The Kitchen Conundrum

Still here?

2010-10-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry we haven't been better about updating, but there's really nothing to report.

The doors for the W/D closet and to the garage are finally here and getting stained. They will hopefully go in Friday which should complete our little project. I promise pictures when that happens.

Until then, go back to what you were doing.

The Great Cookie Experiment

2010-09-25T18:37:00.000-05:00

If it wasn't for backorders, we'd be pretty much done. Don't these companies know that we need these things NOW! OK, not really, but still. The fridge, doors and "chandelier" are still MIA.

In the meantime, we've got trim around the big window, kitchen window and door to the living room.

We've also got an oven now! I always thought ovens were just kitchen fire safes. Who knew you could heat up just the inside and cook something! Awesome!

The chimney for the vent hood is sitting on the cooktop. It still needs to be attached, obviously.

And what better way to break in a new oven, than with COOKIES!!!

We've also done several loads of laundry without incident, in case you might be wondering what else might have happened with that. So far, so good.

Backsplash & our first water issue (that didn't take long)

2010-09-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

When we got home last night, the backsplash was done:

The vent hood will probably go in on Thursday. The yellow wire isn't the 'look' Carla has in mind.

Doing a load of towels today, the drain hose worked its way out of the drain and proceeded to puke its soapy contents on the 4 day old wood floor. I was in the next room and caught it quickly. "Don't put wood in the kitchen" some people said. This was exactly what they had in mind with that advice. The drain hose has been zip tied to the water hoses and scolded.

To end on a lighter note, there's all kinds of stuff around due to the work. Here's a picture of an embarrassed YoYo with something on his nose. Curiosity... cat...

Tile!

2010-09-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

So the tile guys who were supposed to get the backsplash done on Friday just showed up. At 2pm. On Tuesday.

I asked the lead guy if glass tile is any harder to work with than ceramic. He sighed heavily and said "sometimes it's really easy, other times it's really, really hard. It just depends". Pity them. Pray for them. Keep them in your thoughts.

Pics tomorrow!

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!

2010-09-19T15:01:00.000-05:00

We didn't think there'd be anything to report until Monday, but we were wrong. So very wrong.

Simple things first that we haven't thought to include before, like... Carla's chandelier! Carla thought it'd be cute to have a little chandelier over the sink. I smiled politely and said "yes dear". At least, that's how I remember it. Anyway, it's on order and hasn't shown up yet, so the electricians installed their own version, which I much prefer:

The reason was that if we should get inspected, this will pass rather than having bare, hot wires sticking out of the ceiling. I told the plumber that we had to cut costs somewhere, and this was the result.

Since the cabinets are mostly complete, Carla decided to move the pantry items from the dining room table into the new pantry. This was a good time to purge some things, like this box of whatever it was...

...that had an expiration date of January 2004.

After dinner we decided to try out the new washer & dryer. I got a load of jeans, fired up the HAL-9000 of washers, and sat back. I commented a couple of times on how quiet it was. Then the rinse cycle started. This is a 4 second exposure of me wraslin' with the severely unbalanced washer as it tried to make its getaway.

Wikipedia defines 'whoa' as: "an exclamation predominantly used to command pack and draft animals to stop, and is most commonly applied to horses. Whoa can also refer to a general expression of surprise or amazement". We were on the other side of the kitchen when this first happened and I was saying "whoa, whoa, whoa" as I ran across the room. This tickled Carla. I think it was an appropriate exclamation considering the circumstances.

I'm not sure what the W/D combo weighs, but it was pretty light on its feet during our tango. I stopped it and took out half of the load. Same thing. I stopped it and took out everything, ran smooth as could be. 3 pair of jeans cannot be responsible for this. Something has to be wrong. Back to the manual...

When we were putting in the W/D, John looked at a tag on the back and said it's about the optional pedestal, which it was:

HOWEVER, if you kept reading, it had some important tidbits, :

Like "REMOVE SHIPPING BOLTS".

--- later that night ---

This is what came out of the back of the washer:

For some reason, the washer ran much better after these came out of it. In this day of .10 cent electronics, why can't a single use switch be used with one of these to NOT run the washer if it isn't removed? The washer communicates with the dryer to transfer load information for drying time, but the washer can't tell me there are 4 8" bolts sticking in its backside? C'mon GE!

