Kitchen update

We worked late nights and early mornings over the extended weekend and finished up our work on the cabinets at 11:55 am on Wednesday. The templater for the countertops was scheduled between 12 and 2. He basically gave us a good report on the cabinets: they were relatively flat and level, which is good for any house, but he seemed to be especially impressed that our cabinets were that old and still in relatively good shape. We only have minor modifications to make to the cabinets to be ready for the finished countertops, which will be here in about 2 weeks.

To finish the work, we rented a table saw from Home Depot. I went to pick up the rental by myself, which, by this time, I should know better than to walk into HD's tool rental department and try to get a tool when not accompanied by a male person. This time, though, I had more problem than usual, where by "usual" I mean mostly stupid stuff like hearing "Are you sure you can operate this tool by yourself?" and "How much can I do you for?". This time, the guys flat refused to rent me the table saw on the grounds that it wouldn't fit into my car, even though I'd been there the day before and knew that it would fit. They wouldn't let me try, and they wouldn't look at the car. In the end, I had to drive back home, pick up B., and take him back to the rental shop, where we had no additional problems except hearing that I was only good for sanding the boards that B. would use the table saw to cut. And it fit into the Camry with no problem.

From my burst of adrenaline from being ready to crush the tool rental guys, though, I broke a piece off the rip fence while loading it into the car. They hassled B. about it a little when he returned it the following day, but in the end it was covered by our rental insurance. I called the manufacturer of the part, and it was only worth $3.10, which was about half what we paid on the insurance, so HD still came out ahead in the end.

Anyhow, we got the cabinets done and the sink & dishwasher in place. [Left] B. working on the cabinets with our new power drill, which is so much faster than drilling by hand. [Center] Me testing the weight-bearing ability of the sink support, even though the sink and I don't approach the 400 lbs that the frame should be able to support. [Right] The mostly finished placement of the sink and dishwasher. Neither of them are hooked up in this picture, though, and the legs haven't been put on the sink frame yet.

Today, B. gave me a crash course in basic plumbing and electrical and left me to start the dishwasher installation while he was at work. It took me most of the day to get 2/3 of the work done, but I had fun doing it, and I learned some things that I probably should have known already. (Thanks to Bro and Sis for our Christmas home improvement books, which I consulted today and which have been helpful on many other occasions.) Anyhow, drains are no longer so daunting, and electricity isn't as much magic as it used to be in my brain. Our first load of dishes is being washed right now, and we're both doing other, more fun things. Woo-hoo! And we're even saving water in the process! Definitely worth the work.

Now we can use the time saved to do some garden work. Our flowerbeds are mostly blues, whites, and purples. Right now the irises and a rhododendron are in full bloom.