Filed under "You've got to be kidding"...

You may remember a few posts ago I mentioned our copper backsplash from Texas was damaged during delivery and returned to the fabricator. For that first try, it was shrink-wrapped, bubble-wrapped, and mounted on a piece of plywood before being boxed up and placed in the hands of UPS. It reached a processing center 90 minutes away from us, where it was somehow completely trashed.

Apologetic copper guys make us a whole new piece and give us a delivery date of last Friday. This time they shrink-wrap, bubble-wrap, and sandwich between TWO sheets of plywood attached together with sixteen screws before boxing it up and giving it to UPS. Friday comes and goes--no package. Monday--nothing. I plan to call Tuesday afternoon, but  Mr. Copper beats me to it; he wants to know how we like the backsplash. When I tell him it has yet to arrive, he is silent, then tells me he'll call back in a few minutes.

Almost half an hour passes before I hear back from him. The news isn't good---once again, the package has been damaged (in the same processing center as before), and once again, it is being returned to him. We are hopeful that the copper itself is okay, as it was packed so well, and really, we think, they'd have to drop it off the roof of the truck and then run over it a few times to destroy it.

Well, that's what the gnomes who wear brown in H-burg must have done, because it was, indeed, completely ruined. We are now on round 3 of copper; the new plan involves firing up another piece Monday, using thicker plywood, more screws, and FEDEX. We'll see if we have better luck this time.

Another tiny tidbit to be placed in the file: after everything with our floor--tile out of stock; tile no longer manufactured; last minute choosing of new tile; floor still not completely level; install taking four days instead of two; a severe shortage of socks and underwear....we were supposed to finish today, BUT they ran out of grout! Had enough for the job according to the packaging, but it just didn't go that far for some reason. They have about 15 tiles left to go, a tiny little patch in the corner. Hopefully it will be done quickly and won't interfere with other work that is supposed to recommence tomorrow. And I can finally get my washer and dryer reinstalled for the weekend--y'all know what I'll be doing, about ten full loads for sure!

Here are some photos of the finished floor, the grout color is Natural Grey:

We can't wait to see the cabinets sitting on this floor! The colors are really so perfect. And the floor does not read as dark as we thought it might, which is great for a room that doesn't get a lot of light for much of the day. Speaking of cabinets, thankfully Kevin and Greg were able to work out a solution for the installation on the uneven floors that does NOT involve hacking them to bits, so that's all good. Fingers crossed!