Hello and Good-Bye

Good-bye to the old kitchen. We've said good-bye to pieces and parts of the old kitchen over the past 6 weeks -- now we're ready to say good-bye to everything remaining. Tomorrow, the contractors will be ripping up everything that has been left. Guess you have got to make things worse before they can get better. The goal is to start hanging new cabinets a week from Friday. This week they will be finishing the plumbing and electrical, doing lots of drywall and texture, moving the washer and dryer to their new homes, and then we'll be doing some painting. The new cabinets should be done hanging about 2 weeks from today. If all goes well, the new appliances will be in shortly thereafter, as well as countertops. Those details can take time to coordinate, though. I couldn't tell you when I can realistically hope to have a full working kitchen back. I'm hoping for Halloween but don't know if that is reasonable. This is the nitty gritty -- where things get tough and super messy. A great time to get away....

So, I guess I shall get away...late tomorrow night I head out on a red-eye flight (first class -- thanks for those frequent flyer miles hubby) to Monterey, California. All my college girlfriends are meeting for a mini-reunion. Everybody will be there for at least part of the weekend. We'll have Holly, Sarah, April, Meghan, Maggie, Jessie, Elise, Jill, Neveen, and Liz. Holly's mother is vacating her Monterey home for us to come and invade. No husbands or children allowed, although pictures of both are highly encouraged. Really great timing to get out of the house, if I must say.

Greg will get the joy of taking a day off to run carpools, hang out with Cate, take kids to a preschool fundraiser, coordinate kids for a cub scout hike, and all the other things I would have normally been doing. Should be a good experience for all.