So our landlord decided to put in new counter tops in our kitchen - yea! It was like an early Christmas, sort of. Our counter tops weren't horrible before. They were laminate and a nice color. It wasn't peeling off at the edges, but there were parts in the middle that didn't stick to whatever was underneath. But the landlord is trying to make the house nicer so he can sell it when we move out -- although with the housing market the way it is, he might try to get renters for another year.
Now, if you've ever heard me talk about my landlord before, you know that I like to complain about his "handyman" projects. But I'm not really complaining - I'm very happy with our home and we have a great landlord. It's just that certain things about my house make my inner self chuckle and I want to share that with others. He's no Bob the Builder. In fact, he's in the medical field and our cozy home is just an investment opportunity for him. But he likes to do his own home improvement projects. And to this we attribute the following: in our showers, the hot water is cold and the cold water is hot; the pipe for the shower head is not secured inside the wall, and so when I try to change the direction of the spray, I can feel the whole pipe move behind the tiled wall; 2 drawers don't really pull out in my kitchen unless you open the dishwasher or the oven (although the new counter tops have solved the oven drawer problem); a corner drawer only opens half way because the knob from the next drawer stops it; there's a hole in the brick outside the house where we can see the back of a kitchen cabinet. So we were very happy to learn that our counter tops would be installed professionally.
The men came on Thursday to install the counter tops. We were conveniently out of town (staying at the historic Martha Washington Inn while Coulson had a sleep over with his best friends Alex and Noah. And we also had a great time with Brock and Jennifer, Alex and Noah's parents. And Charlie played with his womb-buddy Taylor - they were born 2 1/2 weeks apart. And Chester had a great time with their dogs Murry and Abby. It's great fun to visit them - something for everyone!) And we returned Friday evening to our new kitchen!
Ah, yes, our new counters came without plumbing. Apparently the people at Lowes forgot to make an appointment with the plumber on Friday and thus the plumber would not be coming until Monday. MONDAY. This was Friday night so there would be Saturday and Sunday and 2 small kids who like to eat and make messes. My kitchen sink gets a lot of use! Our landlord said he "had words" with the people at Lowes, but apparently that didn't change anything. Although we were fully upset about this, we did take solace in one word: plumber. As in, a professional.
My weekend without a working sink helped me realize what a total priss I am. "One billion people do not have access to safe and affordable drinking water, and 2.4 billion people live in conditions lacking adequate sanitation," and here I am all pissed because I have to walk all the way to bathroom to get water (source: Department for International Development, UK). And do I "rough it" and do all my dishes in the bathroom sink and lug water to my kitchen for cooking and cleaning? Heck no! I dig in my heels, refuse to cook or clean and jump on the opportunity to eat out all weekend. But the situation did remind me of how many privileges I take for granted and it renewed my gratitude for my many blessings. And I did find an eager substitute for my garbage disposal.
On Sunday afternoon, my landlord called and said he was going to come over and try to install the sink faucet himself. Ahhhggggg! First, it's Sunday afternoon already, the damage has been done. Second, he's going to try to install it himself! We all know how the bathroom turned out. So he showed up with a Plumbing for Dummies type book and a friend and they tinkered around in the kitchen for a while. Finally they started to leave. "We can't do it. We need too many parts from the old sink," he told me. "Oh, the old sink is just sitting in the laundry room," I thoughtlessly replied. %$!^$%#*&! When will I learn to shut up! So they went back to work. Fortunately, they were still unable to fix the sink and for some reason he went out and bought a brand new disposal for the plumber to install.
Long story short, the plumber came on Monday morning and I like my new kitchen a lot!
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