Kitchen Derailment

Sad times at Grandma's house, folks. Just when things were looking up, just when real progress was being made ... we've suffered a setback. The area that we reclaimed after demoing the closet was to have base and upper cabinets measuring 73" across. I (i.e. Brian)* told the contractor that we needed 73" to accommodate the cabs. I even showed him one of the assembled base cabinets. The contractor not only framed the area, but added sheet rock and mud as well. In fact, after a small amount of sanding, it would have been ready for paint.

Only problem is that the area the contractor created from wall to wall is only 72".

It's a hair over, but still almost an inch off. And try as we might, we're not fitting cabinets that measure 72.8999932342342 inches into a 72" space. Believe me, I looked at workarounds. I can shave off a small amount of overhang on the corner cabinet, perhaps as much as 1/8". And I could replace the sheet rock that is installed on one wall with a slightly thinner wallboard to gain another 1/8". But even with all of this, this dog won't hunt.

Thus, our timeline has taken its first hit. We scheduled appliance delivery (new stove and fridge -- yeah!) for Sept 1. But before we take delivery, we had to have the floor guys in to resurface and refinish the hardwoods. And before we have this work done, we want to have the walls done. Thanks to the aforementioned missing inch, a part of the wall must now be reworked. And even if it's done immediately, the floors still won't get done (3 coats = 3 days) before next weekend.

Never mind that in addition to all of the above, we were also set to start cabinet installation. And the base cabinets can't go in until the floors are done. And the upper cabs can't go in until the walls are done. Sucks.

In other news, we pulled the trigger on the soapstone for the counters. Another DIY project. They should be delivered the week of the 10th. And if we can get back on track, there is a possibility that the cabinets could be installed, ready and waiting for coutertops upon their arrival. Anyway, on to the kitchen pics:




*Editor's note: If you haven't realized this by now, when we say "we", we really mean Brian. He's the hero here. Stephanie merely edits the blog from time to time, and picks up lunch. Just wanted to make sure that was obvious, if you weren't clever enough to figure it out already.