| Blog: |
| Carine-what's cooking |
Topics: |
| family, humor, life |
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carine_Nadel
Friday, August 20, 2010
Who Won the Dishwasher Wars?
Updates of the kitchen kind:
http://fabulously40.com/blog/id/whats-next-17304
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carine_Nadel
http://fabulously40.com/blog/id/whats-next-17304
What if?
What if I could change things? Would that be good or bad? I guess that depends on what I want to change.
I’ve been finding myself playing just that game (in my head) lately. Things like:
What if my husband had either saw the little bubbles in the paint BEFORE the wall turned mushy? Of course, on the flip side of that question is obviously-what if we were at the out of town wedding while it did enough damage for someone to notice and we weren’t here?
Either way, damage is damage.
What if we chose not to have homeowner’s coverage to the extent we do? I suppose then we would be a lot sicker to our stomachs.
As with most things, one event parlays into another event. This time, the fact that we have to have our 20 year old floors pulled out started some other projects.
Those projects?
My husband decided that we should “bite the bullet” and have a company who specializes in upgrading kitchen lighting come in and do just that for us. I have to say, they made me see that some contractors are truly wonderful! They promised “no dust, one day installation, satisfaction guaranteed”.
AND THEY DID!!! This has restored my faith in humanity. I would highly recommend the company of Michael J. Dove to anyone living in our area.
But no, my husband did not stop there with the “let’s get it all done” plot. The next thing I knew was that he wanted to take out the last remaining piece of ugly cultured marble in the downstairs bath and replace the top and replace the toilet that never worked right.
I’m sure you all know what we discovered next about our circa 1989 house. We were going to just buy a simple ready made top with a sink attached. Luckily, we’re very thorough people and decided to take a measuring tape to the vanity.
You know what we found out-I hear you all snickering away. The common readymade counter comes in 25 and 31 (after that comes ordering). Why? Because the STANDARD vanity is 24 or 30. So you have a ½” on either side.
Our problem? Our lovely “developer” made our vanity 25-1/8”. Of course. It made sense given how the rest of the house was made.
So we looked at custom options. The cheapest would be $683! I looked at my husband and muttered something about how I didn’t hate the cultured marble as much as I thought.
The nice woman helping us suggested the “bath-in-a-box” option. Well, we found one we could agree on and my husband also found a faucet to fit the new counter top (the old one won’t fit-we saw that coming).
Here’s the kicker-this entire new set-up: vanity, top, sink and faucet came in at HALF the cost of replacing just the “blooming” old top!
We’re using the same contractor who fixed the walls to come back and dismantle the sink, paint the bathroom and paint the new tray ceiling in the kitchen. He already gave us a price of $300 labor for that.
Next-picking out the new flooring.
We were told the job would take 7-10 days. Thankfully our coverage includes putting us up at a local Residence Inn that also loves our pets. Free breakfast, full condo. At least we’ll be comfortable and all together.
The next what if? What if we can’t agree on flooring that keeps to our $5.45 a square foot allowance? The man at the flooring company assured me I could have the same exact natural oak flooring or he had a maple and several exotics for me to choose from.
Exotics? Please-I just want a good solid long-lasting floor. Do I look or sound exotic? Unless that exotic is branded such because it comes with a 25 year warranty I don’t want to see or hear about it.
Oh-more good news-the dishwasher died. This happened at the exact same time as the vet declared our 14 year old lab mix would have to wait for laser eye surgery because she was on too much rimadyl and tramadol right now.
Guess where the “laser surgery” fund went too? The new dishwasher will hopefully be installed before we leave for a wedding next week.
What if the rather ominous dark gray cloud over our house blew away? What if I wake up and discover that this was all a strange dream?
What if I stop with the "what ifs" and just go back at looking at the humorous parts of all this and call it a week?
I’ve been finding myself playing just that game (in my head) lately. Things like:
What if my husband had either saw the little bubbles in the paint BEFORE the wall turned mushy? Of course, on the flip side of that question is obviously-what if we were at the out of town wedding while it did enough damage for someone to notice and we weren’t here?
Either way, damage is damage.
What if we chose not to have homeowner’s coverage to the extent we do? I suppose then we would be a lot sicker to our stomachs.
As with most things, one event parlays into another event. This time, the fact that we have to have our 20 year old floors pulled out started some other projects.
Those projects?
My husband decided that we should “bite the bullet” and have a company who specializes in upgrading kitchen lighting come in and do just that for us. I have to say, they made me see that some contractors are truly wonderful! They promised “no dust, one day installation, satisfaction guaranteed”.
AND THEY DID!!! This has restored my faith in humanity. I would highly recommend the company of Michael J. Dove to anyone living in our area.
But no, my husband did not stop there with the “let’s get it all done” plot. The next thing I knew was that he wanted to take out the last remaining piece of ugly cultured marble in the downstairs bath and replace the top and replace the toilet that never worked right.
I’m sure you all know what we discovered next about our circa 1989 house. We were going to just buy a simple ready made top with a sink attached. Luckily, we’re very thorough people and decided to take a measuring tape to the vanity.
You know what we found out-I hear you all snickering away. The common readymade counter comes in 25 and 31 (after that comes ordering). Why? Because the STANDARD vanity is 24 or 30. So you have a ½” on either side.
Our problem? Our lovely “developer” made our vanity 25-1/8”. Of course. It made sense given how the rest of the house was made.
So we looked at custom options. The cheapest would be $683! I looked at my husband and muttered something about how I didn’t hate the cultured marble as much as I thought.
The nice woman helping us suggested the “bath-in-a-box” option. Well, we found one we could agree on and my husband also found a faucet to fit the new counter top (the old one won’t fit-we saw that coming).
Here’s the kicker-this entire new set-up: vanity, top, sink and faucet came in at HALF the cost of replacing just the “blooming” old top!
We’re using the same contractor who fixed the walls to come back and dismantle the sink, paint the bathroom and paint the new tray ceiling in the kitchen. He already gave us a price of $300 labor for that.
Next-picking out the new flooring.
We were told the job would take 7-10 days. Thankfully our coverage includes putting us up at a local Residence Inn that also loves our pets. Free breakfast, full condo. At least we’ll be comfortable and all together.
The next what if? What if we can’t agree on flooring that keeps to our $5.45 a square foot allowance? The man at the flooring company assured me I could have the same exact natural oak flooring or he had a maple and several exotics for me to choose from.
Exotics? Please-I just want a good solid long-lasting floor. Do I look or sound exotic? Unless that exotic is branded such because it comes with a 25 year warranty I don’t want to see or hear about it.
Oh-more good news-the dishwasher died. This happened at the exact same time as the vet declared our 14 year old lab mix would have to wait for laser eye surgery because she was on too much rimadyl and tramadol right now.
Guess where the “laser surgery” fund went too? The new dishwasher will hopefully be installed before we leave for a wedding next week.
What if the rather ominous dark gray cloud over our house blew away? What if I wake up and discover that this was all a strange dream?
What if I stop with the "what ifs" and just go back at looking at the humorous parts of all this and call it a week?
