Patient readers! A lot has been going on in the Land of Rob in the last few weeks. I’ll try and catch you up as painlessly as possible.
The Kitchen – Work on the kitchen is nearly complete! I pulled up all the linoleum, only to discover an entire new floor that also wasn’t wood. So I had to pull that up, too. Then there was the tiling of the new floor. Went smoothly-ish, if slowly. My sanding set off the alarm, and the fire department showed up. That was cool. If you’re into fire engines and large bills, anyway.
Then we took apart the cabinets and painted them Benjamin Moore’s Marble White (you can look it up yourself, if interested). We reattached them with bronze hinges that my parents had half-installed and fully-purchased, so that helped keep the cost down. And we found matching pulls on sale at Lowe’s, so we lucked out there.
After that came the painting of the kitchen. Benjamin Moore again, of course… this time in Sesame, which is a sort of pale green. Not at all the color of sesame seeds. But it looks really nice against the cabinets.
Then, Amanda and I installed the new track lighting and I got briefly wicked smart and figured out how to add the track lighting to the existing three-way switch circuit by just running one new 2+1 wire. There may have been some self-congratulatory fist-shaking immediately afterwards. :) I was pretty stoked that my first attempt at rewiring did not result in fire.
Last night, we got ambitious and reupholstered the kitchen benches. We bought a couple of these tablecloths from Bed, Bath & Beyond and cut them to size. They look pretty nice against the green walls. We also bought a beige tablecloth to go over the kitchen table, a beige curtain to go over the window above the sink, and beige valences to go over the two other kitchen windows.
Today, we ordered the Anise wall decal designed by Ilan Dei from Blik (the graphite color). So in a couple of weeks, we’ll have that decal growing up our green wall from behind our black benches. It should look really nice.
So really, all that’s left is to is lay down the new baseboard. We’ve bought it, and I took a swing at it last night, only to realize that 1) I don’t have a proper adhesive, and 2) It’s a lot tougher than one would think to get one’s miters cut to the perfect length. So that project is going to take a while. But I’m still hoping to have it done by Saturday! Because we’re moving forward with the pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We’re expecting around a dozen friends Saturday evening… we’ve rented a couple of banquet tables and a bunch of chairs, and plan to briefly turn the living room into a dining room, and the kitchen into the serving area. Fingers crossed.
The Job – I scored an interview with Workbench, which I think went decently well. The next day, they gave me a test assignment: write a four-page article on building a room divider screen. It was a pretty interesting assignment… I’d never written exactly in that style before, but it was a fun challenge. And now I have a half-finished room divider screen sitting in my garage. :) I plan to finish it once the kitchen is put back together. But the good news is, I turned in my article last night, so that’s taken care of. Now all I can do is wait and see.
The Future – I’m slowly moving into the 21st century. Last weekend, as part of my randomly ambitious wiring stint, I installed a programmable thermostat. It’s just a cheap little $30 model from Lowe’s, but good lord is it awesome. The house automatically cool down at night the way we like it, which helps us sleep better (and saves energy), then starts warming up half an hour before our alarm goes off. It’s a lot easier getting out of bed in the mornings when the air isn’t frigid. Then it cools down during the day, and warms up again half an hour before we get home. Kick. Ass.
Also, I think I have Amanda mostly convinced that Roombas are not (completely) scary or (entirely) evil, so maybe I’ll be able to get one of those someday. At the moment, I most definitely can’t afford it. Refinishing the kitchen has pretty well taken care of any excess monies I might have had. ;) When I can afford it, though, I’m grabbing myself this model here. You can’t schedule it, but it knows to go home when the battery is low, and that’s key to me.
Well, that’s that. Tune in next month (or hopefully much sooner) for another exciting adventure in the Land of Rob.
