1970's Kitchen Reno - End Week 1

Saturday–a perfect day to run errands. Fortunately, the “snowstorm” didn’t crush our plans. We didn’t get too much of the white stuff.

First order of the day (after bagels and coffee and “The Soup”) was IKEA. We returned one damaged cabinet and rather painlessly exchanged it for a new one. No time for meatballs or lingonberry juice today.

On to Lowes with all the gift certificates we got for birthdays and Christmas! Picked up floor tile (porcelaine “Canyon Slate” by Venitian Stone). It has a slate look–sort of silver/grey with a very subtle oil-slick effect with reds and blues–note, VERY subtle. Porcelaine requires no treating or sealing! For the backspash, we got $.27 white subway tiles. I have been waiting to do something with subway tiles for years. Now the decision to do a white or black/brown grout. Don’t want to go too crazy, it is only a co-op!!! TILES ARE HEAVY!!!!

We also managed to pick out under-the-cabinet lighting. I feel guilty not going for the LED lighting but there were several factors that led us to pick out the Xenon small circular lights. a) they can connect to each other so we only need to plug in to one outlet, b) there was more than one box in stock c) they were a little less expensive, d) there’s a dimmer option and they can be turned on by tapping this little circular thing that can be hidden under the counter. Regardless, I think that all of the under cabinet lights were tacky, but wiring in the walls is not really an option for us.

Urban Express (IKEA’s delivery service) was supposed to call today to set up a delivery time for the missing cabinet for tmorrow. They did call, but to ask me if I was having a pick up scheduled! Really, um, aren’t you supposed to know that I”m getting a DELIVERY!? Once again, the canned response was, “We’ll look into this and get back to you Ms. Banks.” Go figure. They suck, yet again.