Anyway, everything is fine, we've done a couple of loads of laundry, the weekend is over and it's time to go back to work.

Oh, we didn't win PowerBall last night either.

Does Comcast make dryers?

2010-09-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

The plumber came today to (hopefully) finish up. Since it was the plumber, and nothing has gone his way yet, why should today be any different. The dishwasher had a bum leg and it took a lot of effort to get it leveled, the drain we got for the sink wouldn't connect to our disposer, and the rerouting of the gas for the cooktop was just as bad as it had looked yesterday.

While he was doing that I thought I'd reverse the door on the dryer so that it would open the same way as the washer. How hard could that be? Well, the manual has 6 pages describing the 9 parts and 25 screws that are involved in the process. It all made sense until the end when you have to put the door back on the dryer. GE must have laid off the guy responsible for tapping the holes where the hinges attach because it was just a hole in the face against metal. I rounded off the little screws trying to get them to seat before I went to Arlington ACE hardware and got some self-tapping screws. The plumber was done before I was.

Master's Flooring showed up soon after that and put the final coat on the floor. We'll be able to walk on it this evening and try out the washer/dryer load after load after load after load... 4 weeks of laundry adds up.

We're in a holding pattern until Monday when the tile backsplash goes in.

Ready... GO!

2010-09-17T23:11:00.000-05:00

We got up at before 8am for all the fun.

John showed up first, followed by the cabinet guys, the window guy, the guy to stretch the carpet in the living room, the countertop guys, the electricians and the tile guys (who got sent away because the countertop guys weren't done and out of their way).

Right now it's 3:15pm and the cabinets are done as much as they can be right now, the widow is fixed, the carpet is stretched, the countertop is almost done and the electricians are finishing up.

Sawing/drilling granite hurt me as much as scraping the wood did.

3:45pm - Countertop guys are done! The island is loooong. I think it was just been put on the list for emergency space shuttle landing sites.

4:30 - The microwave went in fine. We're hoping that Jack Donaghy will stop by and show us how it works.

The oven however... it is so deep that it goes all the way to the back of the cabinet. You know, where the gas line and electric is. D'oh! Lots of measuring n' mumbling right now.

The plumber tomorrow will have to move that gas pipe sticking out to a spot higher up so that the oven will fit. The plumber can't catch a break. It seems like everything unexpected that has popped up has involved him, and none of it has been his fault. If he doesn't hate us yet, I'm sure he hates the house.

Gotta go to bed, but I want to leave you with a shot of the first "meal" prepared in the new kitchen!

Whadaya want?! We've only got a microwave right now! The chateaubriand is tomorrow night!

Shake, shake, shake...

2010-09-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

Not much to report the past couple of days.

We went out yesterday to look at the floors, and noticed that one board had split open. I felt it had been broken from the scraping; you have to know when to stop if using "enhanced methods of coercion".

We've since found out that this is called a 'shake board'. It's usually caused by wind weakening a tree in a certain place, then breaking when pressure is applied. It was surgically extracted from the floor and replaced by a less individualistic plank.

We also got up at the crack of dawn for an appliance delivery.

The party starts at 8am tomorrow!

The Floor Gets A Coat

2010-09-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

The stain and first coat of clear went on the floor today.

I've just heard from John that they're going to give it a second coat of clear tomorrow (Tuesday), then wait until Saturday for the final coat since everyone will be here on Friday doing electrical, plumbing, cabinets, AC (hopefully), appliances and I'm sure something else I'm forgetting.

The color we went with is 'Sedona Red'. The pictures were taken right after the guys left, so it's very wet and shiny. This isn't quite what it'll look like when it's finished.

Thing we learned today:
We decided to do a lightly hand-scraped finish on the floor instead of the smooth finish we have in the hallway and the dining room. This was done to hide the inevitable dings and dents from dropping things since it is a kitchen. The scraping process hurt me. Seeing the guys deliberately deface what had been a nice, pretty floor was not pleasant. It is pretty and it is functional, but it sounded like a tree's version of death by a thousand cuts.

Cabinets & Floors

2010-09-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lapse. We gave the web staff the last couple of days off.

OK! The floors went in Wednesday. There was some serious discussion of using them as ark material, but we decided on floors. If that makes no sense, scroll down to the previous post.

It's a nice red oak and will get the first coat of stain on Monday. It looks like it went in without any drama.

