Kitchen Chaos

While we have had a lot of fun this summer, and have been able to do a bunch of traveling and visiting and playing, behind it all there has been chaos in the kitchen at home. A constant backdrop of drama at home, if ever there was such a thing.

When we moved into this house the kitchen counter configuration was "U" shaped.  You can't see it in the photo below but the dishwasher is in the peninsula.  We later learned the way it was located and installed brought some issues but we'll get to that in a few minutes.  

One nice thing about the "U" shaped configuration is that it was nice to gather grandkids around when working in the kitchen with them.  But, anyway.  That's what our kitchen looked like right up until May 27, 2016.

Actually, this story began in early April.  Our dishwasher had begun having issues with becoming difficult to get started (it would start but then before really getting into the cycle it would stop) and occasionally not draining out properly so we decided to have someone come look at it.  However,our normal appliance outfit doesn't service the brand we have so we had to look around for someone else.  I always feel like you're kind of taking a chance when you start with a new service company but what can you do. I checked the website for the brand of dishwasher we have to see who in our area services them and made the call.  We waited a couple of days to get in their schedule and began doing dishes by hand.  Our day came, the service man showed up and took a look at it and decided it needed some parts that had to be ordered.  Sorry, it will take two or three weeks for them to come in.  So we continue doing dishes the old fashion way, in the sink.

Finally the parts came in and the service man came back. As he was working on the dishwasher we mentioned how gross the dishwasher had gotten a few times while we'd been waiting for parts.  We noticed that even though it hadn't been run it would periodically get water in the bottom which would then stagnate and get gross.  So we'd run it enough to drain the water out.  But we learned we had to check every few days because the water would come back.  Well, the service man said that meant we needed another part because its not supposed to do that. Guess what?  Two or three more weeks for this additional part to come in.  Two or three more weeks of doing the dishes by hand.

Finally, at long last, the day arrived and the additional parts came in.  The guy scheduled the visit to install them and we were getting excited to get our dishwasher back.  He came, he installed, he went away, and we ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Then the next day we ran a second load.  That was when we noticed the floor all around the peninsula counter was squishy when you walked on it, including a little bit of water bubbling up between the boards in the floor.  Not good news.  We called the serviceman back, this time he came right away and determined that the drain hose on the dishwasher had split, allowing water to pump out onto the floor instead of going down the drain like it should have. He ordered a new drain hose - it had to come from the manufacturer because of its unique design. Two to three more weeks waiting.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  Having been flooded, the flooring under the dishwasher and counter was ruined. When we removed the dishwasher (I was able to do it myself by now, having learned how after all the times the serviceman had been here) and began pulling up floor boards we began to see that the two times we ran the dishwasher had pumped out quite a bit of water, wrecking the floor in a large portion of the kitchen.  This was definitely more than a minor puddle on the floor. There was even water in the basement, under where the dishwasher sits. We cleaned up all the water we could get to and pulled up flooring until we got to where the sub-floor was dry. Then we called the insurance. That was a Friday evening.

By the time we called it in the water was stopped and the worst of the wet was cleaned up - there was no urgency anymore. Nevertheless, the insurance company was really good about getting the claim off to a quick start and a local company called to begin the "mitigation" of the damage underway.  We let the local company know Saturday morning was soon enough, they didn't need to come out right then.  So they arrived Saturday, took their moisture readings, and set up their industrial fans. Those of you who have been around industrial fans know what the next several days were like at our house.

Fans everywhere, each in the way and loud.  I think we had something like four or five of these fans, along with two industrial (read "big") dehumidifiers running twenty-four hours a day.  In the way every time we went into the kitchen to do anything.

Because our dishwasher's electricty and water were supplied from the basement there were small holes in the floor that the water hose and electrical cord passed through to get down there.  That let the water go into the basement as well but in the end I think that helped as much as it hurt. It reduced the amount of water that went into the flooring, keeping the area of damage smaller.  And because the basement right under the kitchen is an unfinished storeroom its just cement.  And most of the stuff we keep in there is in plastic storage tubs so, except for one or two boxes that got their bottoms wet, there was no damage in the basement.  Just water that had to be cleaned up. Still, the mitigation company felt the need to put a fan and dehumidifier down there, pointed at the ceiling, to help dry the wood out.

So the next week was filled with lots of noise in the kitchen and working around the fans anytime we needed to do anything in there.  Every day or two the people would come by, take a moisture reading, and decide the fans needed to keep running.  You could hardly converse in the kitchen, it was so loud.

After several days of fans running they decided it was time to pull our the cabinets.  The readings they were getting back in where the dishwasher had been suggested the flooring under the cabinets had gotten pretty wet.  So all the cabinets on the floor, except for the one the sink had been in, they pulled out and moved into the garage.  Because of the plumbing for the sink they just lifted it up onto some small boards so the air could move around it.

So the cabinets went out into the garage.

The counter tops also went out into the garage.

And the fans and dehumidifiers kept running.  Actually, by this point I think the fans and dehumidifier in the basement were removed.  But upstairs in the kitchen the noise continued unabated.

To try and keep our kitchen functional we brought in our big water thermos and a card table.  Then we set the microwave on the card table and laid a piece of plywood over the sink cabinet for the water. And a big tub became our "sink".  Not pretty but it provided a small amount of work space.

And the sub floor was out, bare and a challenge to keep clean.

Food preparation became challenging because, even with the card table and makeshift sink, there was hardly any work space at all.

Grilling out side helped.

