Decisions, Decisions

We are closing 3 doorways and
opening 2 new ones.

We are a week and a half into our kitchen remodel, and things are going well. Cabinets and flooring have been removed, and doorways opened and closed. The main activity this week has been by the electrician. We are taking this opportunity while he is here to add lights to a couple of rooms and additional outlets where we have none. But with this comes questions about switch configurations, outlet placement, etc. Not as easy as it sounds. I just keep saying for him to use his professional judgment, but he wants feedback. I guess that makes sense since it will not be easy to undo his work.

And I thought we had decided most everything about the design, but we got a question on Monday about the profile we want on three different kinds of moldings. I don't know. I am just happy to have moldings, but they want to know our preferences. And what do we want the shelf configuration to look like in the pantry? What are we going to store there? I don't know. The cabinet configurations are totally different than before, so I'm not sure where everything will go. 

Ward and I are also working on pulls and knobs for the cabinets. Too many choices. I think we've picked them out, and then we change our minds the next day. Actually, I don't care that much anymore. I just want to get them ordered. We have not yet researched garbage disposals to know what we get there, but that's a little later in the process, so there's time on that.

Pull of the hour.

What is more urgent to keep things moving is ordering the tile for the floor. I've been working on that this morning. We picked out something they keep in stock, but there were words about supply chain problems that may affect our order. So they're getting back to us on that.

Otherwise, the process is noisy--headache-inducing noisy sometimes, making it hard to concentrate or even hold a conversation. But such is the nature of construction. The workers are very polite and friendly, and we are lucky that way. However, it is interesting when we hear an exclamation when something goes wrong. We are very curious about what happened, but so far, nothing has been bad enough that they have had to tell us about it.

The only real problem was when the old refrigerator's water supply was unhooked and leaked, which I mentioned before. What I didn't know when I talked about it last time was that water had leaked through the ceiling into Wally's room, soaking his bed. Luckily, the linen and pillows absorbed most of the water, and the mattress was only a little wet. So everything is dried out, and the only reminder of the slight mishap is a stained ceiling.

I feel very lucky that we can do this work on our house to make it work better for us. We are very pragmatic people, so while we want things to look nice, we mostly want things to improve our day-to-day lives. And I think that will happen.

Until next time...

 

Times, They Are a Changin

I've lived long enough to see many changes, especially in the technology world. When I was a kid, computers were giant machines that filled an entire room. In college, I used punch cards to write computer programs. In my 20s, I got my first desktop computer. And that was just the beginning.

Advances in technology have revolutionized how we do almost everything, especially communicate. These days, we seem to have an urgency to respond to or be in constant contact with people, but not face to face. In people younger than I, an actual phone call is considered rude, and texting is the more polite way to communicate. Emails are seldom read unless they are required for business. 

Communication shifted with the appearance of COVID when social distancing and isolation became important. This need for distancing caused an explosion of virtual calls and meetings. Zoom became a new verb.  These kinds of conversations were more personal than texts or emails because you could see who you were talking to. But now, even Zooming is reverting into hide-behind-the-screen dialogs. I have noticed that cameras that were always on two years ago are sometimes off now--especially if it's a big, general meeting. However, having cameras on is always desirable if it's a small group. At least that's what I think. But I learned something lately that suggests not everyone thinks this way.

Recently, Wally was searching for a job and talked with many companies, all virtually. Sometimes, it was a screening call. Sometimes it was a technical challenge. Sometimes it was to meet the team. Sometimes it was to meet the boss. The point is that he had many meetings with many companies. Here's the part that surprised me. During the vast majority of these meetings, the interviewers had their cameras off. Wally kept his camera on, but he often could not see who he was talking to. These meetings/interviews were supposed to be an opportunity for Wally and the company to get to know each other. A personal interaction. But I don't know how well that happened if one-half of the exchange was hiding. This no-camera practice just seemed wrong to me. But maybe that's the new norm. I don't have enough experience to know. (BTW, this was for a technical position where he would be part of a team.)

So what did Wally think about this practice from his younger perspective? He didn't like it. Luckily, he received multiple offers, but guess what? He went with a company that interviewed with their cameras on. He said he got a much better feel about the work atmosphere and the people he would be working with. 

What has been your experience with virtual calls and meetings? Do you find generational differences?

Until next time...

Weekly Check In

or Whenever-I-Get-Around-to-It Check In

We made sure that Leo could get to his favorite window when we were stowing things.

Last night was one of those nights that sleep eluded me for several hours. Sometimes it just happens, but I'm always careful to warn those around me that I'm going to be cranky after one of those nights. I really need regular sleep. If this happened very often, I would have to take up drinking caffeine.  

In other news, work was slated to begin on our construction yesterday, February 1. However, we got a surprise Sunday afternoon that they were coming Monday. That sped up our clearing of the work areas, and we were thankful that Wally was here to help. All was ready Monday morning when they showed up.

When we weren't packing things up, we were out shopping. The contractor is supplying most of the materials, but we are picking up a few things for the jobs we've added. Over the last few days, we have purchased two toilets, two faucets, and a vanity top. Still on our list is a garbage disposal and cabinet pulls, which by the way, are really expensive if you get better than the very cheapest ones. Or maybe it's not so bad, except we need 44 of them.

