when going to work is taking a rest

The floor. The floor! Oh, the floor. It is done. We completed it laaaaaate last night/wee hours of this morning. There is a Soylent Green dust coating everything in the garage from cutting the laminate. But it is beautiful. And done. We need to find a trim we can live with/afford, apply sealant around the watery areas, and then we can move back in.

George, our countertop cowboy, came on Friday. He didn't double over laughing at what we'd done, so we took that as a good sign. He did, however, point out "two small adjustments" that needed to be made before the countertop arrives. These two teeny, tiny small adjustments took about, oh, 5 hours. Not making them could have disastrous consequences. I'm not talking space walks to fix a broken tile or anything, but our v. expensive solid surface countertop could, gasp!, crack if this was not fixed. No thanks. I'm good.

So now we wait for the countertops. For 3 weeks. Maybe 2. It's a crap shoot. While we wait, we are back at work, which is like a vacation compared to the last 10 days. But hubby gets to run off to an air conditioned building and take naps during meetings while I sit here in the mess we have created. There are piles of kitchen crap everywhere. (How did we fit all this crap in our crappy old kitchen?) I would start putting things back, but I just don't have the arm strength to lift anything. I've got this strange sensation on my hip... what is that? Oh, no tool belt. Gaa. I think I'll go put that on so I can feel whole again.

Sunday morning we hit 23 visits to Lowes/Home Depot. Visits 21 and 22 were made Saturday night 15 minutes before closing. We are on a first name basis with Mike, Terry, John, Bob, Teresa, Mary, Al, and the rest of our extended family. They laughed with us. They cried with us. They took our money, over and over again. More importantly, they took our returns, over and over again. I resorted to calling my dad in Arizona at least three times during our WTF?! moments. One call he suggested I take a picture, draw a schematic, and email it to him for review. Or go to Lowes and ask them what to do. We took door #2.

After all that, we are pretty pleased with ourselves. It turned out beautiful. But we won't do it again. Not unless it's our dream house on 60 acres. Even then, we'll just pay someone to do it. Yes. I think we will.

I almost don't know what to do with myself without a cordless drill and 12 various-sized levels in my hand. Anyone something shimmed? Spackled? No?