A loooooong day

After being up til 1 a.m. last night, I was up at 6 this morning to work on some things at home before heading to the house at 8. First I had to intercept the roofer who was on his way to put one more flashing on a bath vent that was supposed to be in already. Changes like this must happen all the time in the building trades because everyone (but me it seems) takes it in stride. After waffling about it for the last few days, I finally decided to have the contractor take out the nasty upper cabinets I've been trying to save. They are really gross - bug infested, sticky with spilled syrup and covered in a sticky dust-grease-funk film. I told him to go ahead and do it so I could stop waffling and have to move on. It felt really good. Now I had to find something to go in their place though.

During the morning, the contractor sent me out to a local home supply store to get a roof vent for the bath (the bathroom fan has to vent outside). He showed me the picture that came with the fan, and gave me the vent from the oven to take with me and even gave me a drawing. After going to the local place and finding they don't have it, I braved Home Depot again (it's becoming almost a daily thing). One bright spot was a really nice grandfatherly greeter at the door (like at Walmart, not that I shop there). I had the vent in my hand, and when I walked in I asked "Where can I find this?" He responded "In your hand!" I laughed out loud!

After that, I couldn't find anyone to help me. Two guys told me they don't sell the vent, which I later found in a range venting kit. Then I couldn't find what I needed in either plumbing or building materials. I ended up calling the contractor from the plumbing aisle, and describing it all to him - "there's one that looks rolled up like a cannolli, there's one that looks like origami, there's one that's rectangular, etc" I still wasn't sure, so I bought one of everything that had anything to do with venting a bathroom fan and was 4" knowing I could return it. It was all wrong! I did get the duct we needed (that was easy, I found it after they told me they didn't have it in stock), but everything else was wrong! Fortunately, it was not a critical path item.

After spending a half hour scheduling my inspection due to problems with the automated system, I left for the salvage yard to find upper cabinets. What fun! I would highly recommend going to a salvage yard. There is all kinds of things - doors, windows, appliances, sinks, tubs, etc. Unfortunately, they were very low on kitchen cabinets, but I did find some cool steel cabinets with sliding glass doors. I really liked them, and was trying to figure out how to make them work. I couldn't quite work with the dimensions (they only came in 3 or 4 foot lengths), but it gave me an idea to go to Ikea, where they have similar cabinets. I can also work on the layout with the contractor.

Ikea has really great cabinets, and I spent a few hours there. I was a bit confused when I was looking at the cabinets online, but now I completely get it. It was tiring, but I was glad I went. On my way home, I swung by Home Depot again to look at a few things and to check if I can return the lower cabinets I purchased since the upper cabinets I matched them to don't exist anymore. I got there at 9:58 and the special services desk was already closed (it's supposed to close at 10). It was another long day, but very productive.