Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Perfecting new skills

This weekend was a working trip at the house.  Friday we drove over to Waco to start deciding on the flooring.  We were to meet with a decorator but didn’t think to call first and make sure she was available.  When we got there and asked for her, we were told she was out on an appointment.  I said no problem; we will just look around and get some ideas.  Jay says, why don’t you just make an appointment and come back tomorrow.  Hello, we just drove all the way here- I say, no lets look around together first and then I will come back tomorrow.  He looks at me and says, it’s your house, pick out whatever you want and promptly sits down at a table ignoring me.  I get his attention, throw him one of my “don’t start with me” looks and said (gritting my teeth) please come in here and look at these samples with me.  Knowing better than to create a scene he grudgingly came to join me in the sea of samples.  We did find one sample we both liked. Then I said okay, you have given me some input, we can leave.  Of course now that he was more in the swing of things we also took a quick look at carpet for the bedrooms picking out a couple of things.  I set an appointment for 10:30 the following morning and we left. 

Next morning we thought AJ was going to be there at 8:00 am to go over the cabinet design.  At 9:00 I called Stanley and he said that AJ had some things he had to do at the shop and wouldn’t be there until late morning.  Well guess I wasn’t going to make my 10:30 appointment.  Called Donna (the decorator) and explained the situation.  She said no problem she was there until 2:00.   I told her I would try to be there by 12:30 to give us enough time.  At 11:00 AJ and Stanley finally arrived.  I was a little annoyed, but when I saw what he had designed, my annoyance waned and I started to get really excited about the Kitchen.  He was able to incorporate almost all of my customized cabinets and drawers.  His computer program has a 3D feature so I was able to see what it was going to look like from all angles and as we discussed changes he was able to make the changes to the plan.  At 12:40 I said I have to leave now!  We hadn’t even discussed the bathrooms or the utility room so I left Jay to go through those.  After all if Kitchen works, I’m going to be a happy camper, the rest will just fall into place!

I didn’t get to the flooring place until 1:15.  Not leaving us a lot of time to go through the volumes of choices.  I started by showing her the house plan and then showing her the vinyl plank we liked.  You guessed it, it was the most expensive one there is.  The cost for what we liked was basically the same as going with wood floors (but the maintenance is still easier).  She showed me a lot more and we pulled samples to take with me.  Oh and the carpet- Also the most expensive.  No one can accuse me of not having good taste- problem is I only have a beer budget.  Needless to say, no decision was made, but I did narrow down the options.

Sunday morning we got up early to work on honing my wiring skills.  Turns out that the guys who do the cable and Internet wiring are very expensive and charge by the drop.  We have planned for a lot of drops because I want both cable (or satellite) TV in most all of the rooms, including in the kitchen and master bath.  We also had to pull the wires for the surround sound speakers in the Great room and out on the patio.   I have helped Jay pull cabling and wiring before, so we knew we could do this.  Four hours later, with no screaming at each other we had completed our task and had wires traveling along the rafters to most every room.  Good job, Laynie and Jay!



Designing the kitchen and meeting Goldberg


Things are moving along quite well.  We went down last weekend to meet with the cabinet guy and to attend a graduation party (fish fry) for a couple of our friends’ kids.  We had a great time at the party and met a lot of new people. Being raised that you never go to a party empty handed I cooked up about 6-7 dozen tamales and Jay made salsa.  The fish was really good, and I think the tamales were a hit because they were all gone in about 15 minutes.  Belinda and I do make good tamales!!  The salsa lasted through the night, but nary a drop was left when the party ended.  The most entertaining parts of the party for me were the two babies I got to play with and a little duck name Goldberg.  Goldberg was the only animal allowed to roam around the party and he entertained the kids while eating anything given to him.  He was especially fond of rum cake (who can blame him it was yummy).  The dogs were penned up and were going crazy wanting to get at him.  He seemed to know he was safe from them would venture fairly close to the pen as if to taunt them.  Goldberg was going to go home with one of the guests who has a lake and other ducks for Goldberg to make his new family.  All and all it was a great evening and going home was easy, hopped in the gator and rode through the pasture back to the cabin.
see Goldberg sitting between Julie's feet


I met with AJ, the cabinetmaker to design my kitchen cabinets.  I had spent a number of hours on the Internet looking at different ideas for drawers, cabs and layouts.  I think I had printed out over 50 different ideas. He must have thought I was a crazy person.  We waded through my pictures and talked about what things were important to me.  Finally we had a game plan and he said he would have a 3D plan for me the following week.  I have decided on painted cabinets instead of stained wood, lots of drawers and a place for my cookbooks, S&P collection and all sorts of specialized drawers and cupboards.  A kitchen where I can find all my utensils- what a concept!  We also designed the bathroom, utility closets and mud room.  Next step for me will be picking the flooring.  Now that ist going to be a daunting task.  There are so many different flooring options and so many options within each of the flooring types.  So much easier when I was working and the choices got narrowed down to what was the best vinyl for the price and apartment carpet, is just that apartment carpet, pick the color and move on….

A few current pictures of the house -
Front door installed

looking like my little house!!
Windows in my office

View from one of my office windows
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