Category: November 2022

Somewhere back in there is a red couch. I mean seriously, how does one lose a bright red, full-sized, hide-a-bed couch?

Ah-ha! There it is!

Oh no, it won’t go through the door!

We got it in there – surely it will come out again. We will probably have to take the door off its hinges and we might need to take the hide-a-bed part out of the couch to make it easier to move. Sigh. It’s all so much work!

Meanwhile John and I both have had a little bit of a cold, nothing serious. We must have gotten it when we were still in Albuquerque. I had a migraine on the day we packed up to get ready to go to Tucson, and a migraine the next day when we drove out. That was tough because we drove both the van and the Mini Cooper out, meaning we both had to drive the whole way without being able to switch off drivers. Then I still had the migraine on the first day here, in midst of the complete chaos. I didn’t realize I was getting a cold, I thought I was just migraining due to stress, but now we’re both a little sniffly.

In order to prepare for the remodel, we had packed everything in Tucson into boxes. So now we’re living out of boxes and it’s general chaos. When they were tiling the floor, I think that every time they got ready to tile a room they moved the furniture into the next room over. It was all piled up together in the wrong rooms.

We finally mostly got the piles of furniture out of the living room.

But we still have boxes everywhere.

It feels like we just moved in, but on top of that, everything is filthy and only half of everything works.

For example, in the kitchen we have literally half the sink (one side). The other side is not hooked up to a drain. The contractor had a piece of cardboard over the non-working side so we wouldn’t try to run water down a non-existent drain. The cardboard was all warped and splashed and gross from the contractor using the sink for contractor related tasks, so John taped a piece of tile over the useless half of the sink instead of the cardboard.

It happens to be an unneeded sample of travertine tile. We did not end up using travertine. We have lots and lots of sample materials that we did not end up choosing. It’s better to pay $2 or $4 for samples of things and take them home and rule them out, then buy thousands of dollars worth of a material that you’re going to regret after it’s installed.

At least we have half a working sink, but unfortunately we only have cold water in the kitchen. That’s because our contractor assumed we were not keeping our old kitchen faucet, and threw it out into the backyard with the old sink when he demolished the kitchen, and it got messed up. Except it wasn’t an old kitchen faucet, it was new a year ago; John had installed it sometime after we moved in because the original one was really bad. Well, now the newish one doesn’t work right.

Meanwhile, since our countertop has taken so long to arrive, we’ve reinstalled the old sink and newish faucet that had been tossed into the weeds in the backyard, so we have something to use while we wait for the countertop. We were planning on replacing the sink but not the faucet, but now that the faucet is mostly broken we need to replace both the sink and the faucet. It was a $300 faucet, new last year, but oh well. When remodeling, you can’t sweat the small stuff. Typically I don’t consider $300 to be a small amount, but during a remodel thousands of dollars are flying out the window and it puts things into perspective.

Here you can see the wood and tile pieces strewn around on top of the cabinets to make a working surface. The stove isn’t hooked up yet – it’s there under the plastic, waiting for the gas line.

Here we are making eggs on a hot plate on a plywood countertop.

At least we have a working microwave and refrigerator. The kitchen is minimally functional but less than ideal. It’s a lot better than it was, and it’s going to look nice eventually.

The hall bathroom has no sink or toilet. There’s a red plastic picnic bowl blocking the sewer gas from escaping the pipe where the toilet belongs. I’m not actually sure why the toilet can’t be installed. It was removed for the floor tiling, which is done in that room. It looks like our contractor has been doing drywall work behind it, and we might end up putting wall tile back there too.

Luckily, the master bathroom is mostly working. We have not remodeled the master bathroom yet except for the floor tile. It has a working toilet, working shower, and one of the two sinks is working. So the master bathroom is essentially functional.

