Our trip to the Shuswap and the Okanagan was lots of fun, but I ended up coming home early to meet the counter measurer. I had two days by myself and in that time I was able to complete all of the upper trim, the light valences, install the last lower cabinet, the undercounter lighting and also install the other pocket door pocket in the living room. Unfortunately Garden Girl and the kids had both cameras, so no pictures of this step. The sink we had special ordered arrived on the 21st at Rona. I picked it up that afternoon and dropped it off at the counter fabricators the next morning on my way out of town for work for 10 days.
The counters were ready incredibly fast and I arranged to have them installed on Aug. 30, before Garden Girl and the kids got back from their trip. Sadly their vacation had been interrupted by the sudden passing of Garden Girl's grandpa and she had travelled from Vancouver back to Winnipeg for the funeral and then back to Vancouver before flying back to Calgary with the kids. I hoped they would be happily surprised by the counters, which they were.
The counter installers were a really interesting group. Three guys, two Albanians and one Afghan. The boss was a former Albanian land surveyor who said he was too old with too poor English to try to pass the professional exams here. I have never seen anyone so concerned about precision. He kept yelling at his Afghan assistant (who was formerly an accountant in Kabul) "half millimeter to south-east, no, no, no now zero point two mm to north-west" Anyway, I'm really happy with the counters and Garden Girl was really surprised when she got home. Here are the pictures. Counters installed, and the fridge, dishwasher, and microwave back where they belong and the computer once again installed in the kitchen/office corner.
For the microwave shelf, I borrowed an idea I found here which describes another adventure in Adel Medium Brown Ikea kitchen installation from 2008. Except I think I improved on her design by also making a custom shelf out of leftovers from the panel in front of the peninsula. Ironing off the birch coloured melamine from the microwave cabinet was easier than I expected, but ironing on three pieces of coloured trim that is supplied for finishing the edges of the toe-kicks was tricky.
The counter guys also installed the sink, but the plumbing had to wait for all the epoxy to dry.
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