Construction here continues at a slow pace while the Purple Whale racks up miles at a fast pace, 30,000 miles in about 22 months.
Because the kitchen is a mess and unusable yesterday we had a rare weekday trifecta of dining out. Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, natch. Lunch at Betsy’s on the Corner and dinner at Cracker Barrel.
A little bit of sheet rock, a tangled mess of wires and still no grout on the floor and they were here until around 7:00 PM tonight. Looks like to me they still have at least another day to button this up. I don’t see how they can start hanging cabinets tomorrow.
At a local high school, a group of students decided to play a prank by letting three goats loose inside the school. But before turning them loose, they painted the numbers 1, 2, and 4 on the sides of the goats.
School administrators spent the rest of the day looking for a goat with a 3 on its side.
Our cabinets were scheduled to arrive between 1 and 5:00 PM today, so Donna and I took the afternoon off so that we could be here when they arrived. We thought, that like the dishwasher when it was delivered, we would get a half hour final call to let us know they were on the way. We left work at 11:30, parked at our bank and turned on the cell phone. We went inside and cashed a check, then walked the 4 blocks to Betsy’s on the Corner for lunch. On our way back to the car we made a quick stop at the new candy store in downtown.
It was now a little after one, so we headed home to change clothes and do some running around in LA (Lower Aiken. AKA the south side of town.) When we got to our street there were no trucks in front of our house. Uh, oh. Did our contractor have another reason not to show up for the third day in a row. We were pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen in shambles as he had been here and was knee deep in the wiring process. Must be at lunch. Off to Lowe’s we go. We are eyeballing wallpaper and borders for the dining room and curtains for the living room and dining room. Hey, got to spend the big gift card on something.
After Lowe’s we were going to go to the library to kill some more time and await the call, but seeing as home was sort of on the way, decided to drive by and see if there were any trucks in front of the house now. As we headed up the street before you turn onto our street we ended up behind a big Budget Rental truck. Both Donna and I simultaneously said to each other, “I wonder if those are our cabinets?” Sure enough the truck turned onto our street and started slowly creeping its way along with its flashers on. We hung the first left and drove the circle around the back way and came out in front of our house as the truck was slowly pulling to a stop there too.
Never did get that final warning call.
A whole lotta wiring going on.
With all the back and forth of cabinet choices (location, specifications, color, etc.) we didn’t get around to ordering them until the 18th of January. This turned out to be a good thing as Lowes, along with the $1300 discount we got, added a promotion on the 17th that gave you a gift card for 10% of your total cabinet order. Of course it was for 10% off after they took the $1300 off, but I was taught never to look a gift horse in the mouth.
We asked the cabinet guy if it was a Lowes gift card and he said, “No, it’s a Visa gift card. You can use it anywhere.” Cool, we thought, that’ll cover the cost of a new convertible top for the Emperor. The top has got a few major blemishes, a few minor blemishes and a few minor places where the top layer of fabric has worn down to the lining. No leaks yet, but…
Got two envelopes in the mail today with the word Lowes on the top line of the return address. One was to let us know we were pre-approved for a Lowes Visa credit card and the other was a gift card for 10% of our cabinet purchase – on a Lowes gift card.
Trying hard not to stare at the equine periodontia.
No work again today, the contractor’s kid is sick and he has to stay home and play caregiver. Obviously the wife has the job that requires good attendance, probably because it supplies the medical insurance.