Countertops

I know, I know. I haven't posted anything on the blog recently, but here's what I have done: washed loads and loads of laundry, driven Elijah to swim practice countless times, taught six evening classes, helped Andrew with homework nightly, taken Beau to the Dog Park twelve times, cleaned the house (kinda), cooked too few meals, picked up take-out too many times, gone to class at ISU three times, and otherwise tried to keep things running around the house. (In other words, don't gripe about the sparse blog postings--we've all been busy!)

Anyway, we now have countertops! Wow! What a difference the countertops make. No longer are we trying to prepare decent meals on partial pieces of particle board precariously set atop our cabinets. It was no easy feat getting the countertops installed, though. Trying to fit the cooktop into the lower cabinet proved much more involved than we had hoped because it set lower into the cabinet than we had planned for, and it was wider than any other cooktop ever manufactured. At one point, I suggested we use butter to see if it would help us wrangle the cooktop into the cabinet and countertop, but we finally did get it in without the food additives--just barely. The good news is that we didn't have to worry about the island countertop moving around before it was secured in place; the cooktop was holding it tight.

Next, we had to connect the two pieces of the countertop that run along the wall. Fortunately, Andrew had a friend over to play as Bill was trying to attach the two pieces, so Bill wasn't able verbally articulate his feelings about the countertop installation process for fear of offending Andrew's friend. (Notice that I'm not too concerned about our children being offended--it's been a long, long project with lots of verbal articulation of frustrations, and they're used to it.) I'll have to keep that handy little strategy in mind, and next time there's a nasty job to be done, I'll have Andrew invite his friend over again. Anyway, after an afternoon of gluing, attaching, connecting, and shoving, the countertops are fully installed. Here's how they look:

Not too shabby, huh? Of course, we have to attach the under-cabinet lighting wires, and we still have a lot of finishing touches left to do, but we're getting there. The countertops were a huge step forward. Hopefully this weekend, we'll get the microwave installed--which means more cutting into the oven cabinet. Hey, Andrew. Give your friend a call and see if he can come over, will you?

Oh, and Beau continues to grow. The last time we had him weighed a few weeks ago, he tipped the scales at 65 pounds. No telling how much he weighs now, but he's already a few inches taller than Dooley at the shoulders. Sadly, the beast still thinks he's small enough to fit into his puppy bed. Soon, his puppy bed will be his pillow--he just doesn't know it yet.