Slow Progress

So it's become apparent the kitchen definitely won't be finished this weekend. Since Tuesday, Joe's uncle John and aunt Julie came over, and John helped Joe determine a plan for doing all of the electrical work. That, along with buying some supplies, took up most of Tuesday night. Last night we went out for dinner. After splitting a pitcher of Ponak's margaritas, which are by far the best in KC (and really dangerous!) we opted to head home and watch a movie. In bed. We were asleep by 10:30! So much for celebrating the new year in style! I guess 7 hours of driving from KC to St. Louis and back again in 1 day was just too much.

Joe was getting a little nervous about doing the finishing work on all of the plaster in the kitchen, since neither of us have done any of that. We called our favorite contractor, who kindly enough came over this afternoon. Apparently luck was on our side, as his business has been really slow, and Joe was in the middle of re-wiring an outlet when the contractor showed up. Anxious to not have to fix any more of Joe's work :), the contractor managed to give us a very good and fair price on not only taking the soffit out, repairing the ceiling and finishing the trim work around the two doors that Joe had torn out, but also adding 5 recessed lights in the ceiling, running the electrical for the microwave, cabinet lights and ceiling lights, touching up the holes in the plaster (that will be hidden behind the cabinets when those are installed) and hauling away our extra demolition trash! Essentially, his crew starts work Monday and will probably be finished by Wednesday or Thursday, and the room will be ready for us to paint. I still have some prep work to do on the walls, but since I will be working a boat show all next week, I'm glad to know that the kitchen will be getting closer to completion while I'm not able to do the work.

This afternoon we also headed to Nebraska Furniture Mart, which is quite possibly the largest furniture/appliance/electronics store in the country. It's absolutely enormous. The store also price matches everyone and is constantly running sales. We were able to get our new microwave and counter height kitchen table with chairs there, which we'll pick up a week from Monday. Our new goal is that the cabinets will be installed next Saturday, so we can finish the room on Sunday! Here's hoping nothing goes wrong that keeps us from finishing the room in another 10 days!