Appliances are Here...Almost

Soooo like I said in my last post, Appliance Direct is on my sh!tlist and still is! When I called on Monday asking where in the heck are my appliances that I ordered 2 weeks ago that no one can tell me an estimated date to get them even though they said a week, I talked with the manager who told me that they would be in on Tuesday (yesterday) or definitely today. Ok great and then they'll call to deliver. I figured Friday which is what I posted.

This morning Leo and I were on our way out, when I get a phone call from AD. Wooo Whoo! Appliances are going to be scheduled for delivery! NOOOOO, it was the delivery men trying to find our house!!! No call saying oh it's going to be delivered today. So I had to ask if they could come this afternoon instead since we weren't home. I was excited though that is was coming early and I couldn't wait to see the new kitchen with the sleek appliances!

The men arrive around 2. They are unloading the fridge, microwave, and stove. As they were bringing in the microwave which they don't install (Problem #1), the guy states that my NEW IN THE BOX refrigerator has a dent in the front! GRRR!!! So I call AD and say what the heck. Ricky the manager informs me that I got a good deal on it. True, but I ordered last years model NEW IN THE BOX!!! Ok fine he tells me, I'll have to go down and pick out a new one. REALLY!?!?!?!?! Now I have to wait again to get my refrigerator!!! Problem #2!

So the men keep the fridge and come in to remove the stove. As he unplugs the stove sparks go flying!!!! Umm not good! We try to plug it back in to see if it's a fluke....NOPE more sparks!!! Problem #3! So I have an electrician coming out tomorrow morning. The guys obviously can't plug in the new stove, but bring it in anyway. They leave.

As I'm checking out the new stove which is FANCY, I realize IT'S NOT GOING TO FIT IN OUR SPACE!!!! Seriously!?!?!? I get out the measuring tape. Sure enough 1.5 inch too long! I call back the delivery men who just left to come back and get it. Problem #4! I am super pissed and call AD. Ricky informs me that it does fit a standard stove opening just that since it's a slide in, it is supposed to be raised up so the top rests on the Granite...ohhhhhh :) The problem was that the delivery men should have installed it, but since they didn't because of Problem #3, I didn't realize. I call back the delivery men who were already here and told them never mind and that I was a crazy woman :) They said they'd show me and install it partially. Whew! Here is the new stove partially installed.
And here is my new microwave...in a box ;)And my almost beautiful and definitely not matching kitchen.Problem #1 will be taken care of by Mr. E....I hope :) He thinks he's handy enough to install a microwave.

I think what I'm going to do about Problem #2 is to get a refund on the refrigerator and order a brand new model and suck up the price. A lesson learned is that you pay for what you get on big purchases!!!

Problem #3 will hopefully be fixed tomorrow. I pray that there is nothing majorly wrong or something that the last stupid electrician did to our wires!!!

And problem #4 is already taken care of!! Really this kitchen is going to be done!!!!

Kitchen Update

Yes I haven't posted much on the kitchen in a while, but it was because nothing was being done. We had to wait for Frank to come out and finish the back splash.
I was REALLY REALLY hoping the appliances would come in, but they have not. Appliance Direct is on my sh!t list at the moment. They said that they should be arriving tomorrow and hopefully we'll have them installed by the weekend! However, I know you are all anxious to see a kinda final project. Here are some shots.


I said kinda because as you can see it isn't decorated to my liking. We need to get new barstools, decor on top of the cabinets, and of course the appliances. We also have one more issue to fix with Ameritiles. Under our island granite, the wood got chipped. They are going to replace it. It's not a huge eye sore, but if you are getting a new kitchen you want everything perfect ;)

I still need to give you my full review of Ameritiles, the plumber, and electrician, but I'm going to wait to make sure I have their word on fixing the wood and installing a small piece of granite behind the new stove. The teacher in me can't wait to make a report card for them :)

It's My Birthday Again!!

