Remodel

I was surprised to get a call from The Guy about 3p.m. on Saturday. I was walking out of Barnes and Noble when he called after an unsuccessful search for play coin money like I used to play with when I was little for a school project. He told me that he was going to be remodeling his kitchen. He has talked about this for many years- probably as long as I had known him. He wanted my feedback on what to do. He wants to move his kitchen around. He wants to move the sink and dishwasher up against the far window. Without showing a picture, it may not make a whole lot of sense. I've been opposed to it since he first mentioned this. I told him how it doesn't keep with the kitchen triangle (to have your sink, fridge, and oven where you can easily reach all 3). He told me why. I gave him my thoughts: does he want to stare at the kitchen sink from the living room? Don't you think the sink is a bit far out of the way? Nobody is going to congregate in the kitchen even if he redoes it like that, what are they going to congregate around, the faucet at the sink? He went on and told me everything- new 30'' cabinets where the sink will go, upgrade to granite, and BLACK TILE FLOORING. I told him I thought black would be too dark and tried to tell him why I wouldn't do that. We probably talked for a good 30 minutes and he said he wanted some help. He told me to call him later and come over.

I called about 5:30 and guess I woke him up. I told him I could head on over. I had been stalling for a few hours not knowing if my plans with my cousin would fall through. I expected they would. I get over to his place about 6:30. He called me as I was turning onto his street asking if I could pick up pizza, but he said that he would just order it. I pull in and don't see his cars. I was a little surprised and didn't realize his new car was parked at the other end of the complex. I saw his kitchen sink sitting in the carport. I was a little confused. I go in and see his washer is in the middle of the kitchen, the tile countertop gone, a bunch of boxes stacked as you enter.

I go in and see him in the office. He shows me the touch faucet he found that he is going to buy that cost $700. You just tap it and the water flows. You tap to turn it off. I joked that only he would find that and buy it. So high tech. He showed me the flooring and I decided to just say it would look fine. He is trying to bring out the dark colors in his house. I worried it would be too dark and constricting. I pointed out how the tones he has in the house are nice earth tones now and match well with everything. He told me how the walls are cream, all the furniture is cherrywood, so he wants to have that look nice. I pointed out how I furniture is changeable, floor isn't, so he probably shouldn't work that way. I did just go with the black after pointing this out and tried to be supportive. It could work, but only if it were done well.

The barbecue pizza arrives from Dominos and we sit down to eat it. We put on an episode of Law and Order from Season 1. Good times. The old L&O music went on and on and on. 54 dead bodies in this episode. Good times. Dead bodies and dinner go well together. The Guy called his brother and best friend and told them his plans for the house when we were done eating.

After that we spent a lot of time in the kitchen talking- should he do another island in back of the sink? How much room would he really get? He opened Adobe Illustrator and began drawing the kitchen out. We measured everything in the kitchen and plotted it. Thankfully The Guy's best friend was adamant that an island was needed if he moves the sink. We discussed island sizes, where to put it, moveable or not. The Guy pondered using his current island where the sink was and having that refinished. We discussed lots of different options.

About 10:30 The Guy said we should take a dip in the jacuzzi. He gave me some shorts and I stripped down, and met him out there. We got in the jacuzzi and he talked about how awesome his kitchen will look. He told me how he is hiding this from his mom and how he lied to his brother that he is spending his tax rebate check on this and it is covering it. It is actually $9,000. He told me how he is working his parents to get the money for it. He's too much. It was so refreshing to sit out there. It warmed me up because I was cold. We get out and go back in the house, and I'm warm again. It felt great.

We were out there a while I guess since after we got out we decided to go get some drinks, and that was at 11:45. We get in his car, which I saw finally. I am usually more observant. We talk about how cold it was and head over. We go in the liquor store and The Guy picks up ice cream and informs me he's being bad. He gets some chocolate syrup too. He wanted gummy bears, but couldn't find the good ones. I remind him of what we came for.

Back at his place he serves us both ice cream and I get the syrup ready. We sit down to an episode of "Law and Order" and he does more figuring out on his computer, and has me count tiles and measure more stuff in the kitchen. More discussion and he comes to the conclusion maybe a moveable island is the way to go. He pops some popcorn during our second episode of "Law and Order," and shortly after we both fall asleep. I woke up to the sound of crunching and him finishing off my popcorn. I don't know if I was really out or not, but when I woke up I heard what sounded like "row, row, wow, wow, bow wow" come out of his mouth, and asked him 3-4 times what he said. I still don't know if that's what he had been saying. After the 4-5 time of repeating it I realized he was saying, "bedtime, I can hardly stay awake, are you going to stay the night?" I decided I'd just go, but told him to keep me up to date on everything with the kitchen. I was excited to see. I thanked him for everything including the dog treats he gave me earlier in the night because they were on his counter and his dogs didn't like them.

I left at 2:08a.m. and got home at 2:45a.m.