Slow but steady house progress… and a new blog

I had a very interesting, if confusing, conversation with my contractor today about cabinets.  It seems no matter how we slice and dice the situation, the cost will overrun what State Farm will pay.  So I was presented with (I think) four different options, each with its own cost/benefit ratio.  But after I hung up, I thought of more configurations, and had to call him back and ask about those… and then when I hung up again and tried to write all the options and their various prices down I got all befuddled and confusticated and by the time I sat down at supper to explain each scenario to my husband it was a hopeless mess.  The most I could say was that I knew the highest and lowest amounts we might have to pay out of pocket. I think I am going to lose 2 large cabinets to get things down to a manageable level.  BUT, it is all for the high and honorable goal of NOT sacrificing my laundry room cabinets.  My goal was to be able to have the laundry room (12′ base cabinet and 5′ overhead above the washer/dryer) match the kitchen, because I’ve been-there-done-that using garage style cabinets in the laundry room and they just fall apart.  This is one upgrade I will bend over backwards to keep! 🙂

So tomorrow I will have to call Justin and give him some kind of answer about the cabinets.  I also have to give him an answer about the counter tops.  I’ve had my fun imagining all kinds of fancy schmancy stone and solid surface choices, it’s time to realize that those are not the circles I travel in.  We are laminate people, and proud of it! 😀  It must be said, however, that laminate has come a long way baby since the 1980s.  So after a quick perusal of Home Depot’s online offerings (really minimal) I decided that, to go with these cabinets,

this countertop might look nice:

But I’ll have to go to the store to actually look at some other options, since I KNOW they have to have more choices than the two or three colors they showed on the website.

Justin also explained a bit about why it has been taking them so long (seemingly) to make progress on the interior, and it all has to do with the city of Glendale and it’s nincompoop codes.  They can’t seem to get their act together and just present a list of requirements — no, they have to come out and do EIGHT INSPECTIONS, each time requiring something new and different.  There is the faint whiff of hope in the air that the upcoming inspection in the next day or two will be the really final final one and they can then start putting in the walls and flooring and all that good stuff.  And the super-fantastic good news is they expect we can be back in the house by the end of October!!  Hallelujah!!  I guess they really can move fast once the inspectors are dealt with.

During Geneva’s rehearsal today, Megan and Jacob and I took a tour of the Ashley Furniture store nearby, since I’d never been inside one before, and I know I’ll be needing to go on a mad furniture buying spree soon.  I expected the prices to be much more in the Ethan Allen range than they ended up being, so that was a pleasant surprise.  And the kids had fun testing every couch in the store, and several of the beds too.

I decided yesterday that The Boy could use a creative outlet, so I built him a blog.  He’s already got a few posts online, and I can guarantee, if you stop by and say hello, he will be extremely delighted.

JACOBFACE