The cabinets went in on Thursday.

Well, the cabinet bodies went in on Thursday. The doors & drawers were sent to timeout and will rejoin the class next week. Again, scroll down to prior posts if you can't keep up. There's no "previously on..." nonsense here. We challenge our followers! Hmmm, maybe we should call it "The Kitchen Rubicon"... but I digress...

The counter top guy came and measured today for the granite which is scheduled to go in next Friday. The electrician came a few minutes after sunrise to start his finish-out. We're still missing a couple of the under cabinet fixtures, the can light trim and Carla's chandelier (don't ask), but the barrel has light and the cans work. It's starting to look like a real room!

I also called the GE appliance hot line and asked nicely if they could split our delivery since everything is ready except for the fridge. Asking nicely didn't help. Agreeing to pay the $51 fee for a second scheduled delivery did. Next Thursday we should have a garage full of GE stuff ready to be put in Friday.

I ended the day by installing the speakers and wiring the volume control. You know, the important things!

Well, that's the update, and I really don't expect a lot to happen over the weekend, but I could be wrong.

Not much else happening other than my Mom went missing in Switzerland for about 24 hours, but hasn't that happened to us all?

Have a safe and happy weekend!

flood vs. FLOOD

2010-09-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

I go out to the kitchen this morning to pick up stuff for the floor guys who are supposed to come today. I see this:

There is water along the baseboard in the sink area. Great. John (the contractor, if you're not keeping up) had told us that there was some dirt buildup alongside the house that was coving the weep holes in the brick and causing some damage that was discovered during demolition. I figured that it had been that way for a couple of decades, so it would be a good Fall project while we landscaped the area outside the new picture window. What I hadn't planned on was Hermine. We got something like 9" of rain overnight.

Not only was I bummed that the drainage project had just gotten moved up, but we're supposed to be getting wood floors installed in the next few hours. You know what wood floors love more than anything? Neither do I, but it ain't water!

So boohoo, this is just great, what else can go wrong... then Carla stolls down the hill to see how Rush creek is coping with the rain. Rush creek is usually very low and calm, but has a tendency to get a little psychotic during heavy rain. She came back with these pictures:

This is literally about 100 yards from our house -down- the hill.

I'm no longer worried about a pint of water on the concrete slab in the kitchen.

Further flood coverage can be found at: www.nbcdfw.com or www.wfaa.com
I should only point you to nbcdfw, but since WFAA has a helicopter that they can control, and isn't powered by a weedeater, they do have the better aerial shots of the neighborhood.

Smells like... progress

2010-09-07T09:52:00.002-05:00

Paint Day!

From about 12:20pm until 5:20pm, we got everything primed and painted with one coat. We'll see how that looks and go from there.

Charlie's sister, Terry, came over and brought supplies (poles, rollers, brushes, moral support) and really helped get things done. She did the trim work (voluntarily!) and a lot of the ceiling priming (not Carla's favorite thing to do)

After looking, and looking, and looking at paint, Carla was still uncertain about what color the kitchen should be. So, the only solution was to choose Sherwin-Williams "Uncertain Gray" as the color! Not kidding. It really is called "Uncertain Gray". They also have a "Spalding Gray" that I wanted to use just because.

It really is more of a blue-gray than it shows in this picture, but it also really depends on angle and time of day. The first few rolls looked like something from the 'USS Missouri Collection' (battleship gray), but it got bluer as it dried. It's going to go nicely with the granite and cabinets (we think/hope/pray).

All that's left is the cut-in of the ceiling paint against the walls, but the light was getting iffy when we quit, and we were tired of looking up. We'll give it a couple of days and see what needs another coat or to be touched up.

The floors go in today. Sorry cats, more air tools.

STOP THE PRESSES!

10:55AM UPDATE: Just got a call from Master's Flooring... no floor today. When we were discussing days with the guy who brought the wood for the floors, he was off a day due to the holiday. He said 'Tuesday', but he meant 'Wednesday' since they didn't work yesterday.

Floors go in tomorrow morning. We just keep changing things up to keep the cats on edge.

Why did we do this?

2010-09-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday evening and there is no primer or paint up. The mud and texture took longer than anyone was expecting and the walls won't be ready until Monday morning. Monday is going to be a long day. But that's just the update, not the 'good' story.

