This is an old piece of writing from 2012.
So my old friend R. asked me if I had any work I could hire him to do.
It's late fall, work is slow, he has bills to pay. Handyman, licensed
plumber, a little disorganized but likes to do things well. I looked
around, and yes, I actually had some plumbing that needed to be done. I
had a used dishwasher that I had bought several years before, hoping to
install it when I remodeled my kitchen. I had run out of money before I
got to the kitchen, and the dishwasher had stood in the way of
everything ever since.
I worked out a place where the dishwasher could be installed without
rearranging the kitchen. It would be out of the way, and I would finally
find out if it worked. I asked R. if he could install it there without
tearing out the kitchen, and he said yes.
I asked my husband if our budget could accommodate a small amount of
work in the kitchen. He wasn't happy, but it was better than a real
remodel. He agreed we could afford a few days work.
I gave R. the go ahead. He and his assistant A. came in the following day.
Then I remembered one other thing that has been bothering me about the
kitchen. The light in the scullery had been installed on the same switch
as the light in the rest of the kitchen. I wanted to be able to turn it
off separately. I asked if that would be feasible without too much work.
Yes, he said. He would do that too. No big deal. He starts getting under
the sink to work on the connectors for the dishwasher.
Now the sink cabinet needs to be evaluated. It's pretty scruffy. The
previous owner's drain system was a bucket under the sink. There's a lot
of water damage. Should it be replaced, or is it sturdy enough to simply
repair?
It's mostly sound. We'll just put a new base in it.
Good.
I went away for the day. When I came home the sink had been removed.
OK, I figured, that sink was in dreadful condition. This is my chance to
replace it. I'll see if I can find another to pop in. I looked on
Craigslist and at two salvaage yards. Found a cast iron enamel double
basin sink in great condition that would fit the cabinet. Almond. Not my
favorite, but what the hey. Fifty bucks. Not chipped. Not stained. In
contrast to the current sink, it will actually look clean after I scrub
it. Sweet.
When I came home the countertop was gone.
The counter was dreadful stained and scratched yellow formica from the
seventies. Totally delaminated. Accumulates water in the far corner so
it can seep into the wall. Needed to go. OK, as long as it’s out, let’s
replace it. I'll be happy to have tile instead. The almond sink will
limit my tile color choices, which is a good thing. I find unconstrained
choices next to impossible to make.
Still fine. But gee whiz, with the counter off like this, how big a deal
would it be to pull out that cabinet to the right of the sink and pop
the dishwasher in there, right where the plumbing is accessible?
No big deal. But let's get this added cabinet off the adjacent wall to
make room to work.
Sure. That cabinet was temporary anyway. As long as it's off and you're
here, can we change something inside the wall behind it?
The wall between the kitchen and the laundry room is 34" deep, and has
doors on the far side that open into the laundry room. The space inside
the wall is essentially a linen closet that is too deep to be practical.
Let's make the laundry room shelves shallower, and take that space and
open it into the kitchen. We can have kitchen shelves inside the wall
instead of a cabinet extending into the room, without losing any
significant space in the laundry room. Just open it up and slap
something in to divide the kitchen from the laundry room, right?
And in the meanwhile, I'm getting tired of not having a kitchen sink.
Would you take a break from working in the kitchen and install the
laundry sink that has been sitting in my back yard waiting for my
daughter to move her Burning Man equipment out of where the laundry sink
is supposed to be? Daughter be damned, I need a sink somewhere.
OK, OK, now the kitchen has been torn up for a week, but I have a
laundry sink at last. Complete with a dish rack that I didn't expect
across the window above the sink. Eep. Holes in my nice redwood trim.
But the dish rack is what makes the laundry sink usable as a temporary
kitchen sink.
And every time I walk through the kitchen to get to the laundry room I
trip over drop cloths,
I'm realizing that Christmas dinner is out of the question. Fine we'll
go to a restaurant. A roast goose is too much for only three anyway.
At some point the sink cabinet disappeared. Then it reappeared, plunked
down in the middle of the space. Somehow it looks different. But it's
night, and there's no light in that part of the kitchen. I’ll think
about it in the morning.
Hmmm, the wood on the front looks different.And there's A., stripping
the old varnish off the doors of the old cabinets. I didn't authorize
this. But gee, it's pretty, and he's half way done. May as well finish
the job.
The next day is Sunday; my husband is home. He gets a chance to think
about the kitchen. He asks whether we are getting new cabinets. No, I
say, you said we couldn’t. Why do you ask? Well, he says, I thought if
we were getting new cabinets they could be taller than our current
cabinets. My husband is six foot five and a half. In order to reach the
sink to wash dishes he has to splay his feet like a giraffe at a water
hole. Having a taller counter would be a very good thing.
So next question for R., can the current cabinets be made taller, or is
it more sensible to build new boxes?
No need for new boxes, we can raise the cabinets you have.
In a day or so I realize that if the counter is going up four or five
inches, that is enough room for a drawer to be added above the cupboards
and the dishwasher. This kitchen is really short of drawers, especially
now with the dishwasher being put in place of the right hand cupboard
and drawer.
