Life's been crazy....

After I posted my last entry, we had a series of events that leads to my dad and step-mom coming from Texas this coming Friday. We invited a friend and her daughter over for pizza, cake, and ice cream to celebrate Lucas' birthday (this was on March 1st). The Monday before, we found a leak in the bulk head above our kitchen cabinets. The plumbers came out and repaired it and said we found it pretty quickly. They told us to leave the cut open to let it air out and all should be fine. We were very happy that the pipe was fairly accessible and we didn't have any major damage. Well, fast forward to March 1st.

We were out picking up a cake and ice cream and had just returned home. My husband had left to pick up the pizza and I was going to do a quick wipe down of the kitchen. Well, I opened up the cabinet under the sink and there was water everywhere! GREAT!! I grabbed a chair and stuck my head in the hole cut by the previous leak and it was not the culprit. I could hear the leak and it didn't sound like it was a slow one. I ran upstairs and filled the tub with water and then ran to the basement and turned the water to the house off, leaving the faucets on to drain the water out.

We called the home warranty company to tell them about our new leak and they dispatched a plumber. He arrived and cut a new hole in our wall looking for the new leak. No luck. The leak was higher. He cut another hole. No luck. The leak was higher. So, this time the leak is BEHIND our cabinet. NICE!! Well, the plumbers won't pull the cabinets, we have to. He said he might be able to thread some flexible pipe through, but he didn't have any on his truck. He told us that he would be out the next day, weather permitting. It was already starting to snow while he was here and we ended up with at least 6 inches. I didn't hear from them on Monday, so I assumed that they were closed due to the roads. In the meantime, we decided that we had to pull the cabinets regardless because the drywall got very wet.

I called on Tuesday and a different plumber came out. He said that if we were pulling the cabinets down and replacing drywall, it would be best to have the repair made while the wall is opened up. Since we still had not been able to turn the water to our house on, I asked him to cut and cap the line so that we could at least have water. He did and we turned the water back on. Man.....48 hours with no water was a major pain!!

So, what brings my dad?? Well, he and my step-mom are coming to help us out. I know that no one expects a leak, but this happened at a rather poor time. I mean, considering my husband was without work for 3.5 months and we JUST got a paycheck on Friday, it just happened at the wrong time. We moved into a fixer-upper and we've already done a lot of fixing (new windows, new gutters, new window well, remodeled both bathrooms, new carpet in the basement, new porch light, pulled down paneling in part of basement and replaced with drywall, and sump pump installed). The kitchen was likely next on our list (as it is hideous!!), but it wasn't scheduled for a while. However, since we are going to have to pull down part of it, it is pretty much all getting pulled down.

With the housing market the way it is (and our lack of money), we are going with el cheapo on the remodel. We will reuse our cabinets (they are wood) and give them a new look with some white paint (and maybe some knobs since they currently have none). We'll keep the same appliances, even though I'd love to have stainless steel. Instead of the granite counter tops I'd love to have, we're going with laminate. While everything is opened up, we will install new electric, which we really need. It is sounding like we may even be moving some things around. Currently, there is a half wall between the dining room and kitchen. There is a cabinet that backs up to the half wall with a counter top on it and there is a cabinet that hangs above. I talked to my dad about wishing I could get rid of that to open up the space some (our kitchen and dining room are small) and he said we can probably do it. Part of the reasoning is that the counter top is 30 inches wide due to being on top of the cabinet and the half wall and we were going to have to special order a counter top for it. By moving the cabinet and just having it up against a wall, the counter top would only need to be 24 inches, meaning we could buy it in the store. I'm not sure that we'll have the money to do the floor right now. The bad thing about that is the floor is horrible! Pulling a cabinet up and moving it will only make it worse. However, I can deal with it for a while. I mean, I've dealt with my ugly kitchen for 2 years!! While my kitchen won't be fancy, it will be a MAJOR improvement from what it is now.

In the past, I've avoided sharing pictures that showed my ugly kitchen. It is pretty embarrassing. I'm not going to give any hints about it, but I'll share pictures once we start the remodeling process. Let's just say this house was built in 1972!!