AnnDblog: Kitchen Update

Ok. So we are now ready for texturizing.

We had everything pulled out and covered and as protected as much as possible from the mess. Of course, surely you can tell that we were actually in an incredible mess before we even started....and we were about to make it worse!

John had a phone call (yes....again.....and yes, I did start to get suspicious!) so I started mixing water into the joint compound going for the precise consistency of pancake batter or just a touch thinner. And yes, that is as scientific as it gets at this point.

By this point I was just a little crabby. I will readily admit to that. I was tired. I was about to blow pancake batter on my walls and I was nervous that it wouldn't turn out ok....AND even I was getting really tired of the mess by this time.

I had to continually harp at the boy to put the camera down and help me! Little did I know that he was making a secret slide show for us and putting it to music and everything. I felt bad later for hounding him so much.

This is another instance when I had to yell at the boy. But he made me take a picture of him anyway.

Cole was having his own stress this day mainly related to his Cat Manager status. He takes it very seriously and he had found a new batch of kittens on his morning rounds. Chocolate had some babies in the quonset and she is not the best of mothers. In fact, none of his cats are too great....he has a lot of managing to do, however he definitely micromanages too much as well.

I am so happy that he could use one of my quilts for the new little darlings since the square bales of grass hay might have poked. (Sarcasm)

Anyway, he felt that he had to continually check on the new kittens which also irritated his mother and then she (I) would yell at him some more. Sheesh!

Ok....back to the pancake batter.

John got done with his phone call and checked how I was coming along. He attached the compressor hose to my blower gun and we filled the hopper with batter. I chose an inconspicuous place to start and right away we knew that the batter was still too thick so we added more water and tried again.

It went on just perfectly. We had to crank the air pressure up to 50 psi and we were really cookin' then. It doesn't take very long to apply the texture...

..all the time is spent prepping the area and cleaning up afterward. The actual application takes just a few minutes. Plus, it is really fun!

Meanwhile - back in the quonset - Cole did another well being check on the new kittens. Why is he so diligent?/paranoid?/attentive? to these new kittens. Well....partly because Chocolate usually doesn't raise any of her kittens to adulthood. They just don't have enough lives to survive the hazards out there. Plus, last year, a tomcat brutally murdered all of her babies (6 of them) when they were only a few days old. Cole took that one pretty hard and blames himself but also Chocolate for not staying with her babies. This day, if she left them for any amount of time he would hunt her down and take her right back to her babies. He was very frustrated with her.

Back to the subject....sorry. I get drawn off track easily.

We got done with the texturizing and cleaned up a little and took just a little break. This was definitely a milestone in the project.

John the builder called and said he was ready to bring out the cupboards! So we got ready for that and pretty soon my cupboards arrived....in the back of his pickup! Now wrapping these cupboards would have been a better use for that quilt in the quonset! Oh well.

John the builder and John D got busy hanging the cupboards.

The Cat Manager had his hands full with Snickers, John the builders dog. Snickers is a nice little doggy but he decided that he wanted Spotty the cat up in a tree. Spotty didn't want to stay in the tree and no sooner would she come down then he would chase her back up again. They were having a wonderful time together. I think.

John the builder hung the big cupboard over the the refrigerator first then the next section of cupboards.

That is when I noticed a....problem. The section included a cut out for an over the range microwave/hood......and it wasn't...exactly....completely....over the range.

I told John D. He stepped back to take a gander and then he had to break it to John the builder. "Uh, John (the builder).....we have a problem."

John the builder was flummoxed.

He measured and re-measured and the tape didn't lie..

...the big over the frig cupboard was 4 inches too wide...throwing everything else off.

So down it all came. The big cupboard had to go outside and he will have to rebuild it. The over the range section was put back up and centered perfectly over the range.

Then the last section went in.