Brokeback phenom

People love making Brokeback Mountain mashups. This one's pretty good: Brokeback meets Back to the Future.

Bleary eyed

It's 9:26. There's already enough coffee in my system to keep a small group of 8-year-olds awake for 24 hours. And still, I'm completely zonked. Starting work at 6:30 every day is not so much my thing.

The contractor and his assistant are in the kitchen installing the new cabinets. I've been up since 5am painting. We started last night, laying a coat of primer undercoat but called it quits at 12:30.

I think Angela took this picture at 11pm or so. I can't remember—the whole thing is a big blur at this point.

Yesterday was busy. We started wiping down the walls and ceiling at 7am to get them ready for painting, only to find out when the contractor arrived that he had to grind the bricks on the old chimney that runs through the kitchen in order to fit the cabinet. What a mess. I can still taste the cloud of dust kicked up from cutting into the bricks.

In the afternoon a quick run to Ikea in Etobicoke was required—at the start of rush hour no less—to exchange some pieces and order the correct ones (which will, of course, take 3 weeks to arrive). And then it was back home and to Home Depot for $100 worth of paint and supplies. Then dinner (at Seven Numbers on the Danforth with Amy's parents) and back home to paint the walls before the contractors arrived the next morning to hang the cabinets.

(9:33 a.m. — the garbage bin has just been picked up. This is live blogging people! It was one of those huge metal bins for garbage construction materials you see in the yards of home being renovated, i.e. 17 Currie. It was one parked in our driveway for a week.)

Maybe I can sneak in a quick nap.

demolition baby

here's a look at the construction site after the old cabinets were ripped out....

Angela here....is it over yet?

Angela here, aka "the wife"
So it would appear that I’ve been born without the renovator gene. Yup. I’m not enjoying the construction site that I call home. Those early mornings when contractors show up at 6:30 a.m. to get cracking on projects? Could do without. All the banging to remove old floors and cupboards? Would rather not hear it. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. I know, I know. I'm a princess. I want a pretty kitchen, but I kind of just want to come home and find it here waiting for me. Preferably with a nice roast in the oven. On HGTV they seem to fix everything in 48 hours. I never noticed any dust, debris or other such mess in those homes. You should see the bottom of my socks.
Another thing. Living sans stove and functional sink sucks. Every morning I come down the stairs in my just-got-up fog, desperate for a coffee but willing to make do with a glass of water. Reaching for a plastic cup which I fill from the bathroom or a bottle of water from the case just doesn’t provide the same "you can face the day now" comfort.

Old Kitchen (aka "The Before")

On second thought

We changed our minds.

We've decided to go laminate and do the drop-in sink. (No can do on the undermount with laminate unless you want to spend a chunk of change on corian to glue under the laminate counter -- and that'll cost as much as the entire laminate countertop.) We're not rich, after all.