06/14/2012

1.  It was a busy day!  We got granite installed in the kitchen, master bath, and the boys' bathroom.  It looks so good.  Ben has been wanting to put in granite since we moved into the house 5 years ago, and has been keeping his eye out for a good price.  A few months ago Lowes had an incredibly good deal, and here we are! 
I had no idea how big of a job, and how messy of a job this would be.
We had to clear off all the countertops (obviously), as well as under the sinks.  Under the sinks in the master bathroom has been an area of anxiety for me-- the only place in the bathroom I haven't yet thoroughly organized.  Well, this will give me a chance to organize it!  For now, we just dumped everything into plastic bins.  So there are boxes everywhere, kitchen items on the floor in the playroom, and bathroom things on the floor in my room.
The boys were supposed to be doing schoolwork, but it was tough because watching the tear-out and installation were way more exciting.  So I pretty much let them watch as much as they wanted-- it's not every day you get such hubbub in the house!  Mosey got such a kick out of watching them tear out the old countertops.  He kept rushing back to me to tell me to come look-- "It looks so weird, mom!"  And he collected everything he could-- broken chunks of the old countertops, long strips of old caulking (yuck), and as many scraps of the granite as the workers would let him have. 
It took ALL day for the people to finally finish up.  They got here around 9:30 AM, and didn't leave until 8:30 PM.  I guess it was a big job.  They ended up leaving several big pieces of granite from the sink cut-outs that are now sitting on the couch and the kitchen table.  I'm sure the boys will come up with something awesome to do with them.  :-)
Unfortunately, when the workers were done installing the countertops, things were nowhere near ready to put back together.  The sinks were in, but none of the faucets or drain assemblies or pipes were assembled.  They had to remove the big mirrors from the bathroom walls, which they left leaning against the wall.  Ben struggled trying to get the kitchen faucet in, but the new sink is deeper than the old one, and after more than 2 hours I told him to go to bed!  We were both up till after 2:00 AM.  I think we'll end up having a handyman come and finish up the sinks.  It's too time-consuming for Ben.  I hate not being able to do stuff like this-- I used to be the handy one between the two of us, and I actually like that kind of stuff.  Oh well.  :-(

2.  On top of the granite stuff, we also had our homeschool group over to swim in the afternoon-- 11 yelling and laughing and splashing little kids (and one dog who can't stay out of the pool).  AND, Stephanie brought her puppy over again for us to dog-sit.  That puppy is SO darned cute.  And SO energetic.  So for a couple of hours it was pretty much utter chaos around here.  But a fun chaos!

3.  So, in the spirit of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," our kitchen project is expanding.  Once the granite was in, it looked so good, and we knew it would look so much better with stainless steel appliances.  I'll take a picture when it's all done, but there is grey in the granite that would tie in the stainless appliances really well.  And we need a new dishwasher and microwave anyway because the ones we have are on their last leg.  And our refrigerator ice-maker is broken, and to fix it will be $600, more than the refrigerator is worth, so getting a new refrigerator wouldn't be totally crazy.  The only thing we really don't need to replace is the range, and I think I can get a decent price for it on Craigslist.  So, last night we went to Lowes to look at stainless appliances.  Actually, earlier in the day Ben went to Lowes to get a new dishwasher, but he got a white one, since the one we were replacing was white.  So after we decided to go stainless, I did a bunch of research, and we went back to Lowes to return the dishwasher and take a look at some of the other options I had researched. 
Long story short(er), we'd like to get all the new stuff in over the next couple of days, before the house appraiser comes back.  So I've been checking all the different Lowes locations to see which ones carry the items we're looking for.  It's going to be nice, but it's kind of crazy right now. 
On the way home from Lowes, Brigham (who came with Ben and me) quizzed Ben on the causes of the Great Depression and the various effects of the government policies that followed.  Brigham loves politics, and has a sharp little mind that likes to understand how everything works.  It's fun to listen to him and Ben talk-- Ben explaining things, and then Brigham repeating back to him to make sure he understands.  I remember having discussions kind of like that with my dad when I was about Brigham's age!