Week 9

The apartment is now livable, it looks now like a home and not a like a construction site anymore. The contractor removed all his tools and the paper floor coverings. He brought in cleaners who cleaned the whole place. This was of big help for me especially since the new kitchen cabinets were all full of dust on the edges of the drawers and inside some of the lazy susans and shelves. I really appreciated this since not all contractors clean up thoroughly after the work is done.

As for the inspections, the contractor said there were two inspections, one last Wednesday for plumbing, and one last Friday for electrical, but I haven't heard back from him, so I don't know what was the result.

We decided to install the towel bar right below the liner. There was really no other solution. I asked also the opinion of another friend who also said that I should use it for small towels.



I got furniture now. I got a sofabed for the living room so that it can be used as a bed when I have guests, which will be pretty soon since my parents are visiting.



I liked the dining room furniture when I saw it in the store but the chairs ended up being a little too bulky for the small dining room and the dark brown color doesn't match the kitchen cabinets. I have to find out if I can stain them with a different color.



One more thing for the kitchen is the space for the microwave. I think there is a plate at the bottom missing. It should extend out so I can place the microwave on it. I have to go back to the kitchen cabinet store to ask them about it.




Painting and more paiting...
I finally finished painting the kitchen walls and ceiling, 3 coats! I still have to do one coat of paint for the new half partition wall in the dining room. I painted all the dining room walls already once. In the living room, the touch up paint didn't succeed so well. I had the colors matched at the paint store, but it's not a 100% match. I will leave the painting of the entire living room as a future project.

Fridge Waiting Game
I had ordered a compact fridge from the internet, a Samsung counter-depth fridge with ice maker. This is the fridge that I thought was a good fit for my kitchen since it is compact in size, looked nice, and had the features I wanted. However, when I ordered it, it was on back order from the factory. They gave me a shipping date range of 5/26 - 6/2, which I found acceptable. But I checked again with them and they said it is still on back order and they have no control over it. It will be another 10 days before they expect to receive it. I paid another $75 for rush processing. Unfortunately, there is no rush delivery since it will have to transported on a truck from New York. So most likely we won't have a fridge during my parents' visit. Maybe that's better, so we will go out more!

Inspection Is Tomorrow

This week they installed all appliances, except for the fridge, which is on back order and will be hopefully delivered in the next couple of weeks. The electrician also finished his work and now all the installed appliances are working and the kitchen has lights. Woohoo!

The kitchen is now ready for use, except for a few minor details to take care of. They told me that the kitchen sink faucet that I got had scratches on it but they installed it anyway. This faucet is the second one I bought. The first one didn't look as nice and I wasn't sure if it could be installed without the bottom plate. Now I cannot really exchange the second one since it's installed, so I have to buy a new one and when the plumber comes back one final time, he will replace it and then I can return the old one. However, I don't look forward to returning it because I already returned two other times at Home Depot, out of three total purchases. So now they will probably blacklist me. :) Besides, I am not sure they will accept returning the scratched faucet. How can I prove to them it was scratched before, as the contractor stated? Maybe I can ask if it was a return from before. If it wasn't, that means it must have been scratched during install, but I don't want to suspect my contractor so soon.

Here is a picture of the wall next to the bathroom door. The dilemma is where to install the towel bar. It should be installed right above the liner (mosaic line), but then it would cover up the nice mosaic. If it is installed below the liner, the bath towels would cover up the vent opening. Maybe install it onto the middle of the liner?


Where to put the towel bar: above or below the mosaic liner?

Tomorrow, Monday, the city inspectors are coming to inspect the work. The contractor will be with them. By the way, I asked for an additional estimate to convert all other electrical outlets to new outlets because the old ones have only two holes and no ground connection. This is potentially unsafe if there is lightning. I mentioned replacing the face plates before to the contractor but I hadn't paid attention that there were only two prongs until after I moved in. He gave me an estimate but then talked about all the risks involved. I think he just wants to get done with this project first. However, if I wait until a later time, they will have to apply for a new permit. I will talk to the contractor tomorrow. I think it's important to do this. But even if I do this extra project, I will still move my furniture in and clean up everything to have a "normal" household. The workers will just have to work around these.