A Silver Lining

I thought this day would never come--we have a start date for the kitchen!  Yay!  I'm so relieved.  It's taken us so long to get to this point, but we met with our carpenter and September 5th is the day.  Soon the dream kitchen will be a reality and not some distant figment of our imagination.  That also means that we will be moving in soon.  FINALLY.  I am almost afraid to believe it because so many things have gone wrong.  It's looking like we will be moving in by the end of October.

We're making good use of our weekend by getting some things accomplished.  A new slab of Valley White granite has been shipped from India and we went to the store to approve the selection.  We got a sample of the slab so we can match up paint colors and decide on a backsplash.  We chose a stainless D-shaped sink and are considering two different edge profile upgrades.  Although the rarer granite itself that we chose wasn't as expensive as I originally thought, the upgrades are much more spendy than I thought so we will have to weigh our decision carefully.  I want to be budget conscious, but I also do not want to regret any shortcuts we take. 

We have selected paint tones for the kitchen, dining, and living rooms.  We still have to purchase small sample cans of paint to make the final decision.  I've been scouring Ebay for good deals on lighting.  I'm bidding on a vintage chandelier from the 1920s that would be perfect in our house of the same age.  I really hope I win the auction because the piece is so unique; I've never seen anything like this.

Another Flood

Well it won't be too hard to move into the new house if we stay here much longer--we may have nothing left to move!  Two floods in 3 months while living in this rental.  This time it wasn't the garage, but the basement.  We've been having plumbing problems and the landlord was here trying to fix them when a pipe sprung a leak.  What a pain in the you know what.  There is an air leak in the system (which means the water pressure was pitifully low and the water would cut off while we were showering).  It also made us have to run dishes through the dishwasher 2-3 times. 

Thank goodness it wasn't worse than it was.  So I had to unpack boxes.  AGAIN.  Now I have to get more boxes again, spend time recovering my poor back again.  I couldn't reach Jeff on the phone to come home and help me, so I either had to let the water further seep into the boxes, or move them out of the flooded room and epmpty the contents and dry them off.  What a mess. 

On a positive note our carpenter is able to start the kitchen work in the middle of September rather than later.  Yes this is good news.  While Jeff was comparison shopping he picked up other jobs so he couldn't start Aug. 1 like we had planned.  I can't wait to get the heck outta here!

Faucets

Buying a faucet for your kitchen sink is more complicated than I thought.  After research I have decided that a candy cane style faucet will work best for me.  I like the style of this one:

Photo from faucetsdirect.com

I want to buy one that is great quality, but I would like it to look similar to this one.  We want to protect our investment in really high quality cabinetry.  I want one that has a pull-down sprayer held in place by a magnet, a single control, and an arc that swivels.  One hole to put in the granite will be nice too, and this will be easy to clean around.  The faucets where I am now have all the components all crowded together and it makes cleaning reallyt difficult.  I've actually used dental floss to clean them, which isn't ideal. 

I like the polished nickel finish--this will match the cabinet hardware and other accessories in the kitchen.  I am still deciding between a single basin rectangular sink or a D-shaped one.

Tree Trouble

Remember the gigantic tree in our new yard?  The historical registry White Oak tree dating back to the Civil War?  The one I was so proud of?  Bad news. 

We noticed that it wasn’t looking as healthy as it should be, so we called two different tree experts to have a look and offer their professional opinion.  Both concurred that the tree is dying from the inside out and it must come downL  I am so sad about this.  This tree was the major curb appeal of this property, and it was the first thing I noticed when we made an appointment to see the house.  It’s such a shame. 

Since the tree is so colossal it poses a grave danger should any dead limbs fall on the street or in the yard--or multiple neighbors' yard.  In fact, they will have to hire traffic controllers to stop traffic on the road just to remove it.  We got two estimates—one is about $5,000 and the other $8, 920.00