Ten weeks ago we started remodeling our 1980s kitchen. We had been putting it off since we moved here seven years ago. Ever since our dishwasher had to be replaced I’ve wanted stainless steel appliances. Our remaining appliances are old but they still work fine, and that makes it hard to justify spending money.
Over the years, we have updated our kitchen the best we could with inexpensive remedies. We took down the country print wallpaper and repainted the walls. We removed the worn, ugly linoleum and laid faux slate stick-on tiles on the floor. We painted the old cabinets with a fresh coat of paint. I sanded, primed and spray-painted the old laminate countertops and put a coat of polyurethane over them. It actually looked nice and worked well until someone used a knife without a cutting board to prepare food. Even then, the lines didn’t show that much and most importantly, they didn’t peel. After three years, the paint near the sink started lifting around the edge and I couldn’t resist picking at it when I was on the phone or waiting for a pot to boil. I was satisfied to have gotten that much life out of the technique that probably shouldn’t have worked in the first place.
I took the peeling paint as a clue that it was time to get serious about replacing the countertops. And, while I was going to the trouble of replacing countertops, I might as well replace the old, ugly cabinets. Well, if the cabinets and countertops were going to come out, I may as well rearrange the traffic flow so the kitchen is not a pass-through to the back porch. If I do that, then the flooring is going to have to been patched, so I might as well put down the travertine tile I’ve been wanting. Since the kitchen is part of the dining area, that room would have to be painted as well. As you can see, one thing led to another and there was no stopping point.
It was time to talk to the bank about an equity line of credit. We needed to refinance the house anyway. We were not getting anywhere with an interest-only loan. After weeks of waiting for all the paperwork to be completed, we finally had the money to start the project. We would save money and do the labor ourselves. Okay, you can stop laughing… We can do this…I think.
The first thing was to demo or remove the old cabinets. They had a bulkhead over the top that was ever so popular in 1988, but served absolutely no purpose since I couldn’t store anything in them. That’s when we discovered that the builder didn’t put any wallboard behind the bulkheads or on the ceiling above them. The wall and ceiling had to be patched, mudded and sanded. That’s the week it snowed in every room of our house-even the rooms where the doors were closed.
After taking several estimates for cabinets, we decided we would not spend eight grand for nine cabinets. My daughter told me about a place in Atlanta called IKEA. She said they sold pre-fabricated cabinets for a really good price. Since I’m from Atlanta and my folks still live in Gwinnett County, we decided a road trip was in order. We would go and check out the selection (hello Mom and Dad). Sure, enough IKEA had some good looking cabinets at reasonable prices and we could design our new kitchen layout online using their planning software. We took home a catalog, created our plans and uploaded them to IKEA’s Web site (ikea.com). They had everything in stock, so we made another trip to Atlanta, (hello Mom and Dad) to get the goods. Since everything comes in flat boxes, we got it all home in our GMC Sonoma pick up.
The next tricky part comes in trying to assembly the cabinets, drawers and doors. It’s not that difficult, but there are no written instructions so if you can’t read pictures and drawings, you’ll need to consult the DVD included with your purchase. Even the “movie” lacks details so we were on our own to figure out what to do with a plinth or a 301-070-66.
Things are coming together nicely. The plumber came by and moved the lines from the old sink to the place were the new sink will be installed. It may be two weeks before I have running water in the kitchen again. The template man from the granite store came to measure again today. You must have the cabinets in place, bolted down and level before they can measure for a template. Ask me how I know. Ugh! More delays. It will take 7-10 days to cut and prepare the slab of stone according to the template.
Speaking of granite, here’s a tip. After checking prices with about ten installers, we discovered that we could go directly to the granite yard, pick out what we wanted and have them install it. At Granite Wholesale Warehouse on Trimble Street in Nashville, the price you see on the slab is the full install price. Another tidbit of information: every stone is unique. What you see at one granite yard may look different at another yard even though it has the same product name. It depends upon where and how deep in the ground the stone is excavated.
We were warned to fully check each piece of our inventory before we left IKEA. While loading our truck, it was hard to tell what part went with which cabinet, and what part number matched the inventory list. We tried our best, but we didn’t know what each cabinet was supposed to come with so we didn’t know we were missing parts until weeks later when assembly was in progress and we were 300 miles from the store. It wasn’t until we installed the first base cabinet that we realized we didn’t have the drawer fronts and hardware for the other base cabinet. And, you can’t just call IKEA and ask them to ship the parts to you unless you want to pay dearly for it. UPS and other “brown” services can’t accommodate the longer pieces like the plinth. By the way, a plinth is the toe kick board for the bottom trim. Shipping the 12 parts we needed via common carrier would cost $174. We’re going back to Atlanta this month (hello Mom and Dad).
Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and editor who assists people with any type of writing project. She is available to help you with telling your story or writing/editing your book, newsletter, or articles. Her podcast Writers in the Sky is filled with information about the craft and business of writing, publishing, marketing and networking. New subscribers to her F*REE monthly newsletter receive a complimentary eBook “Tips for Freelance Writing”.
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