"Let's Renovate The Kitchen" they said....

 "Let's renovate the kitchen!" they said.
"It'll be fun!" they said.
"It's older than you, time for an upgrade!" they said.
"The boys will need this when it's their house." They said.

I set a very strict timeline. This is what you HAVE to do when you have a child with special needs. Everyone laughed at me. But, we are pretty close to sticking to it.

*Demo 2 days - completed.
* Electrician - 1 day - completed.
*Install - 2 days. Hopefully completed, just not the 2 consecutive days I planned but that's ok :-)

Here is what "they" didn't tell me about the demo of the kitchen...

Everything from your kitchen will end up in your office, completely not accessible to anyone.

Your body will hurt everywhere, mostly your arms but your body as a whole. It won't help that you are grossly out of shape.

After the kitchen cabinets are out, you'll decide you want to move 2 of them to the basement for the laundry room... and because your dad is a rock star, he will make that happen for you.

You'll bleed. Often and have no idea why you are bleeding, well, most of the time.

You'll cry, sometimes randomly, sometimes out of exhaustion, sometimes out of pure fear that you've made a huge mistake. You'll mostly cry in the shower because you are so dirty the tears help clean you even more... and no one hears you cry in the shower.

You'll discover nothing feels better than a hot shower, ever, in life, than this after a long day of demo when your hair is white from drywall dust and your exhausted. Take the longest, hottest shower you can - it will be amazing.

Ew.

You'll be pretty convinced your arms are going to fall off at the end of the day and have been dislocated from your shoulders. They won't be but it'll feel like it.

There will be dust everywhere. In your nose. In your eyes. In your lungs. You will be sneezing drywall dust indefinitely.

You'll constantly think... where is the dust still coming from????

You will think about how you've seen every home improvement/DYI show there is... Fixer Upper, Property Brothers, Love it or List it, Flip or Flop, Rehab Addict, Vanilla Ice project (don't judge), Good Bones, Home Town, Property Virgins... really, all of them and no one, NOT ONCE during demo showed drywall dust throughout every square inch of your space.

You'll put plastic up to keep it "contained" until someone walks through it (which is inevitable as the fridge is still in there) and then tracks it back out.

The pets, especially the dog, will want to be on whatever side you are no matter how many times you shoo them out and re-tape the plastic. The cats are much sneakier about getting in.

Everyone will love your dog, I mean, how could they not?!?

One of your cats will insist on being right in the middle of the tools, or nearby, usually asleep not giving a f&#( about what is going on around her but reminding everyone this is her house first and foremost.

One of your cats will peak in now and then but keep a safe distance.

One of your cats will stay in the basement, hidden from all human contact only to come out at night after everyone has left and completely unsure by what this mess is you have made or what you have done while she begs you to go to bed.

You'll make your first of many trips to the lumber yard for a new tool... you'll love the new grinder because... power tools... and then think of how you need to seriously get your garage in order so your tools are all happily housed somewhere.

You'll then remember how overwhelmed you are with the current project and think the garage can wait... forever.

You'll come across stuff in the removal that will make you cringe that you did (I'll never paint over another outlet or light switch again) and curse whoever did it previously that wasn't you (the cabinets were cemented to the floor when the tile floor was put in - I can't curse that one too much, it looked great!) and threated to whack someone with a hammer who has made your destruction challenging (let's use 2 - 3 three inch nails on every 2x2 and random 2x4 there is to hold the soffit in place.... I'll NEVER over nail anything again and I didn't even DO the soffit, I just tried to take the damn thing down.)

You'll go to Farm King and ask the guy for whatever saw will cut through wood, nails, and metal at one time because you are ready to lose your mind. And they will introduce you to the sawzall which will become your new best friend (sorry M, I'm sure this will be temporary). You'll love it so much that you'll decide you need to give her a name and then get sidetracked with a corner piece that has 1,900 nails in it that you forget that naming her was a priority.

You'll be even more thankful for your dad who shares his wisdom, muscles, and advice with you for multiple days of the demolition (that you had planned 1 day for... but added in new projects and hit a hundred snags on the first day - including the dumpster being delivered 4 hours late and multiple trips to the lumber yard.) You'll appreciate this is how he is spending his Father's Day so you can start installing cabinets tomorrow and love him even more.

This picture is actually from day 2 but let's pretend it was day 1, I'm tired.

He will also leave you with "homework" after he leaves to be done for the next day (like this is "Trading Spaces" or something) ... it won't all get done because the neighbor will be upset and scare you so you'll stop ... but here is what the homework was.

Remove everything in the red.... 

