Kitchen Remodel, Part V

Frustrations abound.

. . . but excitement is also in the air.

When we came home Sunday night from a weekend with the family, we found the kitchen looking almost complete. Today, the kitchen is still almost complete. The hold up? Two electrical outlets and a gas line that were not placed where they should have been so the oven and vent hood could fit correctly. Because of that, we had to cut a hole in the sheet rock, have the plumber move the gas line, then have the electrician move the power outlet. Then we went to hang the vent hood and the power outlet there was 1 in too low, so now we're waiting on the electrician to come back and move that. In the meantime, the sheet rock guy came back and patched up our holes.

So, if all goes well, we may be done by the end of the day tomorrow . . . after the painters come and do final touch up painting. Then we'll have to do a final walk through, and if we find anything wrong, we may have to wait again before moving back in.

But that said, doesn't it look great?

new lighting and fridge

fridge, oven, and vent hood sitting on counter

island with dishwasher and disposal awaiting installation

faucet

First Day of School

Both my boys started school last week. This is Ethan's 2nd year of preschool, but Seth's first. They're so big! We're trying a brand new Montessori School this year that just opened here in town. Last week was a transition week, so the parents got to go with the kids for 30 minute sessions at the beginning of the week and then dropped them off for a couple of hours by week's end. This week will be the first normal week. Our boys will be going 3 half-days a week for preschool. They're very excited. Click the photo below for more pics of the first day.

Same Ol' China

This article hacked me off today. Apparently to appease the international community for the Olympics, China established a designated protest area that people could use if they filed a request to protest. Even though told they now have this opportunity, many Chinese nationals have been punished or disappeared after filing their protest requests. Two such people are these two 70+ year old women who are requesting sufficient compensation for their homes that were seized for redevelopment.

“I feel very sad and angry because we’re only asking for the basic right of living and it’s been six years, but nobody will do anything to help,” Mr. Li said (the son of one of the women).

After 6 years of seeking their promised compensation, they file an application to protest and have now been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor”! They were told this term might be suspended if they stay in their homes (didn't you take these away, Chinese government?) and keep quiet.

If you really want to get your blood boiling, take a look at the article.

Kitchen Remodel, Part IV

Things are progressing. Last week, after my post, here's what happened:

Granite was installed. Here are my helpers showing off the finished work.

Granite counter tops and sink on the island

Tile floors installed

A closer look at the floor:

Cabinet hardware installed:
door knobs

drawer pulls

island with hardware, granite, and sink

close up:

This week has seen a couple of set backs. The electricians didn't get their job done as they should have, so now we have new electricians coming tomorrow to finish up lights, outlets, wiring for the island, and "pig tails (a.k.a. plug cords) for major appliances so they can be installed. Then we can get the appliances in, the plumbing connected, and then finally have the painters come back for final touchups early next week.

Once I have some pics of what progress has happened, I'll post again.

Almost there . . . I hope!

Fantasy Football

I've been playing fantasy football with (pretty much) the same group of folks for the past 6 years now. They're a hodgepodge of college buddies and some relatives of one of my college friends. Our league has teams from Texas to Kansas. So, many of us meet in Dallas for draft day, but we've never had everyone all together at once. This year, I was not able to go to big D and drafted online from home. Our draft was Saturday, btw.

Here are my picks. It's a 12 team league. Every year I second guess a few of my picks. Not sure what I think about this year's lot, but I guess we'll start seeing how well I did in a few weeks:

D Anderson	A	QB
B Westbrook	A	RB
W Parker	A	RB
L Fitzgerald	A	WR
M Colston	A	WR
V Davis	A	TE
N Kaeding	A	K
Seahawks	A	DST
E Manning	RS	QB
K Faulk	RS	RB
L Booker	RS	RB
T Jones	RS	RB
B Berrian	RS	WR
I Bruce	RS	WR

Another fun fact about our league is that about 1/2 of us change our name and mascot every year. Mine have ranged from having to do with my wife's profession to the weather to my family to my latest interests. Here's my team this year:

Two Wheeled Terrors

Kitchen Remodel, Pt III

Since last time, this room has really taken shape to look like a kitchen. We're excited.

Here's the progress (click any picture to enlarge):

Installed new energy efficient windows on the "sunset" side of the house. Here's the giant hole in the living room just before installation:

And the new windows and door installed:

Cabinets primed:

And then painted:
Walls being painted. You can see the new windows and door in the kitchen here:

Painting complete here:

Here:

And here:

This week, we're getting our granite counter tops and our floor installed.

The end of this week and next week, they'll:

• trim out the electrical: putting in outlets on walls and island, cutting holes for lights over island now that counter tops will be installed so lights can be centered
• install backsplash
• plumbing hookup of sink
• bring in the appliances
• clean up

Hopefully, they can finish all by a week from Friday, but it may be Monday or Tuesday if there are any delays.

How old do you feel?

So I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. According to this article, I'm now as old as I'll ever be . . . at least in my mind. Men in particular, take a look for grins. Luckily for me, my mind is far behind, so it'll be several years before I reach that mental maximum - if ever!

Of course, the fact that this article was written by a "Gen Xer" who is now 46 makes me feel old.

The Big Picture

I read an article recently in Christianity Today about evangelism called From Four Laws to Four Circles. It's about a guy - James Choung - who has written on evangelism and has recently developed a little visual aid to assist in sharing the gospel with his college buddies at MIT. He's now a divisional director of InterVarsity. The "napkin diagram" (he was an engineering major) is interesting, but for my purposes here is secondary to a statement he made in the article that I liked. Here's the video so you can see for yourself:


What I really appreciated, however, was his answer to this question:

How do you hope this tool will change the way Christians themselves think of evangelism?
I hope we will move from decision-oriented presentations to ones that have more to say about transformation. As we were developing the Big Story, we wanted a diagram that wouldn't just be binary—in or out—but would represent the journey that all of us are on.
We also wanted to move from an exclusive focus on the afterlife to the mission-life. Immediately after Jesus' invitation, "Follow me," he added, "I will make you fishers of men." From the outset, he gave his disciples a mission. Without the mission in our gospel presentations, we do people a grave disservice. We imply that they can be Christians without being on a God-given mission to love others in his name. And that's just not true. In Jesus' summation, we are all called to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In Micah's version, we are called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. We need to allow the reign of God to continue to grow in us and around us. That's not to say that life after death isn't important. But it's not the whole story. It's the final chapter, but there are still many chapters to be lived out.

Rhetorical Question of the Day

Why is temptation so tempting?


- Romans 7:15 (and surrounding verses)