You know, when I dreamed about a beautiful new kitchen...I thought about the wonderful rich wood (that hid a great deal of the dirt that my white ones accentuate), and I thought about the lovely afternoons baking sugar cookies...rolling them out on my durable, yet beautiful, granite counter top. And the ease of opening the cabinet doors and drawers without one falling off the hinges or playing tug of war with the drawer glides just to get a spoon for my hot cocoa. Ah..it was bliss in these daydreams. Life would be wonderful. Little did I know that I would be in for a rude awakening...
I had been planning the kitchen for 2 years and I thought I had it all under control knowing what cabinets/wood species/finish I wanted. I had no idea all the other choices I had to make. YIKES! After we finally decided that the pros of granite outweighed the pros (and cons) of Corian...and it would be a better fit for our family...and I finally found a good granite installer to work with...I was off to the granite yard. All I knew is that I wanted brown granite. Not golden/orange, not black mixed with brown, and not a salmon/pink mixed with brown either. Just a nice neutral brown. He sent me to two places, I decided to go to the smaller (and closer) place first. They had a few that I liked, but I wasn't "sold" on them. So I was off to the bigger granite yard. Where I was greeted by an employee that made me sign a paper that said I would be careful and stay away from the machinery, etc...basically so I wouldn't climb up on the forklifts or cranes and kill myself or someone else...as if I'd do that anyway...but I signed and then I was escorted to the warehouse where she explained that there were over 300 different species of granite/stone and the slabs weighed 800-1000 lbs. each, and don't try to move them or they will break...(again...like I'd try to do that). After about an hour there...I realized that finding the shade of brown in my mind wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I finally came up with two that I really loved... Brown Cohiba (my favorite...it was stunning) and Cafe Olinda (second choice, but beautiful as well). So they faxed my choices to my granite installer and after a few hours he called me to let me know he got the fax...and to tell me that as pretty as the Brown Cohiba was, it would be a real pain to cut it...they'd do it, but it has a tendency to shatter like glass. Which made me all the more determined to have the Brown Cohiba. So I took my husband out a few days later to show him and "make" him agree with me.
Of course when he saw it, he noticed a few things that I had failed to the first time...apparently they had the "beautiful" piece on top last time, but they'd moved it to the back...or somewhere out of plain view. The piece that we saw this time had hairline cracks in the surface and the edges were "cut" but had broken like a glass bottle breaks. Which dashed my dreams of the beautiful Brown Cohiba counters...so my dh chose the Cafe Olinda...which has grown on me since then and I am really happy with that choice now. Then...we had to decide on a sink style...undermount or drop-in...50/50, 40/60 or 70/30 (I didn't know there were so many)...and what edge style, and if we wanted a "radius" on the bar...which I am still not sure I know exactly what it's going to look like when it's done...good thing I have a bit of time to decide on that.
Whew! The hard part is over now...or so I thought...We decided to tear out the bar (upper) counter early so we could cut the wall down. I always wanted a flat counter-height "bar" so I could have more room to roll out cookies or pie crust...or do schoolwork...not to mention that I'm a bit "vertically challenged" so that tall bar height was a little too high for my liking...more like "menacing." No big deal, right? Oh no...I had to save the beautiful stone tile on the outside of the wall. So my dh bought a special blade for his saw and started to cut right through the stone...which is when we realized that there's more to a wet saw than a "clean cut"...there's also a CLEAN cut. We all "evacuated the house due to the dust that was going everywhere. It's a good thing that my cabinets and counters were all coming out in a couple of days. I didn't have to do as thorough a job of cleaning. But he finally got the tile cut down to find out that he had to re-frame the wall...which he had to do while the inner wall was exposed...i.e. NO CABINETS. So he went on to the next thing...cutting off the pipes so they could get the sink base out...no problem, right...just shut off the water to the house, cut 'em, cap 'em off, and the water comes back on...or so we thought... When my dh went to turn the water back on...the handle just spun around...no water. It had broken in the "Off" position...very late at night...and we had to go the next day (when the cabinets were being put in) without running water in the house. It's a good thing that we have a pool. We ended up carrying buckets of water to the bathroom to bucket-flush the toilets...with 9 people in the house. Thankfully, my dh came home at lunch to try to fix the water...but ended up having to call a plumber. I was never so happy to have running water in the house.
After our cabinet guy came, he had planned on taking out and re-installing ALL the base cabinets in one day and doing trim-work the next day (wow! a kitchen guy who doesn't drag his feet ...gotta like that.) Remember the wall needed to be reframed...Ugh! So we had to install half of the cabinets...and my dh would come home to frame in the wall...that was last night. At midnight, after multiple scares of the whole wall crumbling due to the vibration of the Sawzall (?...the big manly power saw), we were happy that the cabinets were finally going in...then we looked down at the tile...
