Kitchen FINALLY ordered!

Today was a huge day.  Such a huge day, in fact, that I need to write about the goings on of today now, and will have to write a two week catch-up post over the weekend.  But I simply have to talk about today!
Today has a tiny backstory though :)  There was quite a bit of progress on the interior this week, we picked out paint colors, and painting was set to start at the end of this week.  If you put the rest of the "race to the finish" into a timeline, it would go like this:  paint, floors, plumbing fixtures, electric, kitchen, FINISH.  The floors will be in by the end of next week, early the following week, and if you give the plumbers and electricians one week to do their installation, we're looking at the first week in November for the kitchen. We last spoke with our kitchen guy about a month ago, and he said that he would call us when he completed the revisions in the design.  In retrospect, a month was ridiculous.  So, imagine Joern's dismay when he called  kitchen guy yesterday, and he said that it should take about 6 - 8 weeks to get our kitchen!  We don't have 6-8 weeks anymore, and we don't want to move in without our kitchen!
Joern set up an appointment with kitchen guy for this afternoon.  It was an exciting day today anyway, because the plaster guys started painting the ceilings today.  So we knew we had a lot to be excited about, but making things more exciting was the knowledge that we would sign for the kitchen order tonight.  Joern was pumped up to give kitchen guy a piece of his mind, because we were so frustrated going through the whole day thinking that we might have to put off moving in until early December just because of the kitchen.  As we were driving out to the kitchen studio after work today, Joern received a text message:  the kitchen should arrive during calendar week 44.  After a slight scramble to check the dates of calendar week 44, our frustration and anger disappeared, because the kitchen should be here in 3 weeks!

We met with the kitchen guy Thursday afternoon, and it was another 4 hour marathon!  There were a lot of decisions to finalize, plus, we had to hammer down the cost.  In the end, we decided for the following things:
- a finished wall along the two walls that border the hallway to our back door, this is instead of leaving exposed cabinet bodies.  The cabinet bodies are matte, and since our whole kitchen is high gloss, this would be jarring to have different finishes.
- a space between the cabinet and the refrigerator.  Not my favorite choice, but we do need to provide plenty of space for air for the refrigerator, and there is no cabinet available that would properly fit above the refrigerator.  I'm not so convinced that it will look good, but I don't think we can change this one.
- a small, rectangular, undermount prep sink.  New Kitchen Guy planned a larger, square flush-mount sink in the bar, but I don't want the sink to take up such a large amount of space on the bar.
- a small hole in the bar with a lid, and a tiny garbage can underneath for Joern, when he cooks, kinda like Rachel Ray's "garbage bowl."  This one is an experiment, if Joern doesn't clean it out after he uses it, I'm sealing the lid with super-glue.
- we agreed on the electrically supported drawer for the garbage cans, it will be underneath the prep sink.  This is so cool, you just tap the cabinet door, it even works with your knee, and the door magically opens!  Since it is a garbage system, the whole cabinet slides open- no worries about messy hands on my white cabinets!
- the kitchen came with a few cabinet organizers.  They are not glamarous, and will probably be replaced over the years, but they will work for now, and saves us from having to scramble to buy utensil organizers for a little while.
- by the power of convincing salespeople working their magic on Joern, we are now going to be the proud owners of a warming drawer.  It might come in handy at big parties, but I'm not entirely convinced this was a necessity.
- a stainless steel drawer underneath the coffee machine for coffee grounds (from the espresso machine on the breakfast prep bar.)  This is another one, if Joern doesn't clean it out after using it, a few dabs of super glue will provide us with a lovely symmetric look, without the mess of moldy coffee grounds.

There is one tiny problem with the kitchen- the refrigerator is 91 cm wide, and not 90.  This left Kitchen Guy scrambling for a solution to gain back one centimeter from the wall with our ovens.   I think he came up with a solution, but by this time, it was 8:00 pm, and after 4 hours in the kitchen studio, my brain shut down.

Joern did quite a bit of price haggling, fortunately, because I would have settled for the price Kitchen Guy showed to us at the beginning.  In the end, Joern was able to get the price down about 5,000 Euro.  Good job, Sweetheart!

In the end, it seems like a pretty good thing.  The kitchen will be beautiful, and gigantic!  And now that we know that the kitchen is coming in 3 weeks, we are so excited!  Let the preparations for the move begin!