The general contractor who worked for the plumbing company and oversaw the remediation and renovation of my kitchen was very experienced. He knew home repair, construction, and the inside of Home Depot like the back of his hand. He also was a horrible communicator when it came to talking about what was going to happen to my kitchen. He consistently treated this as his project rather than my kitchen. Although he said he would "work with me" to make sure I got what I wanted in the new kitchen, he chose the cabinets himself--informing me after the fact of his decision and that he'd "assumed" I wanted white cabinets--and never discussed budget or options with me, in spite of me asking for that several times, both from him and the customer service rep for my case. I asked in person, over the phone, and in writing, all to no avail. It was evident that he was trying to meet the company's obligations to me as cheaply as possible. So strong is the emotion associated with my dealings with him, my right eye is starting to twitch with anger even as I type this.
It was also stressful to have to decide what I wanted in the new kitchen (to the extent I could decide, that is) within the time span of only a couple of weeks. Designing a new kitchen is fun, everyone said when I told them what had happened. Enjoy the process! That's true if you've had six months to peruse home magazines and designer showrooms, I'm sure. When you have to make a decision pronto and your best resource is Pinterest, it's stressful. I'm the girl who took two years and eight sample-sized paint swatches to choose what color to paint her bedroom. (You can read about that here.) Figuring out in less than a month what kind of flooring and counter tops and sink I wanted--and within that mix, trying to decide whether I could afford to spring for an upgrade or should just take the basic materials the plumbing company was willing to pay for--was quite taxing.
In spite of the stress and the frustration and all the dishes washed in the bathtub, my kitchen was finally put back together again and I am very happy with the result. I decided to get granite counter tops to replace the generic white Formica I'd had before, I picked out a new stainless steel sink with a fancy faucet, and I choose tile to replace the linoleum previously on the floor. All of that was purchased at my own expense, but I decided that I should use this as an opportunity to improve my kitchen. Honestly, my old kitchen was nothing special but it was bright and clean and cheerful, and if this hadn't happened, I don't know that I ever would have upgraded the kitchen, given all the other things I'd rather spend my money on (like trips to far-flung corners of the globe).
The plumbing company assigned one of their own guys to install the new cabinets and the floor. Barry was a chatty guy with a long goatee from West Virginia who had worked for years as a master craftsman before becoming a plumber. He kept asking me things like, "Did they leave any more screws this size when they took out the cabinets?" and "Do you know if they kept the old baseboard that was removed here?" Every time, I'd point to the same small box of screws, knobs, hinges, and assorted other materials the remediation crew had left behind. "If it's not in there, they didn't leave it," I'd say. Most of the time, it wasn't in there, but he kept asking.
Barry had a habit of talking through solutions out loud, which initially alarmed be because I thought it meant he couldn't complete the job or didn't know what he was doing. Later I realized it was just his way of figuring out how he was going to approach a tough problem. For instance, I asked him to hook up the dishwasher after the cabinets were installed. He said he needed different hoses, which I searched for in vain at Home Depot. When I told him I couldn't find the other hoses, he started to scratch his head and look skeptical. "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to hook it up then. I'll have to take a look and see if I can do it with these original hoses." He implied I'd have to find the hoses somewhere else and hook it up myself.
"Barry!" I wanted to shout. "You're the plumber! If you can't hook it up, I certainly can't hook it up!"
In the end, he hooked it up just fine and even put new valves on the hot and cold water pipes under the sink. He also found solutions to the other problems that he'd previously either simply left undone or said were unfixable--like using part of the old threshold to make a new threshold, or finding some wood in his truck to replace part of a baseboard that had been discarded by the remediation team. Working with him was definitely entertaining!
About a week after Barry finished, the new counter tops were installed. One of my kind coworkers who lives nearby came over that same afternoon and put in the new sink, including connecting all the pipes below. Washing my dishes in the sink and dishwasher had never been such a pleasure!
I spent the next few days putting things back in the cabinets and painting the room. All in all, the whole process lasted about six weeks. It was a stressful experience that I wouldn't want to endure again but now that it's finished, I am very pleased with the result. See for yourself in the photos below.
My brother-in-law later came over and put silver knobs on the base cabinet doors and drawers to match the top cabinets, which makes them blend well.
Here are a couple of other After photos, including a close-up of the granite. Picking the granite was actually fun--the first time in the entire process that I enjoyed considering options and making a decision (in spite of the price!). For reference, the granite is Giallo Napoleone and the paint color is Saguaro by Martha Stewart.
The granite I looked at was all so beautiful, I would have been happy with any of them. That said, I am really pleased with the one I chose as it brings warmth and depth to the kitchen to offset the white cabinets and appliances. It's also wonderful at hiding crumbs and dirt, which is great when people come over but also means that I clean it obsessively to make sure I haven't missed anything!
If you really want to see how far my kitchen has come since I bought my condo in 2007, here's a picture of what it looked like when I moved in. The previous owner hadn't done anything to it since he'd moved in before I was born.
Don't you dig those mustard yellow appliances? The double oven? Those 1970's generic brown cabinets? You can read all about the original kitchen makeover in my (wonderful but now discontinued) online magazine, 31 Magazine. In fact, let's see the full evolution side by side.
It's a big improvement, if I do say so myself!
This experience taught me many valuable life lessons, which I will share with you later, as this blog post has been long enough already. In the meantime, I'm going to go enjoy my new kitchen.
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