Pans in the Fire

The kitchen remodel is making progress. Our counter tops are being made and due to arrive in a couple weeks (despite Home Depot's error that put our account $3000 in the red!). The flooring guy can come back now that we've straightened out Home Depot's mistake with the transitions. The electrician comes tomorrow to finish a couple things and give us a quote on the under cabinet lighting. I'm kinda giving up hope that the kitchen will ever really be done. Just seems impossible.

The kitchen remodel spun off two additional projects (so far) that are also making progress this week:

• New soffit and fascia were installed and now we're getting gutters and gutter guards installed a few at a time...don't know exactly why it's being done that way, but maybe that's why my friend could get it done so affordably.

• Removal of popcorn ceiling in kitchen living room, mud room, and adjacent hallways. I'm trying to schedule a start date for this. We had the popcorn ceiling tested and it contains less than 1% chrysotile, which means it is legally asbestos-free. I would prefer a 0% level, but I don't know if the lab we used is legally allowed to say "0%" chrysotile, even if they found none, because they might be held liable if ANY were found later on, etc. Anyway, removing a popcorn ceiling creates a HUGE mess. Enormous. It will make our house less functional than losing the kitchen. I will probably be prepping the house with plastic sheeting and duct tape just to keep the mess from spreading into the other rooms. And I'm thinking we might check in to a hotel for a few days because the mess will cut us off from our bedrooms, bathrooms, and living areas. ALL the hallways are affected. Staycation, anyone?

It's a part time job staying on top of all this.

And THEN there's the garden stuff. I got a little ahead of myself and purchased a few plants that I hadn't researched very well yet, with the intention of putting them along the split rail fence. Turns out, that fence is not a good fit.  Stuck! Gotta carve out a couple new beds or plant and pray. Or both. It's getting a little too hot to put in new beds now...ugh.

The best news of the day, though, was finally cashing in on Robert and James' bickering. We recently instituted a new Love and Logic policy for those two: I charge one extra chore for every 10 seconds I have to listen to them pick at each other. Yay! They got to clean out the cruddiest, most neglected toilet and sink in the whole house (I hate cleaning that bathroom, and it shows!). I got to hear a few more seconds of petty bickering while they cleaned, but they stop now whenever they hear me counting down. Gotta love this Love and Logic.

The boys, in a more cooperative moment, testing out how spacious our new deck box can be.