Finally! Some real progress!

I am so excited! We actually have a fully functioning house! Everything in the kitchen works! Everything in the bathrooms work! Most everything is in our house! It's so wonderful!

Yesterday, the countertop people drilled the holes in the counters for the sink. Then, the plumbers came and hooked up the plumbing in the kitchen for the sink, the disposal, and for the dishwasher. I made dinner last night in my new, fully-functioning kitchen! :)

That's not to say that we are finished with the house. I finally found the right paint for the kitchen last night. Sherwin Williams had the right formula for the Slate Green paint that I wanted. So, we bought some and started painting the kitchen. It looks much better. I have to finish touching up the paint and finish painting one of the walls in the kitchen. I also have to do touch up paint on the walls where the baseboard heating was in the hallways. And then I have to do some cleaning. Then, I think we will be finished. :) It's so exciting!

I'm going to take some pictures tonight and I'll put them up hopefully tomorrow. I can't believe the end is in sight! Finally!

Other exciting news: Connecticut ruled in favor of gay marriage! Yay! One step back for California, but a huge step forward for Connecticut! :)

Closer

I don't really feel like blogging. That's why there hasn't been an update in the past few days. I get irritated and stressed out when I do an update. So, I decided to wait until some good things happened for me to do an update.

Friday, the countertops were promised to be in. They weren't. No one knew what was going on. We finally got a hold of someone. They promised that if they didn't make it Friday, it would be Saturday morning at the absolute latest. Well, the plumbers came to do the bathrooms and kitchen on Friday and since they couldn't do the kitchen (since there was no sink or countertops), they just left and didn't even do the bathrooms. I was not a happy camper. They came back on Saturday. Well, the countertops still did not arrive. No one would call us back. I was beyond pissed. But, the plumbers hooked up the bathrooms.

We got most everything moved in and I got a lot of organizing done. The house feels a lot more like home now.

The countertops were installed yesterday morning. Finally. They look okay. Not as good as I had hoped, but at least they are in. Unfortunately, the paint does not match. You might remember that Lowe's formula for Slate Green is incorrect. They give me a paint which is not Slate Green, but instead it is a yellowy green color. It's not good. So, I picked out another color a lot like Slate Green, but darker. I thought it would be okay, but it doesn't match the countertops. So, Joe and I are going to try to match the Slate Green color. We're hoping that Sherwin Williams can help us. ** Fingers Crossed **

The light fixtures in the kitchen and the bathrooms are supposed to be installed today. Also, the countertop people have to come drill the hole for our faucet because they didn't do it yesterday. They better get it done today. I'm sick of having to wait. We can't do the plumbing for the kitchen until they finish! Grrr...

But, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please, don't let a train come before I reach the end. :S

Another day, another problem... with the house.

Yesterday, the vanities were installed in the bathrooms. The one for the master bath is wrong. Of course it is. Because nothing can go right with this damn remodeling project. It was supposed to be a really dark brown wood. They sent us a really red wood. So, it doesn't match the rest of the bathroom. And, because they took over a week longer than they were supposed to, we now do not have time to get a new one in before the appraisal. So, we will have a beautiful bathroom with a vanity that does not match. Wonderful.

The countertops for the kitchen are being installed today. Finally. If they aren't right, I don't know what we will do. I'm just hoping that they are perfect. Just give us this one thing! Because that would be it. That would be the only thing that didn't have something go wrong. It's really hard to stay positive while remodeling. I get more depressed the longer it takes. Not just in that it's taking forever, but in that absolutely nothing has gone the way that it was supposed to.

Tomorrow, the plumbers are coming back to finish up. They have to hook up the sinks in the kitchen and the bathrooms.

I still have to finish painting the kitchen. I have to finish hanging the doors for all the rooms. I need to replace the handles for all of the doors. We have to have the locks changed for the house. And we still have to clean the entire house. We've been cleaning, but it will need more cleaning. And then we have to actually move in. Almost all of our stuff is still sitting in the garage. Yay.

I will never, ever do this again. EVER.

If you're ever thinking about remodeling a house...

DON'T DO IT! It's not worth the pain!

Buddy has promised us for the 537th time that today will be the last day and our tile will be finished today. I'm not holding my breath.

Rudy came out on Friday to set up the electrical on our hot water heater because the plumbers lied and didn't hook it up how they were supposed to. We now have hot water. However, the plumbers messed something up when they were working on our house and so our shower does not work. The sink and the toilet work, but the shower has no water running to it. They didn't call us back until today. They're going to try to fit us in today. If I have to pour water into my tub via Solo cups from the sink again tonight, someone is going to pay for it. Well, actually, I'm just going to take it out of their pay. For my suffering. People sue for those kinds of things all the time! :)

Also, we were paying the plumbers over $4,000 to replace all of the cast iron pipes under the house (~$2,000 for the pipes going into the house and ~$2,000 for the pipes going out of the house). They told Joe that they didn't replace a few of them because they were in such good shape, so they offerered to take a few hundred dollars off of the bill. First of all, we told them to replace all of the pipes no matter what condition they were in (cast iron will rust and deteriorate and PVC will not... we didn't want to have to worry about it down the line... just get it all over with now). And next, when the shower didn't work, Joe crawled under the house to check to see if they forgot to turn something on. They haven't replaced ANY of the pipes going out of the house. So, a few hundred dollars is not going to cut it. Try a discount of over $2,000. I think that they were counting on Joe not checking to see if the pipes were replaced! I mean, anyone could look and tell that they haven't been replaced. They are still cast iron instead of being PVC pipe! These plumbers are obvious crooks. Also, we paid them to install a shutoff valve in one of the closets because we didn't want to have to turn it off from under the house. Well, they installed one but it DOESN'T WORK!!! Why is everyone we hire so damn completely incompetent!?!?! It doesn't make any sense at all.

The house is a complete mess. It's covered in a thick film of dust from all of the work that's been done. I sweep and I dust and it just doesn't help. Our stuff is still sitting in the garage until everything is finished so that we can actually move in. That should be by this weekend. Should be. Of course, it should have been over 2 weeks ago that we SHOULD have been able to move in. But here we are. Still living out of boxes sitting in our garage.

Also, I decorated my house like crazy for Halloween and our neighbors promised lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. I bought over 30 pounds of candy. Good candy. We had 13 Trick-Or-Treaters. THIRTEEN. That is not lots and lots. I totally got jipped. And now I'm going to gain 10 pounds by eating that 30 lbs of candy. Hopefully it will make me feel better about the lack of Trick-Or-Treaters at my house. I also went to Walmart and got a lot of Halloween stuff half off on November 1. So, I will be prepared again next year and still hoping for lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. :)

Also, one of my bestest friends came to visit me yesterday. :) Everyone needs to go see the play that he's going on tour with for 14 months. You can go here to get tickets: http://www.annieontour.com.