We also have the pool bathroom in working condition. That one is built off the back of the garage and has no heat or air conditioning. I bought a portable heat and AC unit for it that John is going to install at some point. But for now, it’s cold out there! I know, I know, it’s Tucson. How cold can it be? I was 52º when I was ready to shower at 9:00 this morning, which is far warmer than Albuquerque at 29º. But still, I find 52º to be rather cold for a bathroom.

The construction dust has permeated the entire house and is nearly overwhelming. It’s like a volcanic ash fall, over everything. I suspect the tile guy may have been cutting floor tile in the house. It’s the sort of dust that gets into crevasses and is never coming out. It’s not just on the top of all the furniture and surfaces. It’s on the sides and even the undersides of everything. It’s coated the walls, permeated the rolled-up area rugs, infused the lamp shades, crept into drawers, it’s everywhere and we will never be rid of it all. Actually, maybe we don’t have the sniffles after all, maybe it’s the dust!

Our contractor was able to get the cabinets installed this past week. Remember how the cabinet company ended up sending the wrong corner cabinets twice? Turns out they sent the wrong corner cabinets THREE TIMES. The first two mistakes were factory mistakes and the third mistake was the local cabinet designer. She has generally been very good and easy to work with, and she did expedite the replacement. Finally, on the fourth try, we got the correct corner cabinets.

Now we are trying to get onto the countertop installer’s schedule. He is based in Phoenix and needs to come down twice, first to create his template and then to install the countertop after he has fabricated it. We are hoping he can come down to do the templating before Thanksgiving, but we’ll have to see. Even so, it will probably be at least a month before we have countertop, and it may not be until after Christmas.

We had wanted to go to a big art show in Tucson this weekend, but we are tired and possibly getting over a mild cold (or dust allergies) and are still very much not unpacked. The critical items are unpacked. We have the basic necessities like coffee, toilet paper, blankets, aspirin, and dog food! But still, every time I turn around I can’t find something I need.

Our house looks like a crazy person went through unhooking toilets and sinks and electrical outlets and strewing them around, and then a moving van unloaded boxes and furniture completely haphazardly, immediately followed by a volcano spewing ash.

John has been busy fixing and installing things. For example, the sewer gas I mentioned that we had coming from the hall bathroom. That’s what happens when sinks and toilets aren’t installed. So he plugged that up. Also the kitchen cabinets were installed but the shelves weren’t yet, so he spent a lot of time yesterday installing cabinet shelves so I could start to unpack the kitchen.

Generally it’s easier to remodel before moving in, but we bought this house in the summer of 2020 and it was just not feasible to try to do a remodel during the second half of 2020. I went for several months without even being able to buy a dryer – there’s no way we could have gotten tile and cabinets and countertop in. And I was immunocompromised due to chemotherapy, so we didn’t want any workers in the house. And I wouldn’t have wanted to go to any stores to pick out materials. For awhile there I didn’t go anywhere, at all, except the cancer center.

I’m grateful we’re able to do the remodel now, and I am sure looking forward to being done. It’s going to be awhile yet before we’re all the way done, but it’s getting better and I know it’s going to be beautiful.

Yesterday we did FaceTime with Callan and Chirstina to show them the house. Originally they were going to come visit for Thanksgiving until I realized we probably weren’t going to be ready for guests yet. So they were curious to know how far we actually did manage to get. Well, the house is livable but certainly not comfortable. After our FaceTime chat they realized I was not kidding when I said they really don’t want to visit yet!

The guest room was the one room that was completely empty. So far we’ve managed to get the bed dragged into there, but not set up.

Also I had put some clothes in there and managed to break the closet rod, so there lay my clothes in a rumpled heap on the ground. At least they were bagged because – dust!!

John went to the store this morning and bought me a croissant and flowers. Who knows where we might have vases, so he put the flowers in a plastic water jug. He usually makes pancakes on the weekend, but this weekend toaster waffles are going to have to suffice.

Meanwhile Biska is as cheerful as ever. She’s like, “Everything looks fine to me.”

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism