progress!

So Jeff and I worked on the house Saturday from 9-8, and then today from 10-6. We are very tired, but we did a lot of good things. The countertop is officially on and fits. The hole for the sink was officially cut. The sink is officially installed. The plumbing is mostly done, except for an old ass broken pipe (the drain pipe between the sink and the basement) that needs a plumber to get it undone so we can replace it (as the top part cracked as it is so old and nasty). To get this far took a lot of work.

Part 1: countertop didn't fit, have to trim countertop. Fits.

Part 2: countertop fits end to end, but the backsplash blocks 1/2 of each outlet on the wall. Have to move outlets. Took all week (involving demoing part of wall, rebuilding wall, rerunning electrical).

Part 3: countertop fits end to end and doesn't block backsplash, but NOW the front to back is such that the backsplash juts out so far that the sink (well, at this point we haven't cut for sink yet, but measuring tell us) won't fit as the front of sink basin will just into front of cabinet.

Part 4: drive to Lewiston, imagine they make narrower sinks and Home Depot will sell them. No dice. This is Friday night, and we give up and have dinner at a wacky pizza place in Clarkston--pizza w/ mustard instead of tomato sauce, canadian bacon, yum yum yum. Bud in mugs. Good.

Part 5: realize we have to make countertop narrower, rent belt sander and Jeff spends an hour Saturday morning hunched over the countertop and sands an inch off the backsplash. Countertop finally fits!!!

Part 6: measure a million times for the sink hole. finally get it lined up. Cut hole for sink.

Part 7: get countertop (w/ Ruth's help) on cabinets, do some more beltsanding to get sink hole big enough. It fits! Happy dances! Oh crap, for some reason the standard sized sink screws won't fit between our sink and countertop. Give up. Sleep.

Part 8: Jeff does a bunch of plumbing. We visit hardware stores around lunchtime today, realize they don't make bigger sink screw contraptions. Jeff comes up w/ very creative solution. It works.

Part 9: Finally get sink screwed down. Plumbing mostly in. Test. Wait a second, the hot comes from the left pipe, not the right. Plumbed backwards. Hilarity. Thankfully an easy fix (just a quick switch) which will be done tomorrow.

Part 10: Eat frozen pasties. Look forward to vacation.

So yeah, that's the countertop debacle--we totally thought it would be easy and we've been messing w/ the sucker for a week now. But, it's pretty much done and it looks really nice. The before and after pic looks funny right now because we don't have the doors on the bottom yet, we're going to be doing a tile backsplash after we move in (so you're looking at old laminate glue from where we tore that off), and we still haven't had time for the floors. We realized it won't be too hard to do once we're in because all we have to do is move the stove and fridge which are rolly. It might happen before we leave on Thursday, but I'm kind of doubting it.

The electrician comes tomorrow to wire up the disposal (which we also put in), the dishwasher (which we also put in) and to give us a bathroom fan and outlet (which 1940s houses apparantly don't have). Tralala. So so sleepy.

Ok, a sort of strange before and after--think of not as after but as "in progress."





and the working man....


Goodnight everyone. Probably no updates for awhile...unless those floors magically get in before we leave.