This is actually being written on Day Sixteen, August 27, the day after Hurricane Laura swept through my hometown. Continuing to document this home improvement is a way to keep myself together.
Tuesday afternoon (Day 14) was an opportunity to reflect on leadership, and how often leadership means being pulled away from what you need to be working on to bring full, sincere attention to an incomprehensible situation that is very important to someone else (and, of course, also to you) and also to styles of communication that demand full concentration. And I thought, “Thank God I’m not running for President!”
In the hour before I had to leave for my program, I planned and wanted nothing more than to review my script for timing and phrasing. Instead, in that one hour I was interrupted by the doorbell no fewer than three times to go back to the kitchen for something or other. Once was to point out damage to a piece of cabinetry, which had arrived that way from the maker. It will be concealed by doors, but they were shocked that I just didn’t care that much. (You must remember that I was focused on my program that evening, and working on my script.)
The cabinet is above the washer/dryer. The crack will be covered by the door, of course.
Another had to do with confirming whether a panel was actually the correct size, and I was very impressed with myself at being able to answer “Yes!” right away. This is the panel between the washer/dryer and the counter; it’s longer than the cabinet because it’s the depth of the washer/dryer.
The tall panel is the correct depth. And yes, the washer/dryer will extend a bit into the window, and yes I did know that already. I’d much rather have them there than in the pantry.
The third (if I’m remembering these things in order) had to do with the projected shimming of the cabinets on the wall with the sink - which we actually can’t do, because at the far left there is a drawer unit, and you can’t shim that. After awhile the contractor’s partner and I realized that “over the floor” and “under the dishwasher” meant the same thing. But it took awhile.
And then I fled to my program (which went extremely well, thank goodness).
Wednesday (actual Day 15) began with “Ohhhhh, that moon’s bright.” For the first time I was not on the back porch to greet the crew on arrival. And for me, it turned out to be a day like the previous day: many and varied conversations, more words spoken than I needed to comprehend a situation . . . but one relieving resolution. I did not need to be told three times in quick succession that it might not be possible to duplicate the original window frames exactly. At any moment I felt like I’d start to channel Lucy Honeychurch: “No, NO! I will not listen to ONE MORE WORD!”
But the first Big Problem of the Day was “Where are the countertops?” “What, they didn’t come with the cabinets?” “No, they’re not here!” “What was in those big long boxes?” “The panels to go around the appliances.” Uh oh! The good news: the kitchen designer at ye Heaumeau Depeau called as soon as he got my email, which was a great relief. The bad news: he’d told me right from the beginning, and proved it, that I was supposed to call the stonemason people making the counters to schedule something called a templating. So the “Oops!” was my fault. Better news: the nice stonemason people were able to schedule a templating on Friday morning, first thing!
Then the Big Issue to tackle was the Wickedly Delayed Appliances. The kitchen designer was very sympathetic, and gave me an 800 number I had already used. This time, however, I went to a different menu - customer care, not appliance delivery or whatever it was - and . . . and I actually got to speak to a real live person! Over 54 minutes (most of it on hold), two HD staff solved the problem of the back ordered dishwasher. They were able to cancel it from my original order and reschedule the delivery of all the remaining appliances for next week Wednesday. The second staffer told me how refreshing it was to speak with someone who was so courteous and not screaming and yelling all the time. So that was a great relief.
And then I really was thrilled with the progress that had been made on cabinet installation. I am so excited to get this all done and be able to move things in! Because I haven’t started to load them, it feels like I have a lot more storage than before. But that might not turn out to be true.
The pantry cabinets are coming along nicely, too. I’m especially happy with those glass-fronted doors.
