• Two Houses

Two Hounds, Two Horses, and Two Houses: that was the title of the first post of this blog. It made me sound both responsible and overburdened, so people wouldn't give me grief about a monthlong "vacation" in Santa Fe.

I exaggerated. Caring for Rena and Teddy, the two dogs, requires about 90% of my time. The dogs' mom hired two women to care for her horses, so I have no real responsibilities for them.

But at last I've been needed for one of the houses. The dogs' mom had a kitchen fire late last year, so bad that nearly everything had to be replaced. (I'm living with the dogs in a house she rented while her home is under renovation.) The last job was delivering and installing kitchen cabinets.

Delivery went fine. Jill, a friend of the dogs' mom who has experience with home renovation, stopped by. Everything looked good. Installation was scheduled for last Thursday. Except . . . the designer at the big box store that sold the dogs' mom the cabinets was off work, so the subcontractor called the dogs' mom, who was in Africa and unable to take calls, to tell her he couldn't do the job Thursday, and the only way Jill—who was at the house to let the guys in because it was her day off—knew the job wouldn't be done Thursday was that she called the big box store and talked to someone who works with the designer who told her to call the subcontractor, who told Jill the cabinets would go in Friday, at which point Jill gave the subcontractor my number since I'd be on call Friday.

Come Friday, the subcontractor was confused. There were too many people in the equation. So I didn't learn that he couldn't install on Friday till I called him.  Monday was the new date. "Call me on Monday," I said. But on Monday the subcontractor called Jill, not me, because he was still confused, and said they couldn't do the job till Tuesday; they'd be there between 8 and 9 a.m. I was tempted to say I was too confused to show up that early.

Look how sweet Teddy is, snuggling me
 as cabinets are being installed!

The sub-subcontractor, who years ago sliced off part of his left thumb in a baluster accident, was at the house at 8 a.m. He sees that the dogs' mom installed laminate flooring in the kitchen, which the big box store didn't know. Their policy is not to place cabinets on laminate flooring. (Don't ask me why; I'm just the messenger.) The sub-subcontractor talked to the subcontractor, another designer at the big box store, and a few other folks. Meanwhile I called the stone guys, who were supposed to measure for the countertop today. Emails were sent to the dogs' mom.

The good news is that the upper cabinets were installed before noon. The bad news is that I misplaced the dogs' water bowl from the car and learned that they do not drink water after a walk—they drink water only from that bowl after a walk.

Jill, thank goodness, is making sure the big box store contacts the dogs' mom in a timely manner so the bottom cabinets can go in before she returns next week. I hope no one finds that confusing.