Did We Survive Hurricane Katrina or Not?

For anyone wondering what yesterday's posts were all about....

We had someone from Blossman Gas come to replace our flooded fireplace insert. There's not a whole lot of change going on in the pictures... and I'd love to say at this point that it's much more obvious in person -- but uh.. it's not. Basically we replaced one big heavy black metal box with another big heavy black metal box... and that's the extent of progress this week.

It should have been a tiny bit more obvious - as we had ordered the trim kit with this box which will eventually totally change the look of the insert... But stuff just never works quite the way we plan. Ever. We were told Friday morning that they were sending someone to insert our box - but that somehow or the other our trim kit had been given to another customer who ordered the same kit after we did. Therefore, we must now wait for the trim kit to come in again -- and then wait for the installer to come back to finish. It wouldn't be a wasted trip anyway as the bottom vent piece on the new box is also missing about an inch of paint for some reason and a replacement vent has to be ordered.

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In the meantime, the weather has continued to delay the painting of our trim - which, in turn, delays the installation of our trim - for the rest of the house. Dean has also informed us that we should replace all of our cabinet doors (as opposed to a few severely damaged ones) rather than continue to try to paint them as he feels the difference between new doors and thickly painted doors will be obvious. Add whatever $$ that costs to our already bleeding budget.

Since we need to get rolling as far as getting all of these doors made.... Dean and "Slim" came by Thursday to remove any rogue cabinet doors left in the house and take them away. What this means is I will have to spend the next few months in a house with four children and two dogs and three malevolent cats which has no doors. Okay - we have exterior doors... and we have three functional interior doors -- one closet door... the door to the girls' room... and the door to the bathroom. We are only missing one interior door (the laundry room) at this time.. However.. none of the others have doorknobs or locks installed. The bathroom door locks just fine -- but it doesn't help much with the trim missing around the door frame....

And now... there are no cabinet doors. Not in the kitchen... or the living room... or any of the bathrooms. All the stuff that I had stashed in cabinets just to get out of the way while we worked to put everything back together is now exposed... accessible to little hands and sloppy puppy mouths.. 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. I will lose my mind.

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Dave worked to finish painting the pantry today - dutiful husband that he is... We are hoping that a finished pantry will mean fewer boxes in the living room somehow.

I tried really hard to help with the painting.. I did. But the pantry is small.. and painting shelves really irritates me. Therefore, I spent a chunk of this evening doing that thing which I promised never to mention on this blog again.

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"Clint" is promised to arrive Monday morning to work on our tub surround. We have purchased the replacement Jacuzzi (see the checklist for info) and a lot of tumbled marble and listello that I think I like (it's too late now to change my mind again). I agonized about the layout of the tile for the last two weeks and have finally decided on a pattern.... We purchased a drain kit for the new tub as well -- and I'm sure it won't fit... And Dean tells us we will be able to use the grout and thinset that we have already purchased for this project. I think this means we're ready for something to happen on Monday.

Of course.. as I'm typing this I just remembered that I was supposed to ask Dean if we could somehow install a step for the jacuzzi... And I'm not sure if this is something we need to plan before we start any other work on the surround.... And now I'm going to panic. Again.

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I shall now use all the panic-generated energy to finish that thing I promised never to mention on the blog again.

Night!