Last night I celebrated my 21-10 birthday 10 days late with my good friends Teresa and Lindsay! We went to Bahama Breeze for drinks and dinner and then hit up a few other restaurants along the way. First off, I must say that I am NOT the lush I used to be, so going out drinking has a worse effect on me then I think ;) However, that doesn't stop the fabulousness that us three girls are!! We got bought 3 rounds of drinks from kind gentlemen :) Check out our hotness in the beginning of the evening!One of our stops was at Friday's where some nice guys from NY bought us a Blueberry Muffin shot. The crazy bartender who made them wanted to be in the picture too.
It was a good birthday celebration with great friends and lots of yummy food and drinks!! Good thing birthdays come only once a year....or a few times a year if you are like me ;)

Mr.E's Discovery Channel Show!

We had just gotten home from church/lunch and went out on the back porch to play. Little Lion was playing tee ball. Mr. E was watching him when he started thinking "Wow there sure are a lot of birds dive bombing around the house". Then he started to walk back into the house by me when he noticed the cat in the corner of the porch. Mr. E immediately grabbed LL and gave him to me and said "You don't want to come out here!" I ask why, when he points to the corner. Here is what I saw.....SNAKE!!! A black 3 ft long racer snake. Ok that was after grabbing my camera ;) And the cat was really in front of him protecting LL. The cat didn't want the snake to go near him and the snake was scared of the cat. Here's a better view of him once the cat moved out of the way...he was done protecting us since we went inside. Mr. E has grown up catching snakes. He used to catch them when he lived in St.Cloud as a boy and sold them to Reptile World for $2-3 a snake. Some of them were even poisonous!!!! His mom let him keep them in jars in the garage. Can you tell he comes from a family of 4 boys!!! Anyway, so Mr. E is definitely NOT afraid of snakes especially nonpoisonous ones like this racer. He went and got gloves on and a stick. He was going to try and shoo it out the door, but the little snake was not so cooperative!The snake didn't want to leave the side of LL's play house. Mr. E decided to grab him by the head and pick him up and put him outside AWAY from the house.

No fear for my husband :)After catching it, Mr. E went and released it into our small jungle behind the house. We won't be playing outside for a while to make sure the snake has time to slither far far away ;) I'm so proud of my snake hunter!!!

Kitchen Remodel Day 10 Continued from Yesterday!

Well the house was empty by 10pm!! There were some changes. The biggest and best change was the adding of the crown molding! I never realized how naked our cabinet were!!! We added a decorative touch to the crown molding to bring in the black color of the granite.

The electrician and plumber came back to fix their mistakes. You can now see our beautiful lights that are evenly spaced :)Since we knew the plumber was coming we brought home our new dishwasher and he installed it. How do you like the black?????We are about 95% done ;) All that is left is to finish the backsplash, fix the tile, install the rest of the appliances, and decorate :) There is a light!!!! Unfortunately due to personal issues of the tile guy, he won't be back in town until later next week. So our kitchen will be at a stand still until then. I'm sure I'll blog before than, but it probably won't be about the kitchen. I think we all need a break anyway ;)

Kitchen Remodel Day 10 *Updated*

Today is going to be another busy day! Right now the backsplash is getting done. We did run into some problems. The *lovely* electrician didn't put the outlet box in correctly and it needs to be fixed before putting the backsplash up. The electrician isn't coming until this evening. That means it'll be another day of construction!!! So Hugo had to work around the issue. You can see where the line is to start the tile.
Our next problem is that we realized that we didn't have enough decorative tiles. Remember we had another tile to add, but didn't use it because of it being the wrong color. We had to take some of the decorative tiles out and spread them out more. Here's the new design. You may want to click on the picture to make it bigger to see the different tiles.

It really doesn't look this shiny! I think the flash of the camera makes it bling bling baby :) More to come later....hopefully with less problems!!!

Well the tile guy left. He finished what he could. He couldn't finish because of the electrician and was missing some tiles, but here is his final result. I like it, but don't love it. I think it needs more punch like a burst of color. OH well ;) And don't mind the bright white appliances!
The carpenter just got here to install the crown molding. I'll try and get some pictures up tonight.

Kitchen Remodel Day 9 Continued

Sooooo I was a bad blogger who didn't update the rest of day 9 and then I got busy with my birthday and all :) Yes I'm giving excuses!!

Friday was *supposed* to be the last day of the remodel. Not to surprisingly, it's not done. Friday started out good and then went to chaos to frustration! As you saw from the previous post the tile guys were there to finish the backsplash and floors. The electrician was there to hook up the outlets to the island and hang the lights. The plumber was there to install the faucet and dishwasher.

