The Kitchen Remodel Part Two: Surprises, Surprises

In honor of my blog site remodel :) I thought I'd share part two of my million part Kitchen Remodel series ;).

If you missed part one of my Kitchen Remodel, click here.

So, I called "my contractor" and then I got things with the flooring, cabinet and counter top folks set up for the week between Christmas and New Year's.

I grew up a contractor's kid and I have pretty high expectations when it comes to this remodeling stuff (read: higher expectations than the existing workmanship in other parts of our home) ... so, I called up Benefiel Construction (aka Dad and Mom) and begged them to cancel their vacation that week and instead work for me and fix the damage done by the bad behavior of my naughty fridge.

My parents took pity on me and took on my job. In case you missed it, I have the best parents and I am not afraid to tell ya all about it.

Anyhoo, the plan was to:

1. Tear out the wall between the kitchen and entryway. 
2. Rip up the floor 
3. Replace the floor
4. Install two new islands
5. Install new counter tops
6. Paint, Paint, Paint the walls
7. Sand the cabinets
8. Paint the cabinets
9. Move the laundry room (including plumbing/electrical) upstairs
10. Convert the laundry room into a walk-in pantry

Note: Before long I QUICKLY realized that I had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into. I am a planner by nature and, truth be told, I totally misjudged what it would mean to have the ENTIRE contents of my kitchen strung all over my home... If I had really thought it through, I would have started organizing and packing things away in some method that made sense weeks before vs. the "Oh NO! It is 3 am the morning before they come so everything goes in a tote" method I opted for... just sayin'

Despite my overwhelmedness (yes this occasion calls for a new made up word), my parents are pros and were doing great. Things went pretty well as they began ripping out the wall and tearing up the floor and as I began juggling schedules with flooring delivery and cabinet delivery/ installation.

But as any GOODe and faithful DIY/HGTV viewer knows, where there is remodeling there are surprises...

Surprise #1: No, it wasn't my dad doing a disappearing trick into the floor... It was a huge gaping hole (read: almost non-existent sub-floor) underneath the four floor cabinets that were holding my zillion pounds of full canning jars from this summer's harvest.

Yay us!

Seems as though previous contractors may have preferred the method of covering it up with new flooring instead of fixing such an issue,  I mean it is a corner, right? No crazy canning lady is going to put a cabinet full of heavy jars over top of the non-existent floor that she foolishly thought existed --ya know, under her floor.

Daddy tried a different method. The "do it right--fix it first, then put down new flooring" method. See why I prefer my contractor?

Surprise #2: Ya see that wall there? Those cabinets were suppose to still be there... but ya see, our fridge was not the only naughty one in the house... apparently her cohort--the leaky drain--were on a mission to secretly destroy my home.

Instead, the cabinets moseyed on over to the laundry room to get away from the mess our drain had made of herself...

Apparently our drain was a rebel... didn't like to go with the flow. Instead she liked to flow backwards into the house and under the sink cabinet-- which despite being solid wood, didn't take to well to the abuse.

A quick call to the Cabinet Barn and they had me set up with a new sink cabinet and added to my order/ delivery for later that week.

The drain was officially in time out for a whole week... and believe me when I tell you it was much harder on me than it was her...

In the meantime, many early mornings and late nights of hard work produced a floor.

And the heavens opened and the angels sang!

Then The Kitchen Specialist delivered/ installed the cabinets and granite by the end of the week and the kitchen began to look like a kitchen. 

A kitchen without a drain, but a kitchen none-the-less

To be continued...