One Year, Eight Months, and an Adorable Baby Later…

…we finished the kitchen! Why we didn’t do these last few projects earlier, I have no idea. Oh, actually, we really wanted a sanitary bathroom, that’s why. Oh well. At last, the hierarchy of renovations has led us to the cabinets and the countertop, which desperately needed attention.

starting point

I actually started the cabinets months ago. Jaron and I went round and round on how to most frugally update them. Replacement was a bit out of reach, and we thought sanding and staining was impossible due to the plastic sides. So, we ended up using a Rust-Oleum Kit; a paint/stain process with WAY too many steps involved. I’ve probably spent over 30 hours on these babies alone. It didn’t help that I timed the project over Kara’s break (thinking I might squeeze some work out of her too), but we just played the whole time. Thanks Kara.

They certainly turned out more orange than I anticipated. Oops. It’s a fabulous fall combination with the green walls, but I’m not sure what to do about the other seasons. I should probably take an interior design class before I head any more color-pairing tasks.

Overall, they’re not as perfect or lovely as I was hoping they would be, but they are an improvement from original, 20-year-old worn look that we had going on.

 

Jaron also had a little break from school (hallelujah!). So, he took on the countertops. Note: be sure to have a table saw handy if you want to cut your own counters. We did not. Thus we spent an innumerate amount of time sanding the crooked edges.

We started this on Labor Day. Jaron headed the calculating task of measuring, marking, and cutting the new counters that had been sitting in our garage since July 15^th, when I bought them with my Lowe’s coupon that expired that day.

Watching Jaron calculate is actually really boring, so I got started disconnecting the pipes under the sink. I know enough to crank hard on the shut-off valves under the sink and did so to the hot, cold, and the dishwasher. Check. I took a few pictures of how it all was supposed to look before taking to unscrewing what looked to be the right rings. The cold pipe and faucet disconnected nicely from their coppers. The disposal was likewise simple, after referencing a few YouTube videos. But the blasted hot water pipe kept spraying me whenever I tried to loosen its sink connector! I cranked the hot water valve a few more times just to make sure it was in the shut-off position, which it was. But I was still soaking myself, the cupboard, and all my tools with really hot water…

So I called for the calculator.

He didn’t know what to do either, but when he completely unscrewed the pipe and it blasted everyone and everything within 10 feet, he finally ran downstairs and shut off all hot water to the house. That was fun.

O.k.  So, then our soggy pants heaved and hurked the sink out and only broke one drain seal while doing so. Yay! We Set that aside, cut through all the existing caulk, unscrewed the anchors, and popped the countertops off their mounts. Demolition’s always the best part.

Then we started the tedious job of cutting the new tops according to Jaron’s careful marking. Unfortunately our skill saw couldn’t reach the few inches where the backsplash meets the counter—that 90-degree turn? And the jigsaw wasn’t long enough to reach it either. So Jaron had to carefully cut from underneath and hope that the different lines from different saws matched up. They didn’t really—I mean, he got very close—but that’s when our hours of sanding came in.

Attempts to un-warp the mismatched seam

After cutting, we had to assemble the corner pieces while they were still in the garage, because an idiot designed cabinetry that prevented us from accessing the corner from underneath once set in place. Four or five trips to Lowe’s, sticky glue fingers, and lots of mosquito bites later, we finally carried the newly connected pieces inside and set them in place. They didn’t quite fit. The short end butted REALLY tightly up against the stove and we hadn’t even put the endcaps on yet. More sanding. What’s more, a couple of months sitting in humid and miserably hot weather warped the countertops, making our angles uneven and leaving gaps between the wall and backsplash. Thank goodness for colored caulk!

yes, that is a car jack...

At this point it was 9 o’clock at night. So, we just reinstalled the sink and called it a night. Despite what we anticipated, all things plumbing went back in their places neatly. That broken drain seal required only some plumbing putty and that was it, so we called it a day.

The next day was my favorite because we had our stove pulled out, sawdust everywhere, our kitchen drawers still sprawled out in the living room, and Jaron’s mission buddy and his five-year-old girl moved in with us. Thankfully they were understanding and quite helpful. And, they only stayed one night. It was quite the scene, though.

Jaron and he finished the sanding and filing the endcaps; did you know those things are iron-on?! The boys also installed the last little piece of countertop. On Wednesday we put our drawers and the cabinet doors back in place. Finally on Thursday, after another coat of gloss on the cabinets, caulking, painting, and a thorough ridding of all sawdust, we took lots of pictures of our fancy new kitchen.

Meanwhile, Eliza grew a few inches…actually pounds, not inches.