7/03/2009

Are we THERE yet??

*sigh*  I feel like I whiny kid on a long road trip.  Our electrician keeps flaking out on us (to finish other side jobs, no less!!), which is holding up the rest of the plaster repair.  Our plaster/drywall guy is not happy (especially since the electrician is a family member of his).  I'm not happy.  We have a "date" set for Monday, so here's hoping that everybody shows up like they're supposed to.  Granted, Tony is doing a much nicer job in the office than the guy did in the living room, and the work is more extensive, since it involves patching and framing, but the living room only took maybe 2 weeks.  I feel like the office is taking forever.  But I guess there have only been about 20 hours of work done on the office, it's just been really spread out because of scheduling conflicts.  And no-shows by certain electricians. 

I'm also really anxious to finish work on my antique Chambers stove.  It's been sitting in the garage for a little over a year, and I'm kicking myself for not sending the pieces and parts off to be porcelained and chromed a long time ago.  Now, all of our spare money is being channeled into savings for when I'm off work on maternity leave.  I feel insanely guilty if I spend anything beyond what is necessary.  But I really, really want my stove in my kitchen!  I'm so sick of only having 2 burners to use on the Jenn-Air.  Yes, a built-in griddle is nice, but not when it leaves you only 2 burners! 

The only real problem with using the Chambers stove is that it doesn't really fit in our kitchen.  Our current stove is 31" wide; the Chambers is 37".   I can remove a lower cabinet without much fuss, but the uppers... not so much.  At least one cabinet would need to be modified, and it would throw off the symetry.  Now it goes almost without saying that the original cabinets that are out in the garage were of course built to accomodate a larger stove.  You see where this is headed, right?

My biggest probem of all is that I absoloutely love our house.  Even though we've agreed to start looking for a "new" house as early as next summer, and wrapping up our current projects without starting new ones, we both still talk about future projects in this house.  Everything from bathroom remodels to re-finishing the basement in a new configuration.  Obviously these projects will add value, but that's hardly the motivation behind them.  When we bought this house, even though it was our first house, it was going to be our last house.  And that's a really hard thing to let go of, especially since there's nothing wrong with the house itself.  We just want more property and are very bitter about the neighbors cutting down the woods.  I dream of owning some acreage, but I can't imagine living anywhere but here.  And as long as we are here, I don't see an end to us working our butts off to try to make it better.

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