Today turned out to be a terribly disappointing day. We had planned on meeting with the kitchen cabinet guy, letting the pest control people in for the semi-annual treatment of the property, and then getting some painting, scrubbing, assembling, or digging done before the day's end. Sadly, we accomplished little instead.
The day started out well. We got some paperwork needed for the window installation notarized so the installation can commence next week. We then talked to the city planning office about a permit to build a fence. (For those of you new to the blog, in Dunedin you need a permit to do anything short of changing the toilet paper roll!) Next we went to Dunedin Plumbing to find out what we needed to do to get the shower remodeled in the master bathroom. We learned that we probably cannot afford to do ANYTHING this year with the shower... we may keep what we have and just cap off the new wall at this point. We also learned that we cannot change the position of the water heater from our not-yet-enclosed laundry room, and that a soft-water system is not in our near future. This is where the disappointment started. Money, as usual, is the problem.
By 10:00 a.m. we were back home in time to meet with Michael, the cabinet contractor. That is where the disappointment substantially increased. He brought in a sample of the cabinet he proposed, a beautifully constructed maple cabinet in a honey-blonde finish.
"Can I get this in white?" I asked.
"Ah, no," he replied. "This cabinet only comes in this and a darker color."
My mental picture of my beach-front white cabinets against a robin's-egg blue background crumpled before my eyes. I am not a great fan of the 1950's blonde furniture, and these cabinets were just a shade or two darker. I was so disappointed that I wanted to cry. Michael went on to explain that the white cabinets are only available in a lacquer finish that will crack over time, leaving a pencil-like line at all of the joints.
However, that was not the end of the disappointment. We went on to plan the rest of the cabinets, deleting some of the features we did not want and adding some slide-outs and other things that we wanted, all the while keeping the budget in mind. Rick had mentioned this morning that counter space was limited in our current set-up, and in looking at our original plan, we did not gain too much more. Michael suggested getting rid of the kitchen desk to gain more cabinet and counter space. While I really like and use my desk in the kitchen at home, we could gain four more cabinets and another six feet of counter space by deleting the desk. So with a sad, sad sigh, my heart was further broken as the desk disappeared from the plan. Rick promised me a desk in the spare bedroom, but being stuck in the back corner room is not the same as being in a sunny kitchen. I will adjust, but the rest of my mental image of my bright Florida kitchen disappeared forever.
Further disappointment arrived when we reviewed the electrical set-up in the kitchen. The plug for the refrigerator that we paid a fortune for last year needs to be moved 6 inches to the right, and the plug for the stove also is not in the right place. We have to move the upper outlet next to the stove, and we have to add at least four other outlets (all in concrete walls!) to bring everything up to code.
After a brief lunch, we met with the pest control guy who sprayed the house for bugs. He told us that the flying white bugs we noted in the backyard as the trees fell down where, indeed, flying termites. Then I asked him to look at a mysterious hole in the side yard which I told Rick was probably a snake hole. Rick insisted it was not, but the pest control man equally assured me that it probably WAS the abode of a black snake.
"But don't worry," he said with a smile. "Black snakes are good because they eat lizards and fruit rats and other nasty things." Yeah, right. And he thinks a black snake is NOT a "nasty thing"?
By the time the pest control man left, we were at late afternoon. It was still too hot to work outside (so scratch the digging idea), too late to start to assemble the bathroom vanity (scratch assembling), too late to start washing down the guest room walls in preparation for fresh paint (scratch scrubbing), and I was too disappointed to try to be creative with a paint brush in the Florida room.
Rick suggested we go to the store to buy curtain rods for the master bedroom. I had bought thermal insulated curtains from Plow and Hearth for that room last year, but had not taken them from the package yet. We found two rods reasonably priced at Sears and came home. While Rick worked on putting the rods up, I went into the spare bedroom to iron the curtain. More disappointment. One of the panels had some darker threads woven into the white curtains, so there were actually four "lines" in one of the panels. Additionally, the panels did not iron worth crap. They still looked wrinkled when I was finished with them.
We hung two of the panels on the rod Rick had put up and immediately noticed the rod start to bow even though the curtains were not that heavy. Chalk up disappointment number six of the day! Rick called Plow and Hearth and arranged to have the curtains sent back. Then he took down the rod, we repackaged it, and returned that to Sears.
I want to cry. My kitchen plans are changed, and it will take me a while to get used to the new look and new plans for the room. Black snakes have moved into my southern flower garden, and termites are in the air. Nothing seemed to work out as planned today. I cannot even say that it was a productive day where I completed a single task beyond making dinner and washing the dishes.
I know that I should not be so ungrateful. The cabinets Michael proposed are made very well, and I am sure that they will still be bright, new, and very functional in the room. The revised cabinet plans also are going to give me lots of storage space and counter space to use, so in the end that too is probably a good thing.
Black snakes DO eat other pests, and they are more afraid of humans than (supposedly) humans are of them, and I still have the old shades in my bedroom, so the windows are covered for the evening.
I am going to bed. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, I will do so to a better day.
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