First I must explain that there was an "ugly cabinet" (as I like to refer to it) in a strange location so that it could be accessed from the "outside" of our island...which I never used because... 1.) The door kept falliing off the hinges every time I opened it, and 2.) it wasn't easily accesible to the kitchen so I stored miscellaneous "low-frequency use" things in there. So I decided to have it walled in and install a blind corner cabinet that was accessible from the kitchen. Nice thought, except for the fact that the "ugly cabinet" was framed in and THEN the tile was put down...around the frame...which sticks out past the new cabinets to make a 3"x3" square of UNTILED FLOOR. And at midnight...Lowe's was not open to buy the materials to pop out and re-install a new piece of tile, NOR was my dh willing to go to work today on no sleep. So we're a day behind on our kitchen re-do, but I'm glad that we're working with a nice, flexible installer..and he's not backed up at the moment.
So I decided to do what I could...look for cabiet knobs and pulls...Do you have any idea how many are available?!?!?! Eeeek! Thousands...if not more. And then you have to decide which FINISH / METAL you want on those knobs. I think I'd rather just pull one out of a hat...but knowing me, I'd probably pick the one that has the 80's "dusty blue" geese on it... And I haven't even started to think about the corbels to support the counter (had to have something other than wood b/c of the stone "exterior" wall of the island). I hope there' not too many more choice or I'm going to start just rolling dice...except I still wouldnt' be able to figure out which number goes with which choice.
I will be so glad when this is over. Right now, I'm almost thinking that the white cabinets that were falling apart (and off the hinges) would be so nice...But I know that it's just a "momentary light affliction" and it will be over soon...and when I've finally come through this "trial" I will have a nice new kitchen.
It kind of reminds me of how God works. He puts us through many things that are difficult, and seem like they will never end, but there is light at the end of the tunnel when we remember that He is doing it to 1.) make us more like Him, and 2.) so the world can see Him work and 3.) so He can be glorified through us. I had another great analogy about the cabinet installer, but I'll wait on that one. But as much as I like to describe this kitchen re-do process using Murphy's Law, I know that more than anything Proverbs 19:21 applies... "Many are the plans in a man's heart... but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Just when I think it's all going smoothly, the Lord says ...Just checking to see how your' doing with the "patience" thing.
We still have a few things to decide...and a short time to "wait" while we have cabinets but no counters...or sink, but it will be all worth it in the end. I'll try to post some pictures when I can think clearly...and not spew incoherent babblings...which is where I'm headed rapidly...
I know exactly what you are going through. We bought a double wide about a year and a half ago. My parents gave us a piece of property, so of course we had to deal with all that. We decided which way we wanted out house to set and then found out that there was a main gas line running through our property. We couldn't put the home over it, so we had to have more property in order for it to fit in the ONLY other spot. My parents graciously gave us more. Then we had problems getting a sewage system. We didn't want sprinklers, but there was no getting around that. We just had to have them. That has become a God send though, because we have all kinds of fruit trees and the sprinkler system waters all of them, without making our water bill go up. We didn't think that we would ever get to move our new home in. We did wind up having to get a little more property from my parents. When the day came that we could move in, it was all worth it. When your kitchen is all finished, it will all have been worth it. You will be able to do the things that you love right there in that new kitchen.
God does allow things to happen to us, to teach us patience and other things. If He didn't, then we would never learn the things that we need to learn.
I did have to laugh when I read that you had to hire a granite guy. I thought of Home Improvement where the granite guy made a play for Jill. That was so funny! They winded up firing the granite guy. I hope that doesn't happen to you. LOL!!!
Yikes! Me too. Fortunately for me..I have 6 little kids hanging around, and I'm otherwise occupied with homeschooling. I have an advantage over Jill. :-) hee hee..
I hope it all goes well. It's looking better now. I just have a "hang-up" about messing up the schedule, whether it's ours or theirs...but I have to keep reminding myself that God has His own schedule, and His will ALWAYS take precedence. :-)
Welcome to my blog...Why "gidget"? Well...my husband tried to teach me how to surf before we were married. I was lousy at it, but he called me his "gidget" and the name stuck.
Why "Treasure Trove"? I love sharing about my sweet little "treasures"...and God has blessed me beyond measure....and no, I didn't mean that to rhyme.
...gotta like that.) Remember the wall needed to be reframed...Ugh! So we had to install half of the cabinets...and my dh would come home to frame in the wall...that was last night. At midnight, after multiple scares of the whole wall crumbling due to the vibration of the Sawzall (?...the big manly power saw), we were happy that the cabinets were finally going in...then we looked down at the tile...
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