The moral of the story is: don’t say no one’s coming until the afternoon if the first person is actually going to arrive at 8:30 AM. Which is what happened today. I really am trying my hardest to be flexible during this unique period, but for the rest of the day I could not throw off the expectation that I had been told I’d have the house to myself in the morning, and then didn’t. But that’s on me, not on anyone else.
At least I had a bathrobe and a mask on when the interruptions started.
The backsplash came out nicely, especially considering how not-so-nice the previous backsplash was.
The two planned big events today were the installation of the appliances and the tile backsplash. They had to summon me from the bathtub (!) to confirm where the backsplash was to go (I knew it wouldn’t have been helpful to say “On the wall, dearie”). By the time I was dry and dressed, two other issues had surfaced with the recirculating vent thingy. First, the carbon filter that was supposed to come with it wasn’t in the box. Second, to everyone’s surprise, the round thing on the top to fit it into a duct (if it weren’t recirculating) wasn’t removable, so they were going to need to cut into the bottom of the upper cabinet and then put a lid on that duct thingy.
As long as they put a cap on it, it’s not a problem.
Late in the afternoon, another call to come back to the kitchen. The stove had been installed, and they were just getting ready to install the fridge. “Rrrrrobert, there’s no ice maker on this refrigerator!” Well . . . hell, at this point I don’t know if I ordered one and I don’t care. They are installing it without an ice maker, even though they’ve plumbed for one. Can’t this just please end?! (Turns out I did not order an ice maker.)
The installed stove and refrigerator . . . before . . .
I had to spend the cocktail hour with a back fence neighbor, as they are planning to prune trees on our property that overhang their parking lot. When I returned, the contractor’s partner had gone, and the plumber told me that they couldn’t install the washer/dryer because they need a stacking bracket. Which was supposed to be in the box. And apparently I have to call ye Heaueau Depeau to find out what’s going on with that. Oh dear.
My home from behind. I had never seen it from the neighbors’ parking lot!
After they’d gone and I walked back into the house, my immediate reaction was “Who farted, and is that why the bathroom door is closed?” Unfortunately, the gas I was smelling wasn’t that sort, and in the kitchen it was prominent. So I texted the contractor. He responded to open the windows, and sent the plumber back to look things over. Apparently when you install a stove or reopen a gas line you have to “bleed the system” or something, so he moved the stove out from the wall, draped himself over the counter to reach behind, made some adjustments, moved the stove back into position, and lit all the burners one by one to be sure they worked. Then he waited about a bit, and perhaps the smell dissipated a bit, and took off.
Waiting for his arrival, the neighbors texted “Does anyone else smell gas? Should we call 911?” So at least I was able to tell them the source. But half an hour later they could still smell it, and so could I. I texted the contractor again, and abandoned my plan to dine out. By 7:30 he was back, and finally identified the problem: a faulty fitting in the basement. He turned off the valve - so I won’t be using my new stove yet - and will replace the faulty fitting when he returns Friday to install the dishwasher.
So - that’s enough excitement for today! Whew!
