finally.

We have a new kitchen! (Mostly.)

All it took was 5 days, 7 trips to Lowes, 4 trips to Home Depot, 3 visits to IKEA, and an undisclosed amount of money. (Seriously, I refuse to even add it up. It's disgustingly high.)

Though we're not quite done yet -- the dishwasher (that I installed and wired all by myself!) is not yet hooked up to the water line (but in the meantime it's working great as a space-saving dishrack), the counter is not yet anchored to the cabinet bases, we have about 40 grouted tiles to remove, backsplash panels to install, painting/caulking/waterproofing, etc. -- we have water and electricity and counter space again, and for that we are insanely thankful.

Here's a quick recap of our journey (without the shopping trips, because I can't even remember all of them):

Friday AM: Tear out single cabinet and counter with ease. Feel good about this project! Empty cabinets and drawers, find them temporary shelter in dining room.

Friday PM: Try to turn off water at sink. Pipes still leak, must turn off water to the whole house to avoid flooding. Tear out long bank of cabinets and counter. Discover rotting tiles and subfloor but decide there's nothing we can do about it - continue with install. Place new cabinets - they fit! Break two cabinet legs. Superglue legs. Turn living room into woodshop, use coffee tables as sawhorses. Cut $189 solid oak counter to size with reciprocating saw. It's a mess. Sleep to avoid killing each other.

Saturday AM: Redo cut with new jigsaw, it looks better. Pre-wire and place dishwasher. Cut hole in counter for sink.

Saturday PM: Go to Brian and Laura's party to blow off some steam.

Sunday AM: Cut hole in sink for faucet. Faucet is wrong size, try to expand cut to accommodate faucet, fail and ruin $105 sink. (Somehow) convince IKEA to exchange ruined sink. Return big faucet (and inadvertently leave integral plumbing connection in faucet box). Buy new smaller faucet.

Sunday PM: Install faucet in sink and sink in counter. Cut and install side panel for dishwasher. Discover (too late to buy a new one) that we threw out neck to hook up old disposal.

Monday AM: Buy new disposal and backsplash tiles (since I decided it would be really easy to redo. HA!). Try to cut power to disposal outlet.* End up having to switch off every breaker in the house. Wire and attempt to install... but main waste pipe comes out too far for disposal to hang. Clean majority of debris and sawdust out of living room and office.

Monday PM: Convince Erik to take off work early on Tuesday because I can no longer handle only working during Chase's naps.

Tuesday AM: Pry off one single tile in 15 minutes. Rethink new backsplash.

Tuesday PM: Buy metal sawblade, cut 3" off main waste pipe, hang disposal, connect water supply hoses, turn on house water and keep our fingers crossed...

* After turning off the breaker labeled "disposal" and finding that the old disposal still had power, I tried turning off a few more labeled "kitshen," "ding room," and "dishwasher." Disposal still worked. Cut off "freezer" and "bedrooms." Still worked. Cut "out porch light" and the basement lights went off, but the disposal still ran. Grabbed a flashlight and finally turned off everything, which did the trick. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why a licensed electrician (not the buddy of the guy who mishung drywall) is the only person who should install a breaker box. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to the amount of rewiring we'll have to do to get this place up to code.

So blah blah blah, here are pictures...

our new kitchen, in pieces.

the single cabinet (so dirty because it was the stand mixer and coffee pot home, and who wants to clean a counter that's going straight to the trash?).

same place, new cabinet base.

and with new backsplash, countertop, and cabinet!

the long (ummm, yeah this is "long" for our kitchen) bank of old counters.

(don't worry, we kept NOTHING under the sink.)

with new cabinets and dishwasher in place.

and finally, with new counter, sink, dishwasher, cabinets, disposal and faucet! but don't get too excited, the backsplash panels are just resting on the still-tiled wall... that's a job for another day.

kitchen nightmares

Well, no April post - there went my resolution. (I haven't been drinking any tea, either.) I wish I could say that I simply didn't have time for a post, what with all the amazing things we've been doing to the house, but the truth is much more lazy: My days have been filled with a lot of daydreamy roams around Home Depot and Lowes, maneuvering around half-built kitchen cabinets, and avoidant napping. That isn't to say that we haven't accomplished anything - for example, we did put the finishing touches on Chase's playroom and activity wall (pictures to come in a devoted post).

And I've been spending an insane amount of time making decorations (mainly fabric pennants) for his birthday party decorations:

Other than that, not too much has been happening. But that all changes now. Kitchen Weekend is upon us.

We finally bought our cabinets, countertop, and sink over Erik's spring break, with grand plans to install them that week. That was about a month ago. We just kinda slept a lot that week. And now we're down to the wire - just two Saturdays and Sundays stand between us and the 27th, when Pop Pop and Kay Kay's visit coincides with Chase's (at-home) birthday party. Hence, it's Kitchen Weekend. (Potentially followed by Disaster Recovery Week when our dishwasher floods, the floor caves in, and we cut our losses and set up camp in the backyard until we win the lottery.)

To get us started, I tore out a cabinet this morning and realized why homeowners generally prefer to pay people to do these sorts of things for them: no one should see behind their kitchen counters. Amid the six-decade-old debris: two forgotten spoons; one yellowed roasting pan instruction booklet; four art deco plastic kitchen tiles; 3.2 million cockroach shells. And that's where I cook, folks!

Wish us luck.