Just a quick post to update on a couple of things.
First, to those of you that participated in last week’s Babalu Fire sale, a huge thanks and a quick note to let you all know that I have yet to mail all of the items. I should have time this afternoon or tomorrow morning and thus you should be getting your stuff in a few days. Since there were no shipping charges, Im posting these in the snailest of snail mail.
Second, a couple of folks have emailed to see how my gout is doing. I can now officially state that it is almost all gone. I now have movement back on my toe and the pain has subsided. A humungous thanks to all for their thoughts and suggestions. The Black cherry thing works wonders.
Third, lots of folks have emailed me about the now infamous Prieto household renovations. Im almost embarrased to say, they are proceeding at a snail’s pace. If this were a construction project Id managed for my office, Id have been canned a while ago. Not only is the project way – and I mean way – behind schedule, but we bascially busted our budget. You never know what you’ll turn up once you start tearing our walls and ceilings, and we had our fair share of “WTF is thats”. Compound that by the fact that the Cuba Nostlagia and DC trip landed smack dab in the middle of all this and…well…you get the picture: we’re still pretty much living amid a sea of boxes and there is still a shitload of work needing completion.
As with most Americans right now, we’re stretched pretty thin financially, partially because of the economy but mostly because we werent terribly fiscally responsible with the renovations. My thing was that I was only going to renovate the interiors of the house once and only once, thus we basically did everything the way we wanted to and not the way our wallets wanted to. So, here we are, late, over budget and wondering where and when the rest of the work will be completed.
There are only a couple of minor major issues with the completion of the renovations, with which perhaps Babalu readers and supporters may possibly be of help. Para resolver, a lo cubano:
– Does anyone know a good plumber out there willing to do a few hours (2 or 3) of pro-bono work or trade for maybe some ad space on the blog? I can handle the sink and lavatory and tolilet installations, but the shower valve assembly is out of my league. I also need the refrigerator water line valve installed.
– Is there anyone out there that has a good connection with either a hardware store or an electrical supply place? Im short a few GFI receptacles, dimmers and switches and light fixture trim. Again, Ill gladly trade for some ad space on the blog if necessary.
– Ive got a pretty good price on 6″ base boards at 60 cents per linear foot, but if anyone out there can do better, or connect me with someone that can, Id really, really appreciate it.
There’s a bunch of other stuff I need, like paint, a good tile installer for the 1″ glass tile backsplash, miscellaneous hardware, etc…but all that can wait for the moment. My biggest concern right now is getting the kitchen operable – we still have not connected the sink – and making sure that the bathroom plumbing work is done properly as once it’s tiled, should something go wrong, I’d basically have to tear out the new tile and start anew.
If there’s anyone out there that can help with the above, please shoot me an email. Trust me, Ill be forever in your debt.