Sure. R. was going to raise them from the bottom, but he thinks adding
drawers at the top instead is a good idea.
It's been three or four weeks. They've opened the walls and fixed the
water damage and borated against pests and insulated and repaired the
pipes and taken out extra connectors, added a circuit and installed an
electrical socket and switch, closed off the old cooler and made it part
of the wall, removed the back of the linen closet and made a 4 by 8 foot
box of shelves to put where the wall behind the linen closet had been.
The box is in place in the kitchen where it is going to go. Exciting.
But something looks wrong. It extends past the invisible edge of the no
longer (or is that not yet) existing counter. And it extends in the
other axis past the edge of the dishwasher door. It’s too wide and
possibly too deep. And the top shelf is in the wrong place, offsetting
the shelves below it
And I still have no kitchen sink. And the dishwasher is still in the
middle of everything, getting in the way.
I freak out. Friend in need or no I'm ready to fire him. But how can I
get my kitchen back together? What the heck do I do now? I feel totally
helpless and panic and lose my ability to think clearly.
We can cut the box down to size, R. says. And remove the extra shelf and
adjust the other shelves that are in the wrong place.
Wouldn't it be better to start over and build a new box? says I. I'll
sell the damn thing on Craigslist.
That evening I call a friend for moral support. He's a carpenter, a
mutual friend, in fact, who is sometimes works with R and is aware of
the progress of the job. He comes over and looks at the box. Wonders
whether there is any way to salvage the effort and materials it
represents. Look, you could cut it down a little in only one dimension
and put it on this other wall. Bingo. I feel better. I start to think
about design again, planning the kitchen around the box that will now be
on the East, no longer the North wall.
By 4 AM I have a good plan with elevation sketches of all four sides.
Everyone approves of the plan. Husband, friend, R., all agree it’s good.
I feel better. I start looking for tile to go with the almond sink.
It doesn’t take me long to balk again. There already was a cabinet on
the East wall. What makes the new one any better? Isn’t it just one more
non-matching component in my motley kitchen? All this disruption: dust,
noise, expense, people in the house when we are trying to work, bad
meals out. And what will I have to show for it? A raggedy jumble of a
kitchen. It’s time to stop and rethink the entire plan.
I designed a kitchen in another house and was very pleased with how it
came out, but never got to live with it and use it. This is my chance to
have a well-thought-out, harmonious kitchen. I’m used to the chaos by
now. It’s time to go back to the drawing board. Maybe I’ll even get a
different sink.
It's late fall, work is slow, he has bills to pay. Handyman, licensed
plumber, a little disorganized but likes to do things well. I looked
around, and yes, I actually had some plumbing that needed to be done. I
had a used dishwasher that I had bought several years before, hoping to
install it when I remodeled my kitchen. I had run out of money before I
got to the kitchen, and the dishwasher had stood in the way of
everything ever since.
I worked out a place where the dishwasher could be installed without
rearranging the kitchen. It would be out of the way, and I would finally
find out if it worked. I asked R. if he could install it there without
tearing out the kitchen, and he said yes.
I asked my husband if our budget could accommodate a small amount of
work in the kitchen. He wasn't happy, but it was better than a real
remodel. He agreed we could afford a few days work.
I gave R. the go ahead. He and his assistant A. came in the following day.
Then I remembered one other thing that has been bothering me about the
kitchen. The light in the scullery had been installed on the same switch
as the light in the rest of the kitchen. I wanted to be able to turn it
off separately. I asked if that would be feasible without too much work.
Yes, he said. He would do that too. No big deal. He starts getting under
the sink to work on the connectors for the dishwasher.
Now the sink cabinet needs to be evaluated. It's pretty scruffy. The
previous owner's drain system was a bucket under the sink. There's a lot
of water damage. Should it be replaced, or is it sturdy enough to simply
repair?
It's mostly sound. We'll just put a new base in it.
Good.
I went away for the day. When I came home the sink had been removed.
OK, I figured, that sink was in dreadful condition. This is my chance to
replace it. I'll see if I can find another to pop in. I looked on
Craigslist and at two salvaage yards. Found a cast iron enamel double
basin sink in great condition that would fit the cabinet. Almond. Not my
favorite, but what the hey. Fifty bucks. Not chipped. Not stained. In
contrast to the current sink, it will actually look clean after I scrub
it. Sweet.
When I came home the countertop was gone.
The counter was dreadful stained and scratched yellow formica from the
seventies. Totally delaminated. Accumulates water in the far corner so
it can seep into the wall. Needed to go. OK, as long as it’s out, let’s
replace it. I'll be happy to have tile instead. The almond sink will
limit my tile color choices, which is a good thing. I find unconstrained
choices next to impossible to make.
Still fine. But gee whiz, with the counter off like this, how big a deal
would it be to pull out that cabinet to the right of the sink and pop
the dishwasher in there, right where the plumbing is accessible?
No big deal. But let's get this added cabinet off the adjacent wall to
make room to work.
