into the holes when they were finished. Can't be too careful, you know.
I put my Somali in here because he wants to be in the limelight, too. It's not fair that Pia and Pica hog all the kitty photos. He turned 17 last month and is suffering from kidney disease, which seems to come and go, according to his blood level readings. He spends most of his time in a 4 x 4 pen, but I let him out at night and in the mornings. He's much happier in the pen now that I've moved it from the sunroom into the family room. After the remodel is finished, I will probably leave him in the family room. He doesn't like to be isolated.
Here is the photo of one side of the kitchen with the counter tops installed. The sink is an undermount. They didn't really need to adjust the sink at all. It seemed to be in the perfect spot, and it was level, so they installed the counter top around it. I caught one of the dudes actually measuring the distance from the floor to the top of the plywood where the dishwasher goes. That made me feel a lot better and less anxious about the install, because it was a sign of professionalism
Here is a close-up of the quartz. It is made by Cambria, a design called Windsor. I felt it was timeless, and not as blaring or loud as some of those swirly designs you see in older homes, which seem so out of place. Plus, the colors were picked up by my cabinets and flooring. I opted for the square-cut edges over rolled because that design seemed to fit better with the style of my Land Park home. Quartz is a natural stone, resistant to scratches and heat resilient. It holds up better than granite and is more expensive than granite. My personal opinion is granite is sort of trendy and I'd hate to walk into my home in 10 years and sigh, "Oooo, so 2008."
And here is the problem. You probably can't see it very well, but in the center is a green blotch. That is the green grounding screw on my dishwasher. Since the dishwasher wasn't delivered in time for the electricians to hook up the cord, I decided to do it myself. I know that the ribbed wire is neutral and the smooth is hot. I hooked those up with no problem. But the grounding wire needs to be attached to the grounding screw. Under the grounding screw is a small flat plate with little feet. I imagine the point is to wrap the wire around the screw under the plate and tighten the screw to the plate.
The problem is the screw will only turn a few times and then it stops. It does not tighten down to the plate. I thought perhaps it was in crooked, so I have removed it a number of times, reinserted it and tried to tighten the screw. It just won't budge past a few turns, even with all my strength bearing down on the screw.
Now, I can call the electricians to come back out, but it seems so pointless for the tightening of a grounding screw. If push comes to shove tomorrow, I will have the plumber install the dishwasher, poke the cord through the hole into the cabinet with the receptacle and wait for the electricians to come back to attach the grounding wire to the grounding screw. I already sent the electrician a picture of this and am requesting help, so maybe it will be fixed before the plumber shows up tomorrow.
Wouldn't it be funny if the last thing I needed to do was held up because of a grounding screw?
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