Rule of thumb when renovating: Everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you planned. Lorenzo didn't get home until nearly 11pm last night. His poor brother had to drive all the way to Clearbrook and then get up early for work this morning. What a huge favour...so grateful for his expertise. Here he is working hard on the wiring...

Everything has been connected to a sub-panel. Turned out, a lot of the wiring was dangerously wrong. A baseboard heater, by code, has to have its own breaker. Our cottage had eight baseboard heaters on two 20-amp breakers. Apparently this isn't a good idea...

While Lou was connecting the wires and testing the lines, Lorenzo worked on boxing in the support posts...

Before he left for Mayne Island he spent a lot of time staring into space, trying to figure out how he was going to do this. I always know when he's in thinking mode - he lies on our bed, staring at the ceiling, drawing imaginary lines with his fingers. I generally shout out encouragements such as, "You can do it honey!" or "You'll figure it out!"  What do I know?

The boxes had to fit in all the wiring without overpowering the room. I think they look pretty good. Lorenzo made it so that each post has an outlet which will be very handy; if we choose to have an end table with a lamp on it in the centre of the room, we won't have to run extension cords.

The Ikea kitchen event is on right now until August 6, so this is it. We need to buy our kitchen and find a place to store it all. Our basement looks like a second-hand junk shop right now; I can't wait to load it all up and get it over to the cottage. We're going with a basic white kitchen with solid wood counter tops. I estimate that we can do the entire kitchen for under $2000...

I already bought the sink which we had delivered as it wasn't available in BC. Ikea offers a porcelain farm-house sink for $249...

It's very heavy, the glazing is thick, and it's been well-reviewed. Compare this to the cheapest apron-sink at Home Depot. This one is over $1400. I can't see much difference...

Lorenzo and I ventured to Ikea last weekend to confirm our kitchen design. We walked through the doors and Lorenzo groaned, "God I hate this place." The thing about Ikea is that you have to be prepared to be sucked into what I call "The Ikea Vortex." You find yourself in a subterranean bunker, part of a dazed herd.  An invisible stun-gun coerces everyone into a slow moving conga-line that weaves around the store in a never-ending loop. You can't seem to escape. Soon, your face adopts a stupefied bovine expression (moo). You desperately seek the exit only to find yourself surrounded by paper lampshades. And it isn't much better for the kids - just look at them trapped in that sensory deprivation tank buried in sponge balls. It's like a giant petrie dish of contagions.

But here's the real interesting thing about Ikea:  Suddenly, particle-board crap from China looks freakin awesome!  When Lorenzo saw the new Hemnes bathroom sink, he nearly burst a blood vessel. "This is what we should have done! But no! You have to buy something that has to be converted, fiddled with, sanded, drilled through to run pipes..." But look at it:

It's very cute and the price is great, but you can't escape the fact that it looks like a toy. Everything in Ikea has a toy-like appearance, if you really think about it.

Our vanity will look more like this, except with one sink...

The idea I had of buying a console table and then adding a vessel sink is obviously more work. For Lorenzo. But at the end of the day, you have to feel that you have something more than a bunch of stuff that was assembled with an allan key. Our bathroom is going to look very charming.

Anyway, Lorenzo fumed the entire time we were in Ikea, determined to start all over again and just buy something simple. Then we left the store. The Ikea haze evaporated - he snapped back to reality and decided that my idea was better. Hence, my belief that Ikea does something to your brain. Maybe it's all those hard-to-pronounce Swedish descriptors which probably exist only to confound and further hypnotize the customers:

"Hey, Hon!  Let's pair up a couple of compfy Ektorps with a Tofteryd table..hang a few Fjallsta frames, team it all up with a Borgsjo cabinet, a Bjorken mirror, add an extendable FRACK... ...how about one of those Jansjos to put beside our banjo, or some curtains with Hogtidlig finials...!" 

Nevertheless, you can pick up some really cool stuff! I bought these for our kitchen...they're part of the FINTORP line...

Isn't this summer weather great? The kids leave for camp next week and not a moment too soon. Today my sons got into a giant fight over flip-flops.
It's time to send them to work with their Dad, aka "Camp Guido." They can join the warehouse assembly-line and start earning their keep around here. Tomorrow, peace will reign! I've got it so good....

Finally...Lorenzo came up with a name for the cottage:
The Shit Pit. You can see how our enthusiasm for this project has dwindled...