Sure. That cabinet was temporary anyway. As long as it's off and you're
here, can we change something inside the wall behind it?
The wall between the kitchen and the laundry room is 34" deep, and has
doors on the far side that open into the laundry room. The space inside
the wall is essentially a linen closet that is too deep to be practical.
Let's make the laundry room shelves shallower, and take that space and
open it into the kitchen. We can have kitchen shelves inside the wall
instead of a cabinet extending into the room, without losing any
significant space in the laundry room. Just open it up and slap
something in to divide the kitchen from the laundry room, right?
And in the meanwhile, I'm getting tired of not having a kitchen sink.
Would you take a break from working in the kitchen and install the
laundry sink that has been sitting in my back yard waiting for my
daughter to move her Burning Man equipment out of where the laundry sink
is supposed to be? Daughter be damned, I need a sink somewhere.
OK, OK, now the kitchen has been torn up for a week, but I have a
laundry sink at last. Complete with a dish rack that I didn't expect
across the window above the sink. Eep. Holes in my nice redwood trim.
But the dish rack is what makes the laundry sink usable as a temporary
kitchen sink.
And every time I walk through the kitchen to get to the laundry room I
trip over drop cloths,
I'm realizing that Christmas dinner is out of the question. Fine we'll
go to a restaurant. A roast goose is too much for only three anyway.
At some point the sink cabinet disappeared. Then it reappeared, plunked
down in the middle of the space. Somehow it looks different. But it's
night, and there's no light in that part of the kitchen. I’ll think
about it in the morning.
Hmmm, the wood on the front looks different.And there's A., stripping
the old varnish off the doors of the old cabinets. I didn't authorize
this. But gee, it's pretty, and he's half way done. May as well finish
the job.
The next day is Sunday; my husband is home. He gets a chance to think
about the kitchen. He asks whether we are getting new cabinets. No, I
say, you said we couldn’t. Why do you ask? Well, he says, I thought if
we were getting new cabinets they could be taller than our current
cabinets. My husband is six foot five and a half. In order to reach the
sink to wash dishes he has to splay his feet like a giraffe at a water
hole. Having a taller counter would be a very good thing.
So next question for R., can the current cabinets be made taller, or is
it more sensible to build new boxes?
No need for new boxes, we can raise the cabinets you have.
In a day or so I realize that if the counter is going up four or five
inches, that is enough room for a drawer to be added above the cupboards
and the dishwasher. This kitchen is really short of drawers, especially
now with the dishwasher being put in place of the right hand cupboard
and drawer.
Sure. R. was going to raise them from the bottom, but he thinks adding
drawers at the top instead is a good idea.
It's been three or four weeks. They've opened the walls and fixed the
water damage and borated against pests and insulated and repaired the
pipes and taken out extra connectors, added a circuit and installed an
electrical socket and switch, closed off the old cooler and made it part
of the wall, removed the back of the linen closet and made a 4 by 8 foot
box of shelves to put where the wall behind the linen closet had been.
The box is in place in the kitchen where it is going to go. Exciting.
But something looks wrong. It extends past the invisible edge of the no
longer (or is that not yet) existing counter. And it extends in the
other axis past the edge of the dishwasher door. It’s too wide and
possibly too deep. And the top shelf is in the wrong place, offsetting
the shelves below it
And I still have no kitchen sink. And the dishwasher is still in the
middle of everything, getting in the way.
I freak out. Friend in need or no I'm ready to fire him. But how can I
get my kitchen back together? What the heck do I do now? I feel totally
helpless and panic and lose my ability to think clearly.
We can cut the box down to size, R. says. And remove the extra shelf and
adjust the other shelves that are in the wrong place.
Wouldn't it be better to start over and build a new box? says I. I'll
sell the damn thing on Craigslist.
That evening I call a friend for moral support. He's a carpenter, a
mutual friend, in fact, who is sometimes works with R and is aware of
the progress of the job. He comes over and looks at the box. Wonders
whether there is any way to salvage the effort and materials it
represents. Look, you could cut it down a little in only one dimension
and put it on this other wall. Bingo. I feel better. I start to think
about design again, planning the kitchen around the box that will now be
on the East, no longer the North wall.
By 4 AM I have a good plan with elevation sketches of all four sides.
Everyone approves of the plan. Husband, friend, R., all agree it’s good.
I feel better. I start looking for tile to go with the almond sink.
It doesn’t take me long to balk again. There already was a cabinet on
the East wall. What makes the new one any better? Isn’t it just one more
non-matching component in my motley kitchen? All this disruption: dust,
noise, expense, people in the house when we are trying to work, bad
meals out. And what will I have to show for it? A raggedy jumble of a
kitchen. It’s time to stop and rethink the entire plan.
I designed a kitchen in another house and was very pleased with how it
came out, but never got to live with it and use it. This is my chance to
have a well-thought-out, harmonious kitchen. I’m used to the chaos by
now. It’s time to go back to the drawing board. Maybe I’ll even get a
different sink.
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