*** New Kitchen! ***

Our landlord surprised us when he said that he hired a contractor to remodel the kitchen. The best surprise was when we were told that we will no longer have a small 2-burner stove top, but a real stove. The biggest challenge we faced was that one of the burners had stopped working. Imagine my poor little wife trying to cook dinner on one burner! That is partially the reason we ate out more often than in.

Here is the "Before" picture of what our kitchen looked like. By the way, I used my wide angle lens, which caused the walls to curve in...the shelf to the right is really straight up and down. If you notice, there is a built-in oven and the stove top is just to the right of it. We have never used the oven. Why? We were concerned that the items stored above it might get too hot and catch fire.



Day 1 - This is what we came home to. We walked in and immediately Benjamin went to the refrigerator to get his juice. After a big gulp from the straw, he noticed and said in his cute little voice, "What happened?!!!" He was shocked to see that our cabinets were gone.

Day 2 - We came home to the smell of noxious glue that was used to hold the backsplash to the wall. We decided that it was a good enough of an excuse to take Benjamin to Noodles for dinner, then to Barnes & Noble (I call it Bums and Noble) to play with the train set in the kids section. When we finally made it back home, the smell had subsided enough to endure.

Day 3 - The cabinets were installed, which included leveling the frames, setting the drawers in place, and attaching the doors. It was a dramatic change and the kitchen started to look more like a kitchen. The contractor said there were issues with the wiring. I guess it wasn't up to code because it was so close to a water source. He brought it up to code by installing a special type of plug that will pop off if shorted by water.

Day 4 - The counter top was installed. Apparently it was a real challenge to get the "L" shaped countertop through the door. The contractor said that they had to assemble outside before they install it. Next to the door is a 55 gallon fish tank, I was thankful that it wasn't cracked.

Day 5 - Woo hoo, it was finished! There was a lot of sawdust and dirt to sweep up. However, that was a small inconvenience considering that we now have a "real" stove to cook on. Now that we look at the kitchen, it is hard to remember what the old one looked like.