Sunday, November 23, 2008

Oh my aching...everything!

We have been working hard this weekend. What else is new, right? Our most exciting event is that we installed our new Caroma dual flush toilet in the hall bath upstairs, and put the bathroom door back on so we could actually use it! So far, it seems great. It was really easy to install, and we have both tried it out and it works fine. We will need to put some instructions on the top of the tank for guests, so they know which button to choose :) The only issue with the toilet is that it is really long, and we bought two - one for the downstairs bath - which will be too long to allow access to the shower. We need to some up with some solution to that. I've already contacted the company to see if they sent the elongated bowl vs. the round...I think that may be the case. If so, it is an easy fix.

On the kitchen front, the walls are primed and the ceiling is painted (as of about 30 minutes ago!), although there is a little more sanding that the guys will do tomorrow. I'll need to go back and prime/paint once they are done. Honey and I put together the last few cabinets today - we just need to build the drawers now. The plan is for the cabinets to go in this week, but we have another snag. I pulled out one of the cover panels to check the size, and discovered that it is white instead of beech! AHHHHHHH! SO I had to recheck the entire IKEA order again, and it turns out that all of the upper cabinet cover panels are wrong as are the deco strips that hide the under cabinet lights. Another phone call to my buddy Cindy at IKEA was made. Hopefully we can work this out quickly. Maybe these are in stock and I can go pick them up at the store.

We did some trim work too - put a few thresholds in. We framed out a small wall to cover the water main in the guest room closet. It is crazy how the main travels through the house, but the worst part is that it is really loud - sounds like a waterfall whenever the water is turned on or a toilet is flushed. Our guests will be very unhappy in the leaking room. We found some soundproof drywall and are supposed to have a sheet delivered tomorrow. We'll cover it up and make a little access door for the shut off valve. We hope our guests have sweet dreams instead of dreams of rushing rivers.

I'm struggling with insulation and lighting right now. I'd like to do an eco friendly insulation, but it is tempting to go with the cheap and easy pink stuff. I'd also like to move towards LED lighting and away from CFL's and incandescents, but I love dimmer switches (we have them all over the house) and they are not really compatible. There are LED specific dimmer switches, but they look like the MUZAK controls in the office, and I'd have to but a whole lot of them. I think I'll keep researching both options, and probably just start putting LED's wherever I can. Make a slow transition - we can't do everything at once, right?!

I need to stretch. Painting ceiling can take a toll.

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