Granite Groans and Grins

As expected, my phone did not ring on Thursday evening with a time when the granite people might come; however, I did get a call early on Friday from the company telling me that they would be at our house in approximately an hour.  By this time Rick was so angry and upset that he just left for the day.

When the granite people got here, they put in the small piece next to the stove first so they would not lose or damage it.  Then they brought in the piece that they had broken last time.  Before they could fit the last one in, I asked them about fixing the hole that the last installer had left in the wall.

"We were not told anything about fixing a wall," one installer said.  "We have nothing in the truck to fix drywall."

"Well, the owner said that you would fix the wall, so hang on," I replied.  I went to our garage and brought in a scrap piece of drywall and some drywall tape.  They carefully cut a piece, screwed it into the exposed wall studs, caulked around the whole patch, and then topped it off with the drywall tape.  Since the whole patch is behind the backsplash, they did not have to do more, but since that wall was an uninsulated outside wall, we wanted it covered.

After the repair they brought in the rest of the granite and completed the installation.  This time they did not chip the sink, and they did an excellent job with the installation.  They took their time and knew what they were doing.  Our only problem with the granite now is that the bill was $100 more than what was quoted to us earlier in the week, and about $1200 more than the original estimate on the whole job.  Rick is upset with that; I am just to the point where I want no more hassle.  I paid the bill, and I hope that we do not have to have any more Florida contractors ever in our house.

The kitchen is completely transformed.  I now have a spacious, modern, clean, convenient kitchen to return to in January.  We did not have enough time to hook up the plumbing and the dishwasher.  That will be our first task of the new year.

We are leaving later today for Wisconsin.  We awoke to fog this morning, but that has since burned off and the day promises to be sunny with highs in the upper 70's to low 80's.  When we woke up this morning, Green Bay had a temperature of 28, and we expect that we will need our winter jackets when we get off the plane.  I am happy that we left a car at the airport.  We have a later flight, so we will not get home until about 9:30 this evening.

I really do not want to go back to work, but I have six more weeks of class to cover.  Then I will truly be retired, and we hopefully can enjoy the Florida sunshine.