Thursday A.M. Wk.4

It was a busy start this morning, with the electrician, carpenters and painters all here at the same time. Now, at 11 a.m., the two painters are working quietly in the draped kitchen.
Steve, the electrician, arrived early, but not early enough to prevent another crew of carpenters from taking the 8 ft. ladder. Exactly the one he needed to hang the new chandelier. I questioned the carpenters in the driveway, but they took it anyway. Steve tried to do some work in the kitchen, but then gave up and went away when the painters arrived.
Carpenters Bud and Red were here briefly to finish Larry's desk, moved to the workshop. The frame had been inadvertantly thrown away in the tear down, although Larry had saved the drawers and slides and I had saved the countertop from the dumpster. Bud cleaned up the garage where they have been cutting during the recent rains.
Painting contractor Brad arrived with two painters in tow. I don't know how he is keeping track, since he didn't write anything down. Maybe he was a waiter in a previous life. Brown under the chair rail, green above the chair rail, ivory on the
chair rail. Different paint, same ivory color on the ceiling. The laundry room, without chair rail, gets one accent wall of green and heavy duty ivory paint on the remaining three walls, since this room doubles as our mud room. I'm confused and hope he is not. Better yet, I am hoping that Arturo and Pinky are not confused.

Larry pointed out to me last night that we lost three drawers in the reconfiguration so I have no idea where we are putting the silverware or other kitchen utensils that used to fill those drawers. This is one of the details I should have caught in the planning stage. Another is the 5-6 inches lost by using a too small cabinet to the right of the sink. Spacers will cover the void, but useless, space.
I was surprised to find that the corner cabinet, with it's turntables, touted as the one thing that gives you MORE usable space in your kitchen, actually is a big space waster. The cabinet is round, leaving big voids behind it, and is not as deep as the square cabinets. If this cabinet were manufactured to be square, with a round turntable inside, there would still be usable space in the corners. I imagine they are concerned about things falling off the turntable and then being entirely inaccessible. The corner cabinet also does not allow you to have drawer space there either. This is a lesson from which I will not benefit since I do not plan to do this again.
If I were to advise someone starting this project, I think I would say to place less emphasis on the final appearance and concentrate hard on the details and functionality of the final spaces. As is so often true, looking good and doing good are not the same.
So the day, and me, have calmed down some. As I told Larry, I look forward to the day very soon when he is the only strange man in my house.