We have a new kitchen! (Mostly.)
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?).
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.
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