How can a Kitchen remodel take 4 years without any real progress? Believe me, it is possible. Let me tell you how it happened to us.
About fourteen years ago, my wife and I moved into a new house. At that time it was newly constructed “spec” home. All we really needed to do was move in. Over fourteen years, daily wear and tear has taken its toll. Those bright shiny surfaces have lost their luster. There is that burn mark on the vinyl floor in the kitchen from dropping that hot pan. As I contemplate the path worn into the family room carpet, I am trying to mentally calculate how many times someone has passed through that doorway.
While the daily grind slowly wore away at the façade the realization that something needed to be done occurred rather suddenly. It started about four years ago by accident really. Dropping that hot pan and leaving a burn mark in the kitchen floor was the catalyst for a whole series of remodeling revelations.
Following the “pan incident”, it was suddenly clear that the carpet in the family room was due for replacement. The carpet cleaner can only perform a limited number of miracles. Oh, did I mention the cracked windows and the weather beaten front entry door. We are still trying to unravel the mystery of the cracked windows.
Actually, not done is misleading and would indicate more progress than has really occurred. I am chagrined to say this because I am often called upon to manage multi-million dollar software implementation projects for large companies. These Information Technology (IT) projects typically have tight budgets, big expectations, and unrealistically short timelines. Although those complex software projects have been successes, it has taken four years to show little progress with relatively simple materials like flooring, cabinets and countertops. If someone else was involved I would find the irony of the situation quite humorous.
In defense of our current predicament both my wife and I work full time jobs. While she is employed by a major medical device manufacturer as a technical writer developing service manuals for ultrasound devices, I am self employed. By self employed I mean if I am not working on billable projects, revenue stops trickling in. Also, taking vacation to do construction is not my wife's idea of a fun time either.
We also determined that we would not be willing to live without a kitchen for as long as it would take by making progress one weekend at a time. Well actually that realization came late in the game. Besides, the project kept getting bigger. Fortunately, we recognized the out of control spiral before we started any actual work. However, recognizing a problem doesn't make it go away.
Perhaps I should describe how things started to get out of control. It started simply enough; Replace the carpet in the family room and the vinyl floor in the kitchen. We simply go to the flooring store and pick it out. They show up a few days later and put it in. It sounds easy.
Flooring is not necessarily as easy as you might think. Tile flooring would be much nicer than the vinyl we currently have. The under-tile heating is also a nice feature for these cold Wisconsin winters. So to do this we would be adding about ¾ of an inch or so to the height of the kitchen floors. Unless we took out the base cabinets and remounted them on top of the new floor the counter height would be noticeably too low.
I never really liked those kitchen cabinets anyway. Although the old cabinets are still in good condition, they will make excellent storage in the basement. Hmmm perhaps we can finish that basement into a nice recreation room. But, that is a future project…. Maybe.
Regardless it looks like we will be installing new cabinets in the kitchen. If we take out the soffit above the existing cabinets and install ceiling height cabinets, just think of the extra storage. By the way, my wife is 5ft. 4in. tall and typical ceiling height is 8ft. I think you have just witnessed the invention of the “top-shelf” diet.
With all this talk about the kitchen we've nearly forgotten about those cracked windows upstairs. Not to mention that weather beaten front door. Some of the casing had started to rot on the front door. I have a “temporary” fix in place. It looks ok to the casual observer, restored the integrity of the door frame, and stopped the leak. One has to inspect it closely to see where I patched it. But, I know its there. Add replacing the front door to the to-do list.
