Stoney Decisions

We now have met three times with the granite people who mis-cut our desk piece.  They took a substitute piece of stone into their shop and were going to cut it to replace the desk.  We told them that we wanted to see it, and upon arriving in their shop, we promptly rejected it.  It was way too grey  in the background.

The desk piece is too large for it not to match the rest of the granite in the room.

We went back to the original granite yard and found a piece that we thought would work.  The cutters agreed to pick it up today.  We met them at the granite company and discovered that the piece we thought would work also was not the right background color.  However, it was close, so Rick took a couple of pictures of it, and we agreed to a certain cut -- with lots of browns in it -- for the desk.

When we arrived home, we held the pictures up to the desk area and once again rejected what we saw.  The browns still did not match what we thought we had, and the new piece would have been terrible.  So for the third time, we contacted the cutters and told them that the slab would not work.

Our final choice: keep what we have and do what we vowed not to do.  We will install a thin piece of molding behind the granite on one side and keep the beautiful piece of granite that they originally cut for the desk.  In the end, this is the least of all evils.

Rick spent the afternoon searching for different types of molding, trying different designs and cuts, and rejecting everything he tried.  We eventually ended back at Home Depot to get a simple, smooth piece of molding that we can slip in behind the granite to fill the gap. It looks the best and will suit our needs.  Is this what we wanted to do? No, but it will be the best choice in the end.  I guess a little touch of molding on the side is better than a four-foot piece of granite that does not match the rest of the room.

A blurry but accurate depiction of the workbench we bought from Home Depot.

While we were at Home Depot, we also bought a small workbench that we can use downstairs.  The workbench is movable and will take the burden of projects off other pieces of expensive woodworking equipment.  Rick is using his Festool table and router table as workbenches, and that has to stop.  A new workbench will serve us all well, and since it is adjustable, Rick and Owen will be able to use it to build interesting things together.

This may not mean much to people who do not weave,
but weavers know how valuable this station can be.

Storage at the side for lease sticks and reeds is invaluable.

While we were waiting for the granite fiasco to work out, Rick was busy downstairs saving us lots of money by building us a bobbin-winding station for the loom.  He added a rack on the side to hold lease sticks and reeds for the loom, so now everything is together and accessible.  He did a great job and saved us at least $400 over buying a station and stand commercially.

This has been a trying week, but we are happy with the stand and content will our decision to keep the granite that the cutters originally brought to the house.  We just want this room to be complete, and hopefully by the end of next week, everything will be done.

Carved in Stone

Today was the day we have been waiting for for most of the summer: getting the granite installed which will finish our remodel on the laundry/ weaving room.

As promised, the installers arrived a little after 10 a.m.  I was afraid that the granite we chose in the yard would not look good in the house, but happily I was wrong.  The granite is beautiful.  For the most part, it is white with shades of blue/grey and some brown undertones mixed in.  One section has some darker stone for a bit of contrast and interest.  We both are happy with the selection we chose.

The long piece looks and fits well.

When the installers came in to measure, they used a laser to measure the walls as well as the length.  The long piece fits beautifully against the not-so-straight wall.  We chose the same edge as that of the kitchen, so everything is coordinated.

The small cabinet next to the laundry is complete.

The small piece next to the laundry units is fairly bland and white, but that is fine, too. It fits well with the small area and will provide a welcome place to put bottles or boxes of items that I might need while washing the laundry.

The desk piece is beautiful, and I hate to see it go.

The desk slab is probably the prettiest of the three pieces with lots of contrast and color.  Sadly, it also is a problem.  The installer said that he deducted 1/8 of an inch from the overall length when he measured the area because the granite needs to fit between two cabinets.  Unfortunately, when the technician cut the slab, he also seems to have deducted an additional 1/8 of an inch. The piece is now 1/4 of an inch short, and it does not look correct in the area. This is a classic communication error that has us both very upset and will cost someone other that us lots of money.

A quarter inch does not seem like much, but it is
too much to fill in with caulk.  We need a correctly cut
piece of granite in this area since it will be a heavily used
part of the room.

The desk slab needs to be replaced with a piece cut correctly, and we do not think that there is enough granite left from the original slab to cut a new piece.  The original slab probably does not have enough because the granite company sold the remainder of the slab to someone else.  Rick told them that our granite had to be cut first, and that they were not allowed to cut for someone else's job until we were sure that our job was acceptable.  From the way everyone is acting and not communicating with us, we are guessing that the company went ahead and sold the remaining part of the slab before our job was complete.

We have two options.  If the rest of our original, matching slab is indeed gone, then the company can find us a new piece from the same lot that will match what we have in the rest of the room, or they can take it all back, find us a new slab, and cut everything again from a whole new slab.

Rick is angry.  I am just disappointed.  We wanted to finally have closure to this room, but once again we have to wait to see how everything works out.

