Life List #102: buy a house/condo/2-square-foot-of-land!

Ok -- this life list item is soooo close to being completed. Inspection went swimmingly except for that crazy radon test. But luckily the sellers were kind enough to get that taken care of (or it will be as of this Monday) so thankfully we don't have to deal with that or add that to our ever-increasing budget. Closing on the 29th or 30th. We cannot wait... we've even gone over once in the meantime to spray the bee's hive that we need to nix pre-move. Funny that we're doing all this maintenance already when it isn't quite legally ours!

The kitchen renovation continues... I met with the third kitchen cabinet folk today for cabinet pricing. Stopped at Lowe's to get a quote on this Black Walnut island countertop I'm slightly obsessed with. And we've officially bought all of our appliances except the stupid wine refrigerator. Such a pain trying to find an undercounter/built-in version with hopefully dual zones that is actually cheaper than our full refrigerator. WHO KNEW?! But I think we've saved so much money on the other items that a few extra hundred will be well worth it.

Anyhow, with the pre-planning I've done and sketches and research, we will most likely be ordering these cabinets the day after closing and hopefully installing a mere month later. Knock on wood... literally.

So, if any of you friends or blog-readers out there ever need a kitchen re-do, please consult me... I ask more questions than should even be legal, so I can tell you the upcharge for those roll-out pantry trays, or the paneling on the other side of the refrigerator, or those super nice soft-close doors and drawers. And I can also give you the tips on granite savings, where to shop for appliances in Toledo/on-line, differences between frameless and framed cabinets (not to mention overlay and inset) and the costs as well. I've even discovered that not only can you make a cool grand off of selling pre-existing cabinets on Craigslist... you can also sell them to a contractor who prefers to remove them carefully and correctly themselves (saving US a ton of extra work!). I'm a damn kitchen nerd. And thankfully for my lovely fiancé's sake, I'm adoring every second of it.

Check out my pre-planning sketches!!! Talk about ridiculously specific!!!