Lorenzo is returning home tomorrow morning - he's been gone since Saturday night. It seemed that every time he phoned me, there was another glitch...  The Ikea instructions for the Domsjo sink tells you to router out the counter to enable the sink to sit properly. Lorenzo didn't like the way it looked and was annoyed - so he decided he'd have to fix it. Then he called to ask me if I'd remembered to pack the drain for the sink. I hadn't. Then he called to say that we were four cabinet hinges short. Last night, I was feeding the kids and one of their friends, gearing up to take my younger son to his drum lesson in North Vancouver, and suddenly I just didn't think I could take one more call from the cottage. So I unplugged the phone.

I called him from the parking lot and we chatted - he sounded so very tired. And I felt weary - a sense of this cottage never being done started to take over. There is always some stupid piddly little detail that manages to derail everything. I will never ever renovate another house. I would have to win the lottery first - and hire a team to do everything and call me when it's done.

Here is what Lorenzo did on this trip:

Because the walls in the cottage are crooked, there were gaps here and there along the floor. So Lorenzo went around and installed moulding. A lot of people wouldn't mind the gaps, I suppose, but we're not like most people. We're insane.

Notice the lovely 45-degree cut... Normally I believe floor moulding should be painted the same colour as the door and window trim. However, in this instance it will be painted the same colour as the walls. The reason is because it is so narrow; painting it white would only draw attention to its insignificance.

When Lorenzo sent me these pictures, I felt a wave of gloom sweep over me. All I could think of was how on earth to paint this moulding without touching the new floors. 

The panelling around the cabinets looks fantastic. Because these baseboards are a good height, they will be painted Cloud White like all the other trim on the main floor. The panelling will be painted the same as the walls - Man On The Moon. I considered introducing an accent colour - such as a watery gray or some other beachy hue - but I think it would be wrong and only cause an already small area to appear narrower.

I ordered the stove fan from the Sears catalogue so long ago that I forgot what it looked like. It's cute - I like the curved front. Lorenzo said the install was very time-consuming; he'd never installed a hood fan before...

The gable adjacent the dishwasher was shortened to address the crookedness of the floor. It still appears skewed to me but Lorenzo assures me it isn't. Lee the Plumber arrived and hooked up the sink and dishwasher. And by some miracle, he happened to have a brand new Ikea drain sitting in his workshop! How great is that?

Here are the 15-inch drawers....

Lorenzo managed to figure out the drawer assembly that nearly gave me a nervous breakdown....

Tight squeeze, but he got it in. The top of the pantry cabinet has a small door - which he couldn't install because we didn't get enough hinges...

Lorenzo decided to finish off the cabinets with end pieces, which is a nice idea, but I'm bothered by this picture. The fan cabinets should have been installed slightly lower - you can see where the top finishing piece suddenly ends because there wasn't enough room. This really bothers me...my eye is going fix itself on that black space every time I look in that direction. We'll have to figure something out...


So here is what is left to do:  
1) Paint mouldings
2) Paint panelling around base cabinets
3) Install lights
4) Buy some window coverings
5) Bring over washer & dryer...
6) Attach cupboard knobs
7) Install flange around wood stove pipe
8) Get chimney swept
9) Install kitchen shelves

ETC. ETC.

The list goes on and on ad nauseum. Lorenzo said we could plan on moving our stuff over but we can't. I want to wash all the hardwood floors because they are dirty but I'm not going to do that before the painting is completely finished. It should be the last thing I do before I bring in any furniture.

*     *     *     *

Every week or so, I make a trip to the library and try to find things for my kids to read - a healthy blend of fiction and non-fiction. My daughter is really into wolves right now - so I found her a book called "Wolf Totem" by Jiang Rong. The story takes place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and weaves the demise of the Mongolian culture with the extinction of the Mongolian wolf - which they believed to be sacred. It has sold millions of copies and won numerous awards; I'm not sure how much my daughter is enjoying it. We'll see...

 My older son loves reading magazines, such as Rolling Stone, Macleans, The Atlantic Monthly, and Popular Mechanics. He's not really into novels anymore. But my younger son is reading a book that I could not put down a few years ago. When his brother read it last year he could hardly get out of bed in the morning from reading until the wee hours. If you haven't read this, and you like true stories of incredible human survival, give it a try. But be prepared to be up really late...
If I've already mentioned this, my apologies.

My son is currently on chapter 8 and we had a nice chat about it. He asked me what "Achtung Juden" meant and what a Bombardier is. Anything my kids know about World War ll is what I've taught them. They have never, ever, covered the subject - not even the Holocaust - in school. Typically, students have to wait until grade 11 or 12 and by then it's largely optional. It's appalling. 

Ciao for now!