Kitchen Renovations

Forgive me for the history lesson....   

I foolishly got married at 19 years of age.  Though I refused to live up to the reality of that mistake for quite some time, eventually the farce that was my marraiage came to an end.  But, it took me over a dozen years to come to my senses, and at 35 years of age I found myself single, and living back at home with my parents.  During that time I met Margarit, who had grown up a couple of doors down from my family.  Because my family didn't move out to the Windermere neighbourhood until after I had finished high school, Margarit and I did not go to school together, and so could never become high school sweethearts.  She did go to school with my two younger brothers, and years later we figured out that I had actually driven her, and a few of the neighborhood kids to a fall bon-fire party.  For whatever reason, sparks didn't fly at the time.....

In 1999 we met again and things got serious.  We moved in together that fall... both bitter and scorned by divorce.  By 2000 we were getting more serious, and at the prompting of my parents, bought a house together in the Greenfield neighborhood of southwest Edmonton.  We got married in June of 2001, and our 14th wedding anniversary is coming up in a few days.  Three daughters later we are both slowly growing tolerant of each other and getting old together....

Forgive me for rambling on as this is where the story really gets started...  Shortly after we moved in to our house, I took it upon myself to renovate our kitchen.  Our house is 1968 vintage and like most houses of that era had kitchen cupboards made of mahogany plywood.  One of the previous owners had taken it upon themselves to paint these cupboards blue.  Not a nice dark navy blue, or a light and airy sky blue...  But a Blue, blue... like a Kokanee beer can... like the Toronto Maple Leafs.... there was no mistaking this was blue, even for someone that is color blind.

Initially I thought that refacing the cupboards might work.  So, I bought 300 bucks worth of rough sawn maple and some cabinet hardware, and cast myself into the project with a lot of ambition.  I planed down all that maple and set about building some new shaker style cabinet doors.  Slowly but surely I pulled off the old doors and drawer fronts and began repainting the cabinet shells and installing new fronts.  I got all the way through the top cupboards and the upper valance and got a start on the bottom cabinets.  Then I ran out of gas....  I guess partly I was a little unsure about what to do with the unusual bottom cabinets and the manner in which they were fitted around the dishwasher and the range.  These must have been modifications to the original cabinets as I don't think there were too many built in dishwashers in 1968...   These cabinets also had the most unusual design.  The kick below the lower cabinets was about 8 inches high, as opposed the usual 4 inches or so.  And the kick was set back at least 6 inches from the face of the cabinets... also rather strange.  I figure that whoever designed these cabinets must have had a wife with really big feet!!

To a large degree I became disinterested in the renvoation, as there were so many other things going on in our lives at the time.  I was becoming more involved in my business with the transition from my old alcoholic partner to new shareholders that were somewhat less than silent, silent partners.   This is also about the time that I became a lot more involved in my photography and managing the Monochrome Guild, and also the time that I got into recreational hockey.  And of course there were the three little girls that were commanding more and more of our time.

I have to give Margarit a lot of credit because she never complained much over the decade or so that this project became stalled.  She was pretty forgiving and understanding and allowed me to pursue so many other commitments and interests, and rarely complained about her unfinished kitchen.  In the last year or so, and with good reason, she started to get on my case, and pleaded with me to make time to finish the unfinished project.  I used to always be able to pacify her and say that these sorts of projects required a lot of careful planning and contemplation... but that was wearing thin.  This past year I finally came to a conclusion.  I realized that even if I could find the motivation to finish the project, the result would be nearly 50 year old disfunctiional cabinets, with an old worn out counter top, and nice new doors.  It was time to earn some real brownie points and get this project dealt with once and for all.

So this past winter we went to a custom cabinet shop down south of the city in Millet, and re-designed our kitchen.  Our pantry and kitchen are being gutted.  Most of our appliances are being upgraded and replaced, including our dishwasher.  The rather expensive one that we have had for the past eight years or so has been a real lemon.  I think I have spent at least 500 bucks on replacement parts for this thing and I have torn it apart and rebuilt it so many times that I think I could do it in my sleep.  This last time around, about a year ago, something electronic crapped out and I gave up on trying to fix it yet again.  Of course this meant that Margarit was resigned to doing dishes by hand....

At the beginning of June the contractor that we hired came in and started demolition.  Our old cabinets, and the doors and drawer fronts that I had mostly finished rebuilding, ended up in a pile of rubbish out in the yard.  While the renovation has been ongoing we have mostly been staying with my Mom out at her acreage.  I stay at the house during the week, as it makes my commute to work faster and easier.  Margarit and the girls are mostly staying with my Mom.  We have no kitchen to cook in, and all of the stuff from our kitchen and pantry is being temporarily stored, much of it in boxes, in our dining room, our living room and our rumpus room.  The demolition and reconstruciton is now just about dealt with, and the new cabinets are set to be delivered in the coming days.  A couple more weeks of disruption and we are hopeful that this will be coming to an end, and we can make a new start.

The renovation contractor that we hired to undertake the demolition and reconstruction is also based out of Millet.  The tradesman that has been assigned to the project, and has spent most of the last two weeks at our place is a really nice guy named Murray.  Turns out that he shares the same last name and we discovered that he is my second cousin....!!  Since we met, I've done a little research on the family, digging back into some information that was compiled by my uncle and another relative, some years ago.  From one husband and wife, dating back to the 1860's in Russia, there were 959 Pohl descendants that were known... plus a few that the family lost touch with during the war years.  This count was back in 1996 and as nearly two decades have passed since, I expect that the number is probably up around 1500 now...!!!  Sure would be a challenge to put together a reunion for a crowd that big....  sounds like a challenge.....

In any event, here are a couple of snapshots.  These date back two or three years and show our kitchen in a state of partial renovation.  This is a point a which the project became stalled for about a decade....

As the project got underway, a couple of weeks ago, all of the stuff from our kitchen and pantry had to be packed up and moved out of the way.  This mostly fell on Margarit's shoulders and she handled the brunt of this while I was away at work.  Here are a couple of snapshots showing what our living room and rumpus room look like at the moment.  Our range and our microwave stand are pushed into the dining room.  The kitchen table is in the center of the living room.  The refrigerator is plugged in and running, but it is parked in the far corner of the kitchen, sort of overlflowing into the dining room.  The new range is still in it's box at the front entry, and various other new components including a sink, cabinet hardware and a range hood are piled up in the living room.  The rumpus room downstairs is worse.  All the contents of the old kitchen cabinets, as well as our pantry have been packed into boxes and are piled up down there......

As of today we are two weeks into the project.  The disfunctional broom closet by our back landing has been demolished and removed, as has a short section of wall beside our back landing.  The drywall has all been patched up and repaired and we are now beyond the filling and taping stage and are into priming and painting.  Our old pantry, with its makeshift shelves and hangers has been gutted and is awaiting the installation of new custom made shelving.  We are looking forward to the installation of all the new stuff, which will be getting underway in the coming days.  Here are a couple of snapshots of the gutted kitchen, just as the drywall taping and filling was being finished up....

The brownie points that I earned as a result of this initiative have been largely burned up.  I seem to have a knack for getting in trouble and doing stupid things.  You would think that a project of this scope would generate a significant bankroll of brownie points.  I think I was in a deficit before things really got going, so that burned off a bunch.  Of course, disappearing to photo shoots, hockey games, and getting together with friends have burned off most of the remaining surplus.  It won't be long before I will have to initiate another project to get me back in the good books....