Remove everything in the red and add cement board where it is blue

This is what was accomplished before he returned the next day with mom..

You'll question your sanity and why you ever thought this was something you wanted to do. You'll wonder if it's worth it. You'll be convinced it wasn't and that every decision you've made was wrong, just absolutely wrong.

You will vacuum the dust from your floors, mop it, then get on your hands and knees and wash it again because there is still a film of dust. It'll look great until you start working again and then you'll discover the dust is never ending and you'll likely be cleaning it up for years to come.

Everything happens in phases. There is the demo phase, the installation of cabinets phase, the wait for your countertops phase, the install the countertops phase, the put up the backsplash phase and the install the hardware phase (that may come before the countertops, I just need to get them still.... )

You'll be reminded that your dad, amazingly, knows how to do literally anything and what he doesn't know or isn't 100% sure of, he will have a friend who does. (I need knowledge like this - and friends, like this, of course, too!).

You'll need your mom to come help with demo day 2, since it wasn't supposed to go beyond demo day 1 but demo and wall reconstruction are all in the same and takes more than one day when you are ripping out walls. You'll be reminded that your mom is an incredibly hard worker, who also knows a thing or two, and you'll appreciate her help and guidance along the way.

My parents are the very best!

You'll have a mental breakdown with your friends, convinced that your colors are wrong, your choices are wrong, and that all of this was a bad decision. They will build you back up as your excitement drains from your exhausted self.

You will make 9 trips to the lumber yard in one day (Thanks, RP Lumber for being so awesome & helpful!!) and apologize for being sweaty, gross, and likely smelly and thankful they are still super friendly, help you find what you need, and talk to you.

You will discover that you don't have access to anything you need and while you will have a child that only wants to eat on real plates, you have no way to wash them (or bowls from cereal) except the bathroom sink - which makes you want to cry.

You'll be tired. Not just kinda tired. Not just super tired. You'll be tired all the way to the bottom of your soul exhausted because on top of demo and prepping to install you are still mom. And for this mom, that means keeping things "as normal" as possible for my special needs son who is not thrilled about having anything out of place.

You'll be reminded once again what a rock-star your daughter is who kept your son busy (and away at dad's house) so I could have a full day of demo and a full day of install without stressing him out. Allison, you are my everything!

Your cats will be mad that you've locked them in the bedroom & laundry room with the dog while the cabinets are brought in...

Almost everything from your living room will end up in your family room so you have room for box after box after box of new cabinets and you'll realize the only actual functioning rooms in your home are the bathroom (just one because the other is under construction, of course), and your children's room (because your bedroom is also under construction).

I always wanted the kitchen in my living room. 

Oh look! It's the new kitchen!

Sweetie... checking it all out after being released from the basement. 

So... "Renovate your kitchen, it'll be fun" they said... I should point out the "they" in all of those statements... was me. 

Install day will arrive and as the first cabinet goes into place... you'll be reminded of exactly why you did this....

At the end of install day 1, we are here... ONLY because of the incredibly hard work by my dad, his carpenter friend, Bill, Scott (yes, my ex-husband - this will be his son's house one day!), and myself...  I am SO grateful and thankful for every single one of them. During the process then some before and afters...

Before ... and after... and still needs done, lol

Before... Why we never thought in 21 years to put cabinets on this wall baffles me, lol

After !!!!!

The trim will look like this-ish ;-)

The island will seat 4 :-) 

Before

Almost after...

Before

In progress...

These remain...

I still need to do the hardware. I'm thinking silver rectangular, thin pulls - if that makes sense to anyone other than me.

The island will have it's countertop tomorrow (thanks, mom for making sure of that!). The rest of the counters will be measured tomorrow and arrive in a couple of weeks.

The backsplash will go in after the counters.

Cabinets, counter, backsplash

Then... THEN... I'll take a break... go back to finishing Allison's bathroom update.


Seriously, I could not have done this without Melissa & Sonja walking me through my emotional meltdowns. Jen picking out countertops and helping me finalize a cabinet color (and lending me Scott's help!), Scott for his tremendous help and use of his tools, Bill - such an awesome carpenter, the people at RP Lumber, Paul, Scott, Chad... all of you! Dan, for understanding I needed some time to do this and surviving without me for a bit, Allison for helping with Parker. And MOST OF ALL, my mom for helping and pushing me to do this and my dad who has put in so many hours of help repeatedly saying "this is what dad's do" and teaching me so much along the way.

We are not done yet but we are so much closer.

So, yeah... I guess in the end "they" were right. It wasn't fun but it WILL be worth it!