Here's the good story:

Carla went to look at the cabinets late Friday afternoon while I was at work. I talked to her at 5:30pm and she was happy with cabinets, but couldn't get over the size of them and the general amount of 'stuff' that was supposed to go into the kitchen. She liked the color and commented on the smell of the paint shop. That was it, so yippee!, the cabinets are good to go!

I got home at 11pm or so and hooked her camera up to the computer so I could take a good look at the pictures she'd taken of the cabinets. I start looking at them, trying to piece them together in my head as to what goes where, when I notice the doors. The doors and drawers are nothing like I'd pictured in my minds eye. All of a sudden, I'm looking at a mountain of partially stained maple cabinetry and wondering what happened. I've been told by a couple of people that I got 'stressed' about this time. I have no recollection.

Here's a quick rundown of what happened:
When deciding on cabinet style, we chose a flat panel with a really dark stain. We discussed this with the John the contractor and came to an understanding. We then found a picture online of what we had in mind and sent him a link to it. Without going into detail, let me just warn you that you should send PICTURES of something like this, not LINKS. The link was broken and went to a different set of cabinets.

So, instead of something like this:

We were looking at this:

Now, the bottom one isn't stained yet, but it's a raised panel door with a bevel on the edge. (This is the piece that will go above the desktop, by the way.) It's a really nice cabinet that looks really well made, but isn't what I was expecting. Carla was OK with it until I had my little meltdown. All I could think about was the hardware she'd picked out wouldn't really work with that door style and the expensive maple doors we got for the garage and closet wouldn't match. We had some more decisions to make if these were going to be our cabinets.

After talking to John the next morning, I decided to drive out to Weatherford and take a look at them myself. John agreed that they weren't what he was expecting either, and we decided to have them make new doors and drawers.

So....

What we learned this weekend:
Even if you think everybody is on the same page and thinking the same thing, ask for pictures, drawings, etchings, hieroglyphics... something during the process before you're looking at half a maple forest that's been meticulously shaped into something you don't like.

I'm guessing Carla will chime in with her version of events when she gets a minute.

Tape, bed and Texture

2010-09-02T19:48:00.001-05:00

Sorry it's been quiet the past couple of days, but it really is more of the same: Tape, bed and texture.

We hope to get up bright and early Saturday to prime the whole thing. Tomorrow we're heading to Weatherford to take a look at the cabinets during the staining process.

Look for pics this weekend!

-Things we learned today: The tankless hot water heater that we didn't really need, but had to get, qualifies for a tax credit!... but we maxed out our '09-'10 energy tax credits last year with the new AC/furnace. I would question the logic of the 2 year window for energy tax credits, but I have the utmost confidence that the IRS made that rule to... oh, who am I kidding.

Drywall

2010-08-31T09:00:00.001-05:00

It was a fairly quiet Monday with some trim & priming outside where the house had a "procedure" to run the power from one end to the other, and the ceiling getting drywalled. The drywall guys must hate people who do anything besides 90 degree angles since the barrel took about half the day.

Sorry, not much to report.

Thing we learned today: Doors that are expected to be painted are significantly cheaper than doors that are expected to be stained.

Inspection Day 2: The Insulated

2010-08-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

Zippy came back on Friday for the insulation inspection and everything went fine. We're OK for the dry wall to go up on Monday. Thanks Zippy!

As far as the other issue, we've got a tankless gas water heater ordered that should be here on Wednesday so we can get that area buttoned up and forgotten.

Once that was settled, the day belonged to the windows. A new picture window replaced the faux bay window and a replacement single hung window replaced the tired one that was over the sink.

All in all, a pretty quiet day to end the first full week. Hopefully by next Friday the dry wall will be up and everything taped & bedded.

So how 'bout some pics?

Window Before

Window During

Windows After Installation

Time to Move

2010-08-27T09:55:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's time to move. Not from the house necessarily, but from Arlington.

Remember in the last post I anticipated the building inspector being a pinhead?
I was overestimating him.

Zippy showed up and had a problem with having a gas water heater in the garage, even though that's where the old one was, that's where it was on the approved plans, and that the very first question on the FAQ from the City of Arlington site about building permits deals with gas water heaters in the garage and the fact that they have to be elevated. You can't elevate something that shouldn't be there. Before he was through, he decided that the problem was in placement; the car could possibly sideswipe it when entering or exiting the garage. Again, the water heater is exactly where it is on the approved plan.

