Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Kitchen and Bathroom Remodels

A month or so ago our kitchen and bathrooms got remodeled. We were super duper excited for this. The week leading up to the remodel, I just stopped caring and stopped cleaning. Kool Aid stains on the counter top? Who cares. Wipe down the bathroom sinks? Nah. The current style was U-G-L-Y and outdated. But the new remodel?? Gorgeous!! (At least when comparing it to the old style). Sometime in the next few months we're suppose to get new linoleum flooring and black appliances.

The day after the remodel, I was more than happy to spend all day in the kitchen putting everything back. With the old style, there was a lack of cupboard space. I had to store half our kitchen stuff in the spare bedroom. Now, I am able to store everything except our food dehydrator and big stock pan in our new kitchen. In our bathroom, we lost half our drawer space. Instead of 6 small drawers, now we only have 3. It just means I store all my hair products/dryer/straightener in a basket under the sink. As for the boys' bathroom, we gained more drawer space. I'm now able to store our bath and beach towels in there, freeing up a few shelves in the hallway closet.

Everything was going great......until one Sunday evening a few weeks after the remodel. We just came home from a weekend-long family backpacking trip. Pete was still outside, talking to our neighbor. Boys immediately ran outside to play with neighbor friends. With the kitchen light still off, I happen to just swing by to drop something on the counter. Hmm...my dish towel sitting on the counter is soaking wet. I switched on the light to see a puddle of water on the countertops, stove and floor. I then looked up to see a huge leak coming from the ceiling over the stove. Everything on that side of the kitchen, every brand new cupboard, was ruined from water damage. Turns out the leak came from the dishwasher upstairs. Ugh. For a few days, I dealt with rewashing every dish/utensil, sanitizing my canned goods with a clorox wipe, and converting the living room into a make-shift kitchen. The contractor and Clip Board Guy (I have no idea what his name is. All I know is he's some big-wig for the owners of the apartment complex and always walks around with a clipboard) were pleasant to work with on getting a new kitchen again. While we were gone for the family reunion, they came in and fixed everything. So we only had to deal with this inconvenience for one week.

BEFORE




AFTER