The Kitchen Project - Part 3 Nearing Completion

Well, we're getting close to the end. Most everything is installed except for a couple of problems with cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Two of the doors are the wrong size and two of the drawer fronts are missing. It will probably take about 10 days to get them. The granite installation went amazingly well. The granite contractor and his people really know what they are doing. The biggest remaining problems have to do with appliances. We can't seem to get a new dishwasher for love or money. The latest excuse is the Federal government's appliance "clunker" program. The story is that California is the only state that did not include dishwashers for the program Thus, California's allotment of dishwashers from the manufacturers was reassigned to other states. The salesman claims that the Northern California district for Frigidaire has over 300 dishwashers on back order! I wonder! The other problem is a real ghost in the machine issue. One of the heating elements on the cook top turns itself on automatically and you can't turn it off. Another of the heating elements turns off automatically after about 30 seconds. We have been getting the royal runaround for about two weeks. Now a new cook top is supposedly on order. We'll see. We would switch brands, but the opening in the granite is too large for our second choice, GE Profile. My advice is to avoid Electrolux. Here are some photos of the current state.

CHANGEABLE AND EXTRA SONGS 1: ends -- Heidi's Performance Art

Well, being a stepmother is teaching me quite a few interesting things.  But maybe none so interesting as what I'm learning about performance art.  Heidi came home last week looking for "old sheets, an axe and a saw."  Well, today is the realization of her planning -- a performance art piece where she and her partner saw wood for 12 hours.  They started at 6 this morning, and will have an open exhibit at 7 PM tonight.  We get to "see the remantns and hear the sonic record of their work."

This should be fun!

The Kitchen Project, Part 2 - The Big Mess

Well, as you can see from the pictures, the Kitchen Project is well underway. All of the demolition is finished, so we can now get going on installation. The granite counter tops are supposed to be delivered and installed on Wednesday. The new cabinet doors and new drawers are scheduled for next Friday. In the top picture, the shiny thing is the new refrigerator. It's already in place because we're having a new enclosure built for the fridge so the contractor wanted it in place to be sure it fits. This is the second fridge. The first fridge only got cold in the freezer, not the refrigerator part. The error code was something like 5Y-RN, which the manufacturer said meant there was in internal communication error. We are prisoners of our technology! But, the new one has been in place since Tuesday and seems to be working fine. Now we are on to the most difficult part of the whole process, picking door knobs and drawer pulls. This is one area where the world would be better off with fewer choices!