Before this project, the cats were fed in the kitchen, and it took them a little while to find their new feeding spot in the bathroom. Leo seems nonplussed by the whole operation, but Annie visits the workers regularly and yells at them. I think her message is I don't like you messing with my food because she is more food-oriented than any other cat we've had. But she is chowing down regularly in the new spot.

Here are a few pictures.

We have put stuff everywhere, much of it in the basement. We will move the old fridge and range down there and use that as our kitchen for the duration.

In addition, we have set up a mini kitchen in the living room on the main level.
This is also Ward's temporary office. You can see the back of his computers on the right.
We don't have curtains on the bow window, so he moves poster boards around to block the sun on his monitors.

This is what the kitchen looked like when I went to work yesterday. 

This is what it looked like when I came home.
Some of the cabinets are moving to the basement, and the workmen have taken some of them along with a couple of doors. As it turns out, our appliances are too old to donate to the Habitat for Humanity Restore, so they will be recycled. Everything else is in the dumpster. We tried to minimize what we threw away, but the reality of construction is that it creates waste.

This morning the fridge was disconnected from its waterline in anticipation of the move to the basement. However, the valve that was supposed to turn the water off to that line didn't work, so water to the whole house was turned off. We never used the icemaker in this fridge and don't plan to hook up water to the new one. We are happy using ice cube trays and a pitcher of water on the counter. In addition, the water part of a fridge is notorious for breaking, so we're not going to tempt fate. If we had a house full of kids, we might think differently, but we don't.

So until next time, she says, wishing she had taken a shower before the water to the house got turned off. 

Progress

Sunrise from a couple of days ago. The snow is mostly gone now.

Good morning from my chilly new home -for my computer anyway. As part of our efforts to get ready for construction, I moved my computer into one of the extra bedrooms, and it's cold. This new environment may prevent me from lingering at the computer and playing another game that I don't need to. :) I layered up yesterday to work here, but then I was too hot for the rest of the house. I'm sure I figure out a good compromise, but until then, Brrrrr.

Ward also moved his computer from the office into the living room and is ready for work today. We added a table in there to have a coffee pot and microwave on the main level when construction begins, but we had to be careful not to block the window ledge the cats love. We're a bit worried about how the construction will affect them, especially because they are so old. But I think if they get adequate lap time, they will be okay.

The guest room has reached capacity on the number of boxes it can have and still be able to get to the bed. Wally occasionally sleeps there when he visits, and we have company scheduled for a visit in about a month. We want to be able to offer them reasonable accommodations - at least a clear path in and out of the room and surface to put a suitcase on.

And it goes on. I have a donation pickup scheduled in a week, but I'm going to have to start boxing some of it up before then because the pile is getting in the way. I also have feelers out to find a place to donate our old working appliances. The first place said they don't want them, and I'm waiting to hear back from another. 

My fingers are cold, so I think it's time to move on from this room. I have to get ready for work, anyway, which, by the way, is still hectic because, in addition to the test kits, we are now passing out N-95 masks.

Until next time...

Busy

I'm working on some extra projects right now, so my posting here may be sparse for a few weeks. Although, I'm not sure how you will tell the difference from my regular, irregular schedule. :)

Every couple of days, we are having
snow and ice to contend with. 

First, some of my computer writing time is being taken up each week with a gift I received for Christmas. My sister-in-law got me a subscription to StoryWorth, a service that sends you a question each week to answer, and after a year, your responses are published into a book. It's a means of saving family history and telling a personal story. The questions are open-ended and require effort. For example, the question I'm working on now is, "What were your grandparents like?" I'm finding it challenging to discuss four different grandparents (and a bonus one we discovered a few years ago) in only a few paragraphs. Actually, this answer is more than a few paragraphs, and I'm only discussed 2/5 so far. I have told some of my family stories here on my blog, but with Storyworth, I can add specific names, places, and times that I don't share here. We'll see how it goes. I may get tired of this before the year is done, but I would like to do this for my kids and others.

Also, we have a date for construction to begin on our kitchen. In just two weeks, we have to have several rooms emptied. The kitchen is the main focus, but the domino effect of closing doorways and opening others have spread the job. And then there are things like if the new floor is going to extend into the connecting laundry room and bathroom, do we want to take this opportunity to put in a new toilet and vanity to replace the worn 33-year-old ones? We need to shop for those things if we do. And we're trying to figure out how we will function the 2-3 months the project is supposed to last. We have a small canning kitchen in the basement, so we have options there. However, we are moving cabinets from upstairs to downstairs to replace the small, crude ones there now, so we have to have that area empty, too. However, that's the first thing they will do, so hopefully, we will have a usable space down there before too long. But even before a functioning "kitchen," we have to figure out our workspaces since the office is one of the areas we have to cleanout. Ward works from home every day, so he will need a good space to relocate into. There are options for everything; we just have to figure them out.

So I'll see you when I see you. Actually, that might be more often than I plan because I am talking with you now because it's easier than working on either of the projects I mentioned above.