Here's the deal.
We have been up to our eyeballs in kitchen renovation for the past few weeks, totally and completely DIY style! Big Daddy and I have researched and researched and researched some more every step of the way and every time we do, we find NEW information that makes us hit our heads and say "DOH!"... It's been a process to say the very least! This post is going to high light all the unexpected things that could potentially go wrong or were just plain unthought of .... or at least what's gone wrong and has been unthought of for us :) (you're welcome. happy to be the guinea pigs for you all)
First up...
Painting our cabinets and making a "minor" change.
As I explained in my first kitchen reno post here we decided to do glass inserts for the two cabinets on either side of the sink. (again, the horror of this shot with all the crap in the sink clearly shows where my priorities were and were not ;) Please. Do not judge me.) We routed out where the glass needs to lay and brought it to the glass company. When we got it back, we noticed they only caulked the glass in. They did not use any clips to ensure that the glass was securely in place. Hmm. Not good... and I'm a little perturbed! So we went to Home Depot, bought the clips and attempted to insert them. What we found was that the routed edges didn't allow for this step. Totally our doing, but don't you think that the EXPERIENCED jack-butts at the glass place should've told us that instead of rigging our cabinets with GLASS unsafely?! {IRRESPONSIBLE Idiots!} and due to their lack of customer service to us, we won't be going back. So take that Mr.!
Welp {insert head scratching}, whad-a-we do now?? The only thing we can do. Go back to Home Depot and check out how their glass front cabinets are done and do what they did. We decided all we need to so is remove the glass, reroute a larger section and then buy more glass! Awesome! Upon rerouting, an entire section of the cabinet door SPLIT! As in.. no-good-to-use-anymore, SPLIT! Great. This just keeps getting better and better.
We find a company that helps us order NEW cabinet doors (setting us back a nice $185) and they'll be in in about 3 weeks. Unpainted and without glass. Yay.
Silver lining~ I will now have window pane glass doors that match my windows! A look I really love and wanted from the beginning! :) Happy (but 'spensive) accident I guess you'd say.
Next up...
The butcher block counter tops.
They really are lovely. I love them. I do. They were inexpensive. and once complete, will make our kitchen look GORGEOUS! What could possibly go wrong, you ask?! Mwwaahahahahaha.... Well a whole lot more than you'd think! But for starters, if you plan on sealing them, which I HIGHLY recommend you do, seal BOTH SIDES!!! Start with the bottom side first (2 coats of sealer). We didn't know to do the bottoms when we started this phase. We stained the tops, waited 24 hours, then sealed it with the Waterlox (AWESOME PRODUCT!!!) sealer, waited 24 hours, sealed it a with a second coat of sealer, waited 24 hours and put on our top coat. Let. me. tell. you. THEY. LOOKED. SPECTACULAR! Almost professional even! We check on them 24 hours later and they're slightly warped!
YOU. ARE. FREAKING. KIDDING. ME!!!
Did you happen to do the math here??? It's been a whopping 3 days of process, hurry up and wait, and the dadgum things are warped?!?!
Just shoot me. Shoot me now.
Silver lining~ Is all yours, my friend. We were your guinea pigs on this one and learned the hard way... the non-professional DIY way. ;)
Next up....
The sink area.
Upon removing the guts of our sink, we noticed that our garbage disposal is hard wired to our house (idiots, I tell ya)! Most are plugged in. But nope. Not ours. The power now needs to be off as to not electrocute anyone.. via the breaker.... which is also connected to our dishwasher.. which is ALSO hard wired into the house! (these guys are killin me!). So the unthought of happened here. What about our dishes? Where do we wash them? Where do we store them? No counter, No sink, No dishwasher.... You guessed it!! Our bathtub! FOR 14 DAYS my friends!! Fourteen days! WHY? Because of all the "steps" and mishaps in installing our butcher block counter tops. Paper plates are our friends and I could careless about what that's doing to our environment right now.
Silver lining~ there's not one. Washing dishes in your bath tub sucks.
With ALL OF THAT.... Please do not misinterpret my tone or feeling. I am SUPER excited and SOO grateful to be renovating our dated kitchen! I know in the end "it will all be worth it".. I really believe this! I just thought I'd do you all a public service and warn you of the potentials. That is all.
Thanks for stopping by! Leave me some love... I could use it! :)
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Just keep telling yourself how much money you're saving by doing all the work yourself! You'd be SHOCKED at how much all that would cost if you had someone else to do it...not to mention the fact that you wouldn't have learned all this valuable information by having someone else do the work. It's gonna be gorgeous when it's all said and done...and it will also be a distant memory before you know it. I speak from experience!!! Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement Robyn!! Could you send over a little sanity too?! ;)
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