Beginning of the End

This past Monday marked the beginning of the end of our den-into-laundry/weaving room remodel.  On Monday morning, a technician from the granite company came to measure for the granite countertops.  Once the granite is installed next week Monday, the room will be complete.

All of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts are installed.
We cannot wait until this long wall of cabinets is topped
with our new granite countertops.

Rick was fascinated with the measuring for the granite since the technician used a laser measuring device rather than creating a wood and paper template.  Our granite will be cut based on the laser measurements, and we are excited to see the results.  The technician showed Rick how he measured the longest stretch of countertop so that the front edge would be straight while the back edge would follow the not-so-plumb-or-straight contours of the back wall.  Since we are not going to have a backsplash on any of the countertops, having the granite fit the back wall is critical to the overall appearance of the granite.

Last Friday we picked up the two "missing" drawer fronts for that same wall of cabinets.  Thankfully, they fit well; therefore, Rick did not have any trouble installing them.  The cabinets are now complete except for the afore-mentioned countertops. And once we have the countertops in place, I can officially move my office and my sewing room into the drawers and cabinets in the room.

We are very thankful that we spent from Wednesday of the previous week until Thursday of last week visiting our home in Florida.  We found that everything was working well, and other than record-breaking heat to deal with, we accomplished all that we wanted to do during the short visit.  Those tasks included getting our HVAC system inspected and approved, starting and driving the car around since it has sat idle since May, seeing old friends, and doing a bit of pruning and weeding in the gardens.

I was very surprised to see that the vegetation is growing well.  We only lost one small podocarpus tree in the 40 or so trees and bushes that we planted, and thanks to our lawn service who sprays for weeds, our gardens needed very little weeding.

The HVAC worked well, the refrigerator, dishwasher, and laundry units all worked as I had hoped they would, and we were able to run plenty of water through the drains to keep everything functioning for a while.

Little did we know that major Hurricane Michael was slowing churning at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico just as we flew home.  I am SO happy that we missed that excitement.  Reports from our southern neighbors, thankfully, reveal that Dunedin was spared from the worst of the storm.  We apparently received lots of rain and wind; however, nothing was strong enough to do major damage.  My heart goes out to the poor people on the Florida panhandle who received the brunt of this Category 4 hurricane.  Their lives have been totally disrupted with months if not years of rebuilding ahead of them.

Back here in Wisconsin, we have spent the week preparing for winter.  The rain this past weekend and Monday kept us mostly indoors, so I took the opportunity to get out to the garage.  I needed to take everything off the two shelving units, to clean the shelves, and then to reorganize the items on the shelves.  The paint and cleaning supplies are now stored in the house for the winter.  A few things ended in the garbage, and other items were stowed away in the shed until next summer.  Other than almost cutting off the tip of my finger on a sharp edge (thank God my tetanus vaccine is up to date), the job went smoothly.

Rick came out to hang some ladders and to help me get rid of part of our large ladder than has resided outside for the last month.  Our neighbor agreed to take the large half of the extension ladder leaving us to just store the smaller half.  It is still large enough to get to the roof, so we do not need any more than that. In the end, we have a clean, organized garage that needs only swapping out the rakes for shovels as the seasons change for us to be ready for winter.

Our neighbor's front yard tree displays the beauty
of autumn in Wisconsin. (I just hope that the leaves
stay in her yard when they fall!)

The sun finally came out on Tuesday, so we spent the day outside getting the yard somewhat prepped for winter.  Rick cut the overgrown lawn while I cut down perennials, cleaned leaves and debris out of the window wells, and removed leaves from the gardens next to the house.  The gardens in front are not ready to be trimmed just yet, and that is fine.  Their day will come.

I washed and brought in some of the porch furniture that will spend the winter in the basement.  The pieces that remain outside are now covered and secured on the covered back porch.  The grill still has to find a home in the shed for the season, but that has to wait until Rick puts down the winter grass fertilizer and cuts the grass for the last time this season.  That all probably will happen in a couple of weeks.

We are happily amazed at how FEW leaves we have in the back yard now that our three large trees are gone.  The birch trees have not dropped their leaves yet, but when they do, that should be a fairly easy raking job.  As long as all the leaves do not blow into our yard from our neighbor's trees, we should have an easier time this year.  In the past three years, we have lost four huge trees from our yard.  As we get older, having less yard work to do is fine with me.

We finally are to the point where we can start to relax and to enjoy some of our hobbies.  Rick wants to make a bobbin winding stand and reed storage stand for the loom room.  He is happy when he has something to build, so this is the perfect project for him.  We will use our rebates from Menards to purchase some of the wood for the stand.

The first warp is on the rigid heddle loom.  Soon the large loom
will hold a warp as well.  How wonderful to have natural light
flow into our weaving space!

The end of the remodel is in sight, and we both could not be happier. I actually spent time today to write this blog and to put a warp on the rigid heddle loom.  We both want to relax, to read, and to work on our hobbies rather than working on the house all of the time.