Thursday, April 05, 2007

Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Wednesday, April 4, 2007
The electricians installed the lights today, leading to an ever more finished look. The ceiling fixture is a Mission-style chandelier.

The rest of the chandelier parts are still on the windowsill, as you can see in this shot of the pendant light over the kitchen sink. This light is the second of the two things I picked out with no guidance from Michael, the first being the faucet, on which more later.

On the east wall, there are two Art Deco-style sconces:


And, by the cooktop, one little wall sconce that matches the Mission-style chandelier. If you look closely, you can see that there is a hole in the wall above the sconce. It looks like the first space cut out of the wall for the sconce wasn't in the right place, so a little patching will have to be done here. Oops.

And our oven, which, of course, isn't really pink, is finally out of its box in the living room and into its rightful place on the wall. Now that is progress.

However, what Jim really wanted was running water. When he came home, and saw that the faucet wasn't working, he was irate that the plumber hadn't come today to fix it. I was going to suggest that it might have been a special plumbers' holiday, but he didn't seem to be in the mood for banter, so I said nothing.
Jim announced he was going to Call Adam. Jim hates to complain, and he doesn't much like making phone calls, so Calling Adam is reserved for when Desperate Measures are called for. After he talked to Adam, however, his ire was redirected from the plumber to me. It seems that the plumber had been here today, but the problem was a defective part in the faucet. That is, "there's something wrong with YOUR faucet." As in, "Oh, no, a normal faucet from Home Depot isn't good enough for you. You had to have a SPECIAL faucet." And the part has to be Special Ordered. Probably, his voice implied, from Bulgaria or someplace that has once-a-month mail delivery. I said, "Don't worry Jim, we'll have water in the kitchen soon." "We'll see," he said darkly.
Then his rancor shifted to the refrigerator, which was still in the living room. "I'm moving the refrigerator in the kitchen myself," he announced. I said something helpful like, "That's insane." My friend Mary, who had been observing this exchange, moved quietly toward the front door, looking for escape.
Mary escaped. I went to yoga and meditated on the idea of running water. I brought Jim a big chocolate dessert from Gigi's to make him feel better. He felt better.
Will the Wolf kitchen ever have water? Will Jim return to his normal equable self? Will the pink and blue appliances become stainless steel?
Stay tuned.

11 comments:

jini said...

i am laughing myself silly.....no no, not at you or jim, but at our similar predicament last may.
i had, with confidence told friends they could stay with us the last week in may.....of course we would be done with our project by then. NOT. the appliances were installed the week previous, and the plumber arrived on friday to hook up the sink which would also activate the dishwasher. he did, and all was well. then we discovered a leak and called him back and he fixed that and all was well. well, except that the sink slowly filled with water after we used it. seems it had been out of use for so long, since mid february, that pipes and accumulated gunk were dry or whatever. we had an emergency plumbing visit on monday morning and they finally fixed it in time for arrival of guests on wednesday. hysteria ruled as i figured out how to use the new appliances and cook, bake etc with all the stuff for the first time with guests waiting expectantly.
of course we didn't have beautiful floors like yours, but glorious patches of old vinyl over plywood. it was stunning. :)

Anonymous said...

Let me think...let me think. No, I can't think of anything to write that will cheer you both up. You are at the plumbers mercy.
Another choice is that you cry Marie or Jim has to cry. It might work to speed things up.

Daniela said...

Isn't renovating just so... FUN?! I have often felt the same way as your Jim with the moving the fridge himself. There is some bamboo flooring (that actually goes around the tub deck) sitting in our hallway for weeks and weeks. The other day I told my husband that I was just going to install it myself! And I'm afraid that we are not nearly so reticent about Calling Adam. I cry in frustration, my husband calls Adam...

Anonymous said...

Well, there you have it then, you are almost finished with the remodel...you must have at least one bit of arguing/freaking out during a major remodel and there you have it...proceed and finish! I think you will be cooking and washing dishes in no time...thanks for sharing your stories with us, we can all laugh as we have all been there!

Good Luck!

Stacey

DEMEGrad said...

Two steps forward, one step back, it happens but you seem to be getting very close to having a kitchen. Have you been thinking about the first bread to come out of the new oven?

Anonymous said...

Just thought I would write on the off chance someone out there with the BB would see this...I packed away my copy of the BB as we have just purchased our first new home...we really want our usual BB pizza this weekend but...I can't remember the measurements...
I know it is really simple because the yeast, salt and something else are all one teaspoon, right? Then oil and 1/2 c. of flour?? Ugh, here is where I get confused! I don't need any directions b/c we have made this dough about 10 times, but I am horrible with measurements... Help!

Marie, have you not been posting b/c you are busy cooking/baking????Just thought I would check :)

Thanks!

Stacey

Anonymous said...

Flour (all-purpose,unbleached) 4oz/113 grams
instant yeast 1/2 teaspoon
sugar 1/2 teaspoon
salt 1/2 teaspoon
water 2.75 oz /79 grams (70 to 90 degrees)
olive oil 0.6 oz/ 18 grams

Anonymous said...

Melinda,

You are my hero! We will be enjoying delicious pizza this weekend thanks to you! I was thinking I would have to break down and start digging through boxes... :)

Stacey

Anonymous said...

Where is Marie? I am anxious to know what is happening too? Glad the amounts helped you Stacey.

Anonymous said...

Stacey,
The pizza sounds so delicious it makes my tummy ache with wanting to make it!!!

Since I don't have a working oven, for now, I can only read and imagine! -- which I'm having a great time doing here.

After your question here, I went to the Bread Bible blog on the chance the recipe might have been reprinted online. It wasn't, but I enjoyed reading about some baking technique variations.
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/02/pizza_praise.html
You might enjoy reading that page too.

Then I did a search here and got to read Marie's entries for Potato Flatbread Pizza (8/20/06), Alsation Onion Pizza (4/02/06), and Sicillian Vegetable Pizza Roll (7/05/06). Oh, yum!

I so want an oven!

Marissa

Anonymous said...

Thanks Marissa, I will check out the info on Rose's page. I hope you have a working oven again soon, the pizza was delish. Because we are moving, we are trying to use up things in our refrigerator and cupboards, we had a pizza with a Kalamata olive spread, artichoke hearts and some interesting cheese. Sounds odd perhaps, but it was great...

I remember reading about Marie's Alsation Onion pizza, I will have to reread that right now...

Stacey