Houston...we have a problem.

Holy cow, I just looked at my last post here at it is from Nov. 6. That's almost 2 weeks ago and I feel like it has been more like 2 months ago! Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yes, I was hoping to have the cabinets installed and possibly even the appliances at this point; however, as things inevitably go with home renovations, they haven't quite gone as planned. 4 weeks ago, Suzanne sprained her ankle while out running the Woodcroft trails. On the same day, Holden was diagnosed with elevated blood calcium levels, which would eventually lead to him having to undergo surgery at the NC State vet school in order to remove one of his four parathyroid glands.

And then last Wednesday evening, I walked through the door after losing a really crappy game of indoor soccer, only to find a ginormous puddle of water on the brand new bamboo kitchen floor. Turns out one of my new supply valves for the kitchen sink decided to spring a pin-hole size leak, which are the worst because you typically don't notice them until it is way too late. Judging by the amount of water on, under, and in the bamboo floor, not to mention in the crawl space beneath the house, this thing had probably been leaking for a good 2 or 3 hours straight. Long story short - I got the leak fixed, the floors dried out, and everything back together by about 11 pm that night. Lawerence Green is coming by on Wednesday to check out the damage and help me come up with a game plan for fixing the buckling, stained floor in the kitchen.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that last weekend, prior to the water leak, as I was assembling the kitchen cabinets from IKEA late on Saturday night, I had one of those "ah ha" moments. My original plan for the kitchen involved moving the half-wall out about a foot to accommodate a wall oven. Well, after constructing a mock cabinet out of cardboard to see just exactly what this wall oven cabinet would do to the feel of the kitchen, Suzanne and I decided to scrap the wall oven design. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it was, except that I forgot to change that one little dimension for the length of wall back to its original measurement since I wouldn't be moving the wall now. So, as I was putting the cabinets together at about 10 pm, I suddenly felt a wave of panic come over me as I realized that I had forgotten to re-size my kitchen design and that the cabinets that I was now assembling were actually going to be exactly one foot to long!! I ended up taking Monday off of work to drive up to IKEA, just south of DC, to return the cabinets that I had and buy new cabinets that would fit. After 7 hours of driving and 2 hours of shopping, I was back in Durham with the right cabinets and ready to start putting the kitchen back together.

Last weekend I hung sheetrock in the half bath and fridge alcove, re-plumbed the ice maker line, bathroom supply valves, and kitchen supply valves. This weekend, I hung the wall cabinets. Installed the doors and handles, started on the finish moulding, and picked up the appliances at Sears. It took 3 guys (me, Aaron, and one of my neighbor's friends) to get the beast of a stove into the house. I also am the proud new papa of a matching dishwasher and microwave hood. Once Lawrence comes by on Wednesday, I should know if the floors are going to need to be replaced or not and depending on that, can start installing the base cabinets and appliances. If the floors need to be replaced, then the cabinets and appliances will have to wait a week or two before being installed. Trust me, I've got plenty of other things I can work on while waiting for the floors!

Up next...find out about the floors, install the remaining cabinets and appliances, install the recessed lighting in the kitchen, finish sheetrocking the fridge alcove and coat closet under the stairs, and then start painting!