His solution? Build a closet for it in front of the car, since no one ever drives through the front of the garage, puts the car into drive instead of reverse, needs to get into the trunk so you pull in just a little to far, etc. Yeah, much safer there. Pinhead.

Our solution? We're going to get a tankless gas water heater and mount it high on the wall where we moved the plumbing and gas to for the current water heater. You know, the location from the approved plan.

Anyway, Zippy's coming back today to do the insulation inspection. Joy.

We'll leave you with a quiet picture showing that everyone in the house misses the kitchen. The work area is not accessible to the cats during construction due to the temporary wall in the living room, but we let them in to explore sometimes and YoYo always immediately looks to see if his window is still there. Yesterday he just just went to his window and just sat for awhile.

Inspection Day

2010-08-25T20:58:00.001-05:00

It's almost 9pm and Joe is still here cleaning up and getting the site ready for some pinhead from the city of Arlington to come out and say, "yup, it's a kitchen". Probably more to it than that, but that's my version.

I think all the electric, A/V and CAT6 got run today. The plumbing is done until the cabinets are in and the sink, etc. get put in.

What's the old adage? 'Measure once, cut twice'? Is that it? I ordered a 100' spool of speaker wire that should have been perfect. Would have been perfect. However, the idiot who was running it cut it wrong, requiring a run to Lowes for another 30' to fix my the installers error. Grrrrrr...

Remember me shilling for Monoprice? Here's why:
100' spool of nice in-wall, sheathed 14/2 speaker wire from Monoprice = $15
30' of generic 14/2 speaker wire from Lowes = $19
My reaction when I mis-cut the wire = Priceless

'Remove' vs 'Abate'

2010-08-25T12:07:00.000-05:00

We got to sleep in this morning. 7:50am. Ahhh, vacation.

By 8:20am, we had new wall paper:

We really need a new decorator.

New thing I've learned today: Anybody can 'remove' something, but it takes someone certified to 'abate' something. Don't ask me what the differences are exactly, because I can't really tell just from watching.

Where was I? Sorry, I just had to write a check to the 'certified' guys carrying out the tile and scrapings in what looked like a hefty bag. I'm guessing it'll be in the Arlington landfill tomorrow. I could be wrong.

What if we...

2010-08-24T14:53:00.000-05:00

It seems so easy on paper: What if we flip the washer and dryer and put them opening into the kitchen instead of into the garage?

A concrete saw, jackhammer and plumber later - it's looking possible.

The "What ifs" will kill ya!

Electricians, plumber, drywall repair and a little framing today. Did I mention that the electric panel is in the opposite corner of the house and a new trunk line has to be run to the garage to power the new kitchen? No? OK then, there's that as well.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

Road Block

2010-08-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

Today's secret word is ASBESTOS.

Can you say ASBESTOS?

Good! I knew that you could!

They say that when remodeling, you should always allow for the unexpected. I would very much like to introduce you to "The Unexpected".

Not only is the original tile under the carpet in what was the office (originally formal dining room) ugly, but it also quite probably contains asbestos, as does the glue under it. On Wednesday the guy with the space suit will come and remove enough so we can saw out the foundation and get electricity to the island.

Maybe this will be the only big SURPRISE! we encounter.

Demo Day!

2010-08-22T10:39:00.003-05:00

It's been about 48 hours since the beginning of demolition. It seems longer.

This is the first time I've felt like looking at pictures and editing them (poorly) to put up and document the process. I was beat at the end of the day Friday, and compared to the guys actually demoing/framing, I didn't do anything.

This is the view from the living room looking towards the office/kitchen. By the end of the day, the painted paneling was gone, the arches were patched and the first coat of mud was on the wall. It looks better already. The temporary door fascinates the cats. They know something is happening on the other side. We've had to put a rug up against it to keep them from trying to dig into the work area.

This is a before/during/after view over 12 hours.

This gives a little bit of the idea of the barrel vault that will be over the island. It'll all make sense later.

Here is the faux bay window that will be a single picture window when we're done.

Lumber delivery. This was not this guy's first day on the job! The way he handled this thing up and down the driveway was pretty impressive. Very cool lifter/loader thingy. Yes, I do believe the accepted trade term for it is 'lifter/loader thingy'. If not, it should be.

