Un-Extreme Home Makeover: Phase II, Part 3

Murphy's Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will. Yesterday was Murphy's day. He ruled around here. Let me see.....where do I start? Saturday began well. Reinforcements arrived to help Paul put in the cabinets..... and that is pretty much where the good part ends!

Here we have a dear family friend, Jeff, then Paul, his Uncle Dave and his Dad, Glen. The "A" team! These guys came in and saved the day, people! There is no way we could have done this alone.

Shortly after Paul got his posse all assembled in the kitchen, they realized they had a big problem. The worst kind of kitchen-cabinet-installation-problem you can have....a measurement problem. That is not the kind of problem you want to have after the cabinets have been delivered.

This is when some of you will say, "I told you so". Don't be too hasty! I assure you, we measured more than thrice. Yes, if we'd paid another $1000+ to have Lowes come and install the cabinets, we also could have had them do the measurements, and this would not have happened. But, neither would the kitchen at that rate! The actual measurements weren't the problem. The measurements were accurate. The ending point of the measurements, inside the window frame or outside the frame, was the issue. Apparently, someone misunderstood us or we misunderstood them, when taking this measurement. See, we have a window above our sink. It looks into another room, rather than our backyard, but whatever! It's an odd house, folks. Remember the upstairs hall that looks into the kitchen?!?! Anyway, with the cabinets we ordered, based on a measurement from the wall to the window (not the frame), the sink base doesn't center under the window!!??!! It would be off by 6 inches. 6 inches may not sound like a lot, but it looks....well, wrong! It took a couple of phone calls to Lowes for Paul to sort out what had happened and what needed to happen. But, the gist is that three of the cabinets went back to Lowes last night and three more, of different sizes, were ordered...with a rush. They will be here in, oh......2 to 4 weeks! There are 3 holes in my kitchen until then! And, we can't have the counter top template made to order the counters until the rest of the cabinets are installed. Wait, it gets better........

The team figuring out that this isn't working.

Here is one hole where a cabinet should be.

And, here are the other two holes, one on top and one on bottom.

Please take no notice of the mess on the old counter tops. This is a construction zone!


After doing all they could to rectify that situation, the guys forged ahead. A little to quickly. They went to great pains to install the refrigerator box and overhead cabinet. It was flush. It was level. It was even shimmed off the ground exactly, so the tile flooring can be slipped in and installed under it instead of around it! And........it was too high. Way too high. They failed to realize that the box sides were made to be cut down for 36 inch cabinets or used as is for 42 inch cabinets. A mistake anybody could have made (except a professional, I'm sure). No one even noticed until they measured 18 inches up from where the counters go and started to install the cabinet next to it. The whole thing had to come down, be cut to size, and put back up!

Okay, am I the only one that sees a problem here?

Ahhhh, my heroes fix the problem!

Then there was the whole problem of the sink. Well, the base cabinet was right and they had no problem putting it in. But. You knew there'd be a but, didn't you? When Paul tried to turn the water back on, there was no hot water. The valve under the sink wasn't working. So he took it apart and fixed it. Then it wouldn't stop working!!! It just ran and ran. So, the valve has to be replaced...that part wasn't in the plans.

See the "happy plumber"? Okay, not so much!

It was "National Lampoons Kitchen Remodel", y'all! Thank goodness, everyone involved in this had a good sense of humor. Not like some people, that might have thrown his golf club when things went south.....you know who you are. Not to mention, Parker has run a fever since Thursday, a bike fell out of the garage ceiling onto Paul, the cat scratched Isabel in the eye....I'm going to stop there. If I go on, I might have to take one of my mother-in-law's pills and go to bed!

We ended the day by finishing the painting. Why didn't we finish it before? Well, besides the fact that it took us until 3:00 in the morning to do what we already did, we couldn't figure out how to get the edges done all the way up in that second story corner! We finally had to borrow a special ladder from our neighbor and put that on top of the scaffolding. Then Paul balanced at the top of the ladder while using a paint brush, taped to a handle, with me on the scaffolding with him to dip the brush when he needed paint and his mother down below, refusing to watch! That seems safe, right???!

Just kidding about the pill! I'm looking on the bright side. Where is the bright side you ask? My kitchen has a window! That's really bright!!!! My kitchen has most of it's cabinets and they are B-eautious! And big. Way bigger than my other teeny cabinets. My kitchen is painted! Painted! If you only knew how much I loathed the color and "flatness" of the other paint, you might understand why this is exciting to me! Did I mention that I have a weird sensory aversion to flat wall paint, and hate to touch it? Plus, that stuff won't come clean when you wash it. It was awful! I LOVE my new "satin" painted walls! I love the color! I love the feel! And, I have new lighting.

Lovely new lighting!!!!
This is over the kitchen.

This is over the dining area!

Another reason, not to sweat the small stuff!

Just for cuteness sake, I had to slip this picture in. Look!!!! Piggy tails! Her hair is finally long enough for some fun stuff!