Posts Tagged ‘reno surprises’

That is how the old saying goes, right? It’s pretty apt for where I am with my kitchen renovation. So far I’ve only applied one piece of the beadboard wallpaper to the ugly patched pantry. I’m still puttying the bottom patch on the pantry to get it even enough to accept the wallpaper. When in doubt, apply more wood putty, right?   Boy, was that thing FUBAR.

That’s not the worst of it, though. Last night the Mister and I got the hair-brained idea to remove the ugly 4-inch laminate backsplash from the counter under the window. We thought it might be easier to do the wall treatment we want without that thing in the way. Besides, I never really loved the look of having a mostly-useless 4-inch laminate “backsplash.”  I like it when the counters directly meet the wall as in the photo below:

Granite Counter w/o 4" Backsplash

It seemed easy enough. I checked under the counter first, and it didn’t appear to be screwed into the counter.  I broke out my trusty pry bar, and I huffed and puffed and pried my rear off.  As I was pulling and tugging, I realized it seemed awfully difficult for a supposedly glued-on backsplash.  About 30 minutes into the job, I learned why.  A piece finally gave way, and it was full of screws!  I couldn’t see those screws because they had attached the backsplash to the counter with screws before placing it on the base cabinets.  Crap! Needless to say, I was up until 1:00AM last night sawing that thing into itty-bitty pieces in order to remove it.  I now have this:

Laminate Backsplash Nightmare

*sigh*  My kitchen is a mess for the moment.   Who am I kidding?  The whole house is a mess right now!  I have all of my dishes sitting on my coffee table in the living room.  My pantry items are in boxes in the workout room.  My dining area is a construction zone setup for painting cabinet doors and the like.  However, I just keep plugging along with the belief that this is all going to look fabulous once I’m finished.  I like to say hope is not a strategy, but in this case, it is.  I keep telling myself it will be totally worth the chaos when it’s done.

Tonight I will use my handy Dremel tool to cut down the screws poking out of the counter.  Oh, and removing that backsplash revealed they notched the pantry yet again in order to accommodate the backsplash along it.  Really, I do think drunk people installed this original kitchen!  So, I have to cut another piece of wood to patch THAT before I can finish installing the beadboard wallpaper.  Then I still have to fix the wall where the upper cabinets were hanging, paint everything, and install the open shelving.

On the bright side, my new KitchenAid Stainless dishwasher will be installed on May 3rd!  Woo-hoo!  I hope to get my new granite counters not too long after that.  I want to finish painting the cabinets first, though.  I don’t want to risk getting paint on new counters.

I’ve been slowly doing a minor update of our 1993 faux-oak kitchen here at Maison du Childfree Chic.  As anyone who has done a remodel can tell you, it pays to be prepared for unexpected and unpleasant surprises!  Our first unpleasant surprise happened when we decided to replace our outdated range hood with an above-the-range microwave.  We discovered we’ve had a decorative range hood for the past 12 years.  It wasn’t vented at all, and it wasn’t one of those special recirculating hoods, either.

Unvented Range Hood

Well, this weekend we discovered yet another unpleasant surprise.  I talked Mr. Childfree Chic into removing the upper cabinets on the wall next to the window.  I want to place shelves there.  I feel it will let in more natural light from the one tiny window we have above the sink.  When we removed the cabinets, we found another nasty surprise:

Notched Cabinet End

The people who built the structure of our home might have been great, but the people who did the interior finishes were lazy idiots!  I can pretty much decipher what happened during the install.  They installed the cabinets from right to left (if you’re facing the window).  That means they installed the pantry cabinet last, and they discovered it was 1/4″ shy of fitting.  Instead of taking down the uppers they had already installed and moving them 1/4″ closer to the window, they just notched a big ol’ hole in the pantry and shoved it into place.  Aaaarrrgh!  You can see how much leeway they had to move the cabinets to the right.  It’s the painted yellow strip, which is where we painted around the old cabinets.

Cabinet Position w/ Room to Move

On a humorous note, I was squirrel photo-bombed!  He decided to sit on my window sill, and the arrow is pointing to his fuzzy little tail.

Anyway,  I had to patch those holes because I want to put some beadboard wallpaper on the end of it. Since we can’t afford to replace all of our cabinetry right now, I’m trying to put lipstick on the pig.  I got the inspiration for beadboard wallpaper from Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, and it looks great once it’s installed.  Thus, the white blocks you see in the above pictures are my patching attempts.  We’ll see how it looks once I get the beadboard wallpaper on it.  You can only put so much lipstick on a pig, you know?

I’m also doing some cool stuff  where the upper cabinets were, but that will have to wait for another post.  I will tell you it involves new lighting, new shelves, a backsplash, and even more beadboard and trim.  In the meantime, here’s a before photo so you can see where we started with the kitchen at Maison du Childfree Chic.

The Original Faux-Oak Kitchen

I always felt like I was working in a big wood box when I was in the kitchen, but not anymore!  To get an idea of where we’re going with everything, here is what the left side of the kitchen looks like after a coat of paint on the cabinets.

Left Side of Kitchen Fully Painted

Cabinet with Beadboard Wallpaper

We have new drawer pulls from Amerock: Nature’s Splendor in Rustic Bronze.  I purchased them at Knobs 4 Less on sale and got a great deal.  The paint on the cabinets is Valspar’s Homestead Resort Sky Blue in semi-gloss, and I purchased that at Lowe’s Home Improvement.  I didn’t want true, bright white, as I find it too stark in large amounts.  The wall color is Valspar’s Homestead Resort Tea Room Yellow in eggshell, also purchased at Lowe’s.  All of my paint colors are from Valspar’s Historic Colors Collection.  I primed prior to painting with Valspar’s Multi-Purpose primer.  Primer is a must if you have laminate cabinets!