5.10.2006
Good News and then nothing else (now with renewed whining)
First, the good news. My friend's design was picked for the Utah state quarter! Thanks to everyone who voted. I am CERTAIN that your votes were the ones that convinced the Governor that the Golden Spike design was the best. So, when the design is released in 2007, and you hold one in your little hand, think of me. And then send it to me, cause I could use the money.
Ok, here's the whine, for those of you who wanted to see it: Now for the blah. I feel very small these last few days. I know I know it's just a reaction to the chaos in the house. And all the hard work the last few weekends that has kept us from resting up for the work weeks, and, you know, getting all our laundry done so that we're not staring stupidly in our closet in the ungodly hours, realizing that the only thing we have to wear to work are pants that are so wrinkled that they rival the moon for canyons or skirts. And then you reach for the skirt, put it on, and then look down at your sasquatch legs that you've been too tired and busy to shave for the last 2 months. And so put the skirt back and grab the pants and spray them with water and try to smooth them with your hands (as the clock ticks on and you get later and later) and then give up and put them on practically pleated and tell yourself that at least you sit behind a desk all day and so maybe maybe no one will notice your pants, and your greasy hair, and the fur sticking out above your shoes, and the fact that you're moving like an eighty-year-old, and maybe if they're not noticing all of that then maybe they also wouldn't notice if you crawled behind your desk and slept all afternoon...
Meanwhile, the floor is still groutless. I washed all the excess mortar off Monday night, and the time spent on my knees and with my poor hands in the water just about did me in. I've been trying to let my body recover. But tonight I HAVE to get it done. I also have to sand the walls and put a second coat of mud where we have to paint. Oh, yeah, and we have to get the walls painted. Not a huge area, but still. And we ordered our countertop. It'll be done on time, but it was more expensive than we thought. And it was the cheapest one we could find. No, that's not true. We could have made one for less money, but we just don't have the time to make a countertop for installation Saturday. So we paid extra money to have one made for us. My brother got us a deal and we're very grateful. I'm sure it'll look beautiful. But I'm still in a little sticker shock. We're running out of money quickly and we still have 2 cabinets to buy and cherry (or maple, we haven't decided yet -- actually, the maple might look really nice) crown molding to buy, and the stuff to make our bannister. I wanted to make the bannister cherry, but that will probably be too expensive. Maple's not much cheaper. We might be able to afford Alder (the poor man's cherry) or oak (we have oak floors), but we might have to do it in pine. Then again, we might have to do it in scrap wood and paint it to try to make it look nice.
Here's our problem. The base cabinets are rustic maple (Maple photo number 005, though that's not our door style). My Dad had excess inventory to get rid of and so he "sold" them to us for $10 a piece. My Aunt is re-doing her entire house and bought a display kitchen from my Dad when he was closing his showroom. The display kitchen is cherry (scroll down to the cherry pics, 004 is a pretty good match on color, though, again, not our door style) and she's got 3 too many wall cabinets so she's giving them to us. So we have maple on the floor and cherry on the walls. My Dad says that it's actually a really hot design right now to have the wall and base cabinets in different colors/woods. And buying 2 cherry wall cabinets is a whole lot cheaper than buying 5 maple wall cabinets. But the wall cabinets have a door style that isn't made anymore, so if we want the doors to match we'll have to buy new doors. Cherry doors are expensive. Still not as expensive as buying a whole kitchen full of cabinets, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because I am incredibly grateful. I'm just feeling overwhelmed and worried that we're going to pour all this money and effort into something that's just going to look ugly. Oh, and have any of you ever had Cherry? Cherry darkens with age. It'll take about 3 months for the new cabinets, doors, and mouldings to match the free cabinets we've gotten. Well now I'm just whining. Pay no attention to me. On every other day I am full of gratitude and wonder that so many people in my family are doing so much to help us get a decent kitchen. My Dad has given up his weekends, too. Everyone's trying to help us and we're probably only going to spend about $3,000 total on the entire kitchen remodel (including the addition) and that's just unheard of. And here I am snivelling.
On top of that we're all fighting off some sort of sickness. Sore throats, headaches, congestion, coughing. Probably just colds. But Julia's sleeping terribly and we're all grumpy. I'm taking Julia in to the doctor's office this morning. Because if it's her ear or sinus infection come back we need to get that taken care of before we go on vacation in 8DAYS. So we would already be feeling run down even without living in a tornado's leavings. But add in all the hard work we've done and have left to do. And the fact that we have no kitchen sink. Or oven. Or countertop. Well, I think you get the point.
We need our vacation in a bad way.
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Yay!!
I don't mind hearing whiney:)
There is some justice in the world! (By the way - today's the anniversary of the Golden Spike.)
Trista Thank you so mucho for your support on my illness and bad luck.. I'm getting better slowly but getting there...
Today is Mother's day in Mexico so I wanted to send all my love and hugs to two of the best mommies I know [and also don't know :P]
And by the way, keep the great work, I know is hard and you get all cranky and tired but you'll see the results will make you very happy.
Lots of love for you and Kristin on this day!!!
PS: I followed your advise and changed my profile pic :)
Great! I did not want that stupid beehive!
You're too funny. You know how much we all like whiney. You don't have to remove it on our account. But I also know how it is. Oh do I ever.