Everyone knew what they were doing and what they needed to get done. The problem was that they were in each other's way. The tile guys couldn't get the grout down with the plumber/electrician in the way. Frank couldn't do the backsplash because the electrician was moving the cable outlet over. Finally at 4 the plumber got done allowing way for the grout to be put down. The electrician wanted to be done too ( you know Friday night party and stuff)...I think he got careless. He put up our 3 pendant lights. Do you notice anything odd?????They aren't evenly placed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is an inch difference between the first light and the second. UMMMMMM you are a professional (and he did tell Mr. E that he was perfectionist....LOL) don't you think you'd be able to measure correctly???? I think Mr. E could have done just as good of a job and not have charged us an abundant amount of money!!!! They will be coming back out here sometime this week! I'm not paying until I'm happy!!!! I just hope another hole in the ceiling doesn't make it look worse!

There were a few other issues. Frank couldn't start the backsplash due to personal issues beyond his control which I understand. There were a few tiles that weren't laid flat compared to the others. The holes cut into the island to put the outlets in were sloppy. However, Jay came over yesterday and addressed all my concerns and is going to fix them. I just find it crazy that people don't put their best work in the first time! Why wouldn't you want to do the job right when you're just going to have to fix it later??? Or do customers not pay attention???? If I'm paying money for anything at FULL price ;) I expect the best! At least Ameritiles is coming through to fix all my issues (kitchen ones not mental ones ;)

AND the biggest issue of the day......Appliances!!!! We moved in our appliances and YUCK!!!!!! They stuck out like a sore thumb being while and all. So off we went to get new black ones for my birthday ;) They should be arriving early next week!
Here are the eye sores and another view of our uneven lights.
On a happier note, we installed the wine fridge and it looks great!! Little Lion has enjoyed turning the light on and off....next we'll get one that you can lock the buttons ;) The blue tape is for the mistakes I saw.The tile guys and carpenter are coming out tomorrow. So hopefully the back splash and crown molding will get done! I'll be taking pictures!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Yes I know I didn't update yesterday, but it was CHAOTIC near the end of the day. I will update tomorrow since today is my birthday :) We have an adult evening planned.....dinner and drinks :) My birthday present you ask......NEW BLACK APPLIANCES!!! The white ones just don't cut it in our new kitchen ;) They should be delivered either late this week or early next week!! Happy Birthday to ME!!

kitchen Remodel Day 9

Well today is D-day! I'm not thinking it's going to happen. However, there sure are a lot of people in the house not including LL and I....FIVE!!! The goal is to finish the electric, plumbing, tile, and backsplash. The backsplash tile that I ordered, did NOT look good....it looked like....tmi....puke :) So we are changing our initial plan to look like this without the lime green background ;)It's going to get installed after the electric is done
Here is our new fancy faucet!Here is Ramos the plumber through the soon to be outlet hole.....hey I try to be creative ;)And the tile guys are grouting the front part of the living room that way they aren't in the way of the plumber and electrician.There is going to be lots of changes today! I will update will all the kitchen excitement :) I'm thinking by late this evening, I will have a sink, dishwasher, stove, wine fridge, and fridge all IN the kitchen!!!

Kitchen Remodel Day 8

The Granite is IN!!! My kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen....wooo whoooo!!!! I thought that it would take longer to get the granite in and done, but they were in and out in about 40 mins. I'm sure glad I paid A LOT of money for granite installation (yes, Jay I know it was a big slab). Oh well it's in and it looks nice :) I still would have liked a longer slab though!!!

Here is the new sink before installation. It is going to be undermounted. The men brought in the smaller pieces first which are the wall cabinets.
It took 3 men to wheel it through the door which it barely fit through....I could have had a bigger piece if they went through the back door and *found* one;)
Here they are installing it. The guys were so hot and needed a drink. I used the island for the first time :)They drilled in the holes for sink and sealed the granite with something that right now is giving me a slight headache! Thank goodness Little Lion is napping in the other room!! Here is the finished project!!

Ahhh the start of a beautiful kitchen!