Doing dishes got to be a real pain.  We had to take the tub into the bathroom and do the dishes in the bathtub whenever they needed doing.  That was a real nuisance. That was probably one of the most difficult things about having lost the kitchen.  We'd wash dishes in the tub and then bring them out to the kitchen table to dry. Because we fully intended to eventually get our dishwasher back we never bought a dish drainer through all of this.

While everything was torn apart we decided it would be a good time to do some painting.  After all, the kitchen was the last room in the whole house we had not yet painted in the 8 1/2 years since we moved in.  So we went and picked some paint and started at the east end of the hallway and began painting.

Through all of this, the garage became our storage and staging area.  There were times there was so much stuff out there we could hardly make our way around.  The dishwasher was out there.  The cabinets were out there.  A lot of the stuff from in the cabinets went out there.

All the stuff from the kitchen was out there, along with the usual junk that gets stored in the garage.

Finding things some times was quite a challenge.

During all of this we also acquired a "new-to-us" refrigerator.  Both the new fridge and the old one spent some time out in the garage.

A couple of the lower cabinets were water damaged enough that they had to be replaced.  The insurance coverage was such that refinishing the remaining cabinets would be covered.  That was so they would match the new one.  However, the cabinets were quite possibly the original ones from when the house was built in the late 50s.  In fact, our neighbor said they had the same style in their house until they had replaced them several years earlier and her's were the originals.  But as we worked with the cabinet maker to do that work they told us that it would actually be a little cheaper to just replace all the cabinets, rather than refinish them.  The nice thing about that was the match was assured.  But that also meant waiting two or three weeks while the new cabinets were made and shipped.  By now the work being done to the kitchen was getting to be major - Broombeere decided she didn't like the soffit above the old cabinets so with the help of some friends we took it out.

It came out above all the cabinets, including what had been over by the fridge on the south side of the kitchen.

That was a mess because as we tore the soffit out insulation from the attic fell down into the kitchen area.

Felt like we were tearing the house apart.

All that blown in insulation - lots of clean up. It was a good thing this was happening during the summer.

But, happy day!  About that time the new flooring arrived and was installed!  Reconstruction was beginning!

Getting the drywall up was a joint effort.  Broombeere, Himbeere, and Schwatzbeere all helped, along with the friends that helped take the soffit out.  It was good to have them helping because they knew what they were doing, and that it could be done without totally destroying the kitchen ceiling.

First the drywall went up.

Then all the joints were taped.

And then began the arduous task of "mudding" all the joints.  Some of the joints didn't meet very well so a fair amount of mud was required.  

So we'd put up mud, give it a day or two to dry and then put up some more.

 Then more drying time, then more mud and so on until it was finally done.  Blaubeere's husband did the final coat and sanding and did a really good job.  Even the contractor on the project commented on how nice it looked.  The final test is whether or not you can see where the work was done after the area is painted.  And you could not - it was done very well!

During all of this work much of what had been in our cabinets went out into the garage but there were some things that we had to keep close enough to be able to cook and eat.  So we moved our big shelves into the walk way into the living room and loaded them up with stuff we needed.  We also brought up some storage shelves from the basement and set them up in the walk way as well.  Yep, the passage way from our living room into our dinning area was lined with shelves full of kitchen stuff.  It was like that for several weeks while all this work was going on.

As you might imagine, sweet little Miss R got into whatever she took an interest in.  So the bigger, heavier stuff stayed on the bottom shelves, partly because it was made it harder for her to get into, and partly because it was less of an issue if she did get into it.

And she did get into it.

Then, kaloo! kalay!  The new cabinets arrived!  It was like seeing the light at the end of tunnel!  The lowers were brought into the kitchen and set more or less in place.  The uppers waited in the garage, along with all the other mess out there, until the carpenter came and did the installation. It was amazing that there was still room out there for them.

And the painting was done - gone was the old orange, replaced by a shade of purple you could actually see!  Everyone likes to give Brombeere a hard time because for years and years she has decorated in shades of white - her colors were so pale it was often difficult to see that there was any color there.

But the purple can definitely be seen and looked pretty good!

Just a day or two later the carpenter arrived and installed all the cabinets and counters and it began looking like a real kitchen again.

There was a little bit of angst after the cabinets and counter were all in when we realized that the corner cabinet had been placed wrong.  It was just a little too far into the corner so that the sink, if cut in this location, would have been off center from the window.  That was a big deal so it had to be corrected.  There was a big conference about what to do, we were presented with a couple options, and given a day to decide.  In the end we chose to have the sink centered which meant moving them all down the wall just a little bit.  But it was a little bit enough that a new piece of counter top had to be ordered and installed. Another week's delay.

But the new counter top came in much quicker than the cabinets had taken and the sink was installed.  It was like heaven to be given the okay to begin moving things back into the cabinets.

Today the last of the work was done, installing the hood fan above the stove.

The new look, purple paint, new (to us) fridge, new cabinets, new sink, new faucets, new configuration - it feels like a totally new kitchen! It is so nice to have counter space, running water, and all the conveniences of a modern kitchen right there again!  We even pitched in some money over and above what the insurance paid to add a garbage disposal.

Having the dishwasher so far away from the water source and from where the water drains put extra strain on the pumps of the dishwasher, leading to the issues it was having when all this began.  That is a benefit of changing the configuration from a "U" shape to straight along the wall, with the dishwasher right next to the plumbing under the sink.  Its amazing to think that all that hassle and inconvenience, worry and aggravation, and headache and sleeplessness could come from one small little split in a drain line. It hardly seems big enough to have caused all that trouble. I'm just glad to have our kitchen back to full functionality again.  Its been all summer long that this has been going on.