According to the metadata from Carla's camera, it was exactly 9 hours from drop-off to pick-up. That is our old 1974 kitchen driving away. The dumpster was working under 'don't ask, don't tell'. The city of Arlington doesn't allow dumpsters on the street, they have to be on the property or driveway, neither of which is an option on our lot. The contractor's usual dumpster company agreed to do a single day drop-off and I guess just not tell anyone. Works for me! The other option would have been to make trips to the dump all day long in the Mazda pickup. That would not have been fun.

D-Day tomorrow!

2010-08-19T19:32:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is D-day. D as in DEMOLITION of our beautiful 1974 kitchen. I honestly didn't think this day would ever come.
My trusty meterologist friend, David Finfrock says it will be sunny and 101 degrees. Why are we doing this tomorrow? We plan to get started at 7am. Some of you know that 7am is the middle of the night for Charlie and me. I don't plan on sleeping too well anyway.
Our contractor and new best friend, John says we are taking the kitchen and office "down to the studs". Hopefully we will have some good pictures to post tomorrow of our demolition.
Tomorrow is also my 12th anniversary to my wonderful husband Charlie. He really IS the best!
Carla

What happens in Vegas...you have to get there first!

2010-08-16T12:42:00.002-05:00

Sometimes it pays to be married to a procrastinating slob (his words!) Charlie couldn't remember what day during our trip to Vegas we had tickets for a Cirque du Soleil show. So he called to find out, well we didn't have tickets, nor a room at the Monte Carlo as we had been told. Someone had cancelled all of that, according to the person on the phone. We did have our airfare though. So we would have gotten to Vegas and had no hotel. Charlie called bestfares.com (I wouldn't use them if I were you) and they had no record of us.

Charlie had mentioned a few times as this kitchen project got closer, that he kind of wished we weren't going out of town. He got his wish! Now we get to be in town, so if you want a kitchen tour, after demolition, come on over! If you want to hang out, swim, or whatever, come on over!

I do feel really bad because my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were going to fly out for one night and have dinner in Vegas with us. I was really looking forward to it! Now we'll just have to hang out here, not as much fun, but I keep telling myself how much money we are saving (once Charlie gets the disputed charges off his credit card).

I think somebody upstairs (Yes, Dad I know it was you) was looking out for us and saying that we didn't need to be spending extra money when we are remodeling the kitchen. Vegas will still be there next time!

As for the kitchen update...we did order pendant lights today. For those of you who have seen our kitchen in person, they will go above the counter in front of the big window.

2010-08-14T11:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Carla told me to shut up.

Well, she actually said the whole kitchen thing has made me a bit of a "chatty Kathy", but she's thinks it's cute. This is mostly from my OCD web surfing trying to get pieces and parts ordered and in the house by next week. Things like TV mounts, wire, sink, faucet, speakers... Stuff that is much cheaper if we provide it, but has to be here when it's needed! Right now I'm on a quest to find the best price for a black volume control knob and black drains for the sink. Believe it or not, black drains are not a standard stock item for Home Depot! People want shiny, sparkly chrome or stainless apparently. Oh yeah, we've pretty much decided on 3"x6" black glass tile for the backsplash.

I heard "Shut up!". Maybe I mis-listened.

Anyway... 6 days 'til demo and here's where we stand. The kitchen is 75% emptied (it violently disgorged its contents into the living room and dining room), but the office really hasn't been touched. That's coming. Ugh.

Due for delivery next week are:

Sink (from homedepot.com)

Faucet & Speakers (from amazon.com)

And a big box of wire 'n stuff from monoprice.com

We're buying local for a lot of things, but the price discrepancy for plumbing fixtures and the speakers was ridiculous.

Let me just give a short plug here for Monoprice. If you're not a geek, you've probably never heard of them, but you should add them to your favorites anyway. Anytime you need anything related to hooking up, mounting or making your electonic toys work right (or better), check 'em out! Their cables especially are a fraction of the cost of what you would pay at Best Buy or even Wal*Mart, especially for HDMI cables! If you need to hook up that fancy new flat panel, please don't fall into the Monster (Cable) trap at Best Buy! Monster Cable is a great product, but 90% of the price is profit margin. Check out Monoprice or Blue Jean Cables instead. Great products that are reasonably priced.

Back to packin'...