not much to report

Well, not much visible progress to report from this week.

We failed the framing inspection on Monday. Nothing major, just some minor stuff but the framer had gone to China to get a new wife and was accordingly unavailable. But rumor had it he was to return shortly so we waited and then waited some more.

But return he did and he was in fine spirits. I asked him if he got married and he said he thought he did but had to sign his name so many times on documents (all of which were in Chinese) that he really didn't know what all he did. But regardless of what he signed, he made it back and hopes to be able to bring his new wife here later in the year. (Note to the English majors out there; I know using the word "he" six times in one sentence is a bit much but I had a complex thought to express. Please submit some alternative wordings if you'd like.)

And he fixed the framing issues. Or at least I hope he did; we will find out for sure tomorrow when the inspector comes again.

The "not one word of English" siding guys brought their ladders back and finished up what they lacked too. Looks good.

And the smurf tube is installed, so we can now pipe smurfs throughout the house.

Someone did ask about the kitchen saga. As you may recall, when we left it last we had assembled a "kitchen design team" consisting of a kitchen designer (the one who does all the work), the sales person (the lady with the makeup and jewelry who gets the commission) and the installation coordinator (the guy with the tape measure). After two weeks of scheduling conflicts, we had the big meeting where the guy with the tape measure measured with great precision and deliberation. After 30 minutes of detailed measuring he asked to borrow a pencil which then became the official marking pencil and put marks on the floor, which happened to be on top of the marks I drew a month earlier. So success of sorts; after weeks of preparation it was determined that yes, our kitchen would work better with cabinets and yes, cabinets would fit and yes, they would take our money and order cabinets and request the tree be cut down. Of course we would be advised shortly of when they are to arrive (of which we are still waiting to be told when they might arrive). (Actually I made up the part about requesting the tree be cut down. I'd like to think it has already been cut down).

But this tree nonsense is important for I did not want cabinets that were made out of little more than sawdust and glue. This of course is an extraordinary request, which means you have just catapulted the price range of the cabinets from reasonable past significant to "what did you say?". None the less, hopefully the cabinets will come, made out of real wood that looks like what we saw and will come when we need them.

What we did not order was cabinet hardware. The hardware on the cabinets we saw was, get this, $21 for the handle and $13 for the backplate. For the math majors out there, this comes to $34 per door plus tax plus installation. Just to open the door. Of course the drawer handles were different and were only $16 a piece, once again before tax and installation. While this may come as a surprise to some, I am currently looking for some alternatives. Preferably something on sale. And if they all match that would be good too.

And finally, it was pointed out to me it was actually Bren's birthday last week, so my creative photography was not in waste. Bren, the boy who spent a significant portion of his youth at our house. Bren, the boy who broke out one of our greatroom windows with a rock thrown like a bullet. Bren, the boy who had someone video tape him skateboarding on the edge of the bathtub in the house next door. Bren, who was at the infamous Braves game with his older brother and my son when they were about four or five where his older brother accidentally poured 32 ounces of Coke down the back of the guy who had the misfortune of sitting in front of us. That Bren. How could I forget? So, happy birthday, Mr. Bren, it was good to hear from you. Come by and see the house then next time you are in town.

So, as I have said every week for the last three weeks (or is it four), hopefully by this time next week we should have sheetrock.