You will recall that we yanked the old cabinets and the kitchen sink out Tuesday morning and the re-plumbing began with the sound of grinding and the smell of glue. I was so sure that Wednesday would bring the cabinets in and the sink mounted atop them. But ...... Wednesday brought more grinding and more smelly glue. When night fell we were arguing about the cabinet placement and why the plumbing did not seem to line up despite the use of a measuring tape.
After a restless night of trying to reason out what was wrong in my head, I was able to study the placement in quiet, me being the only one awake. I saw it almost immediately without the voice behind me assuring me that I just didn't understand how the cabinets went together. I mean, why would I? Me being just the little woman. Not a master of carpentry, such as He Who fancies himself to be just that. I AM dripping with sarcasm.
When I found the cabinets on Craigslist, I knew right away I would have too many, even without knowing the dimensions. I could tell from the picture. The cabinets featured a corner sink. I showed the photo to He Who was going to be installing them for his views on the subject. He was agreeable to the layout, even though our kitchen is smaller.
So, when he proclaimed that all of the base cabinets would fit in the kitchen with room left over, I questioned him. "What about the corner piece?" He would shake his head and look at me like I had three heads atop my neck and tell me I just did not understand how to install cabinets. I helped unload the cabinets and identified that very corner piece I had been referring to. This was the bottom of that cabinet, the counter top had been sacrificed in the removal of the cabinets. This left the right section and the left section with an overhang of oddly shaped counter top that would meet in the middle to form the front of the sink counter.
Stay with me (especially any men who may be reading this ......). In his infinite wisdom he was going to put the left and right sections in without that corner piece. This would have allowed me a 4 inch square sink. To my credit, I remained calm and stopped any more grinding of pipes and gently explained that I knew what I was talking about. I do puzzles and I sew and I can visualize spaces. We got the corner piece in and then the battle raged on.
Obviously, the cabinets no longer fit the space. He was going to employ the saws-all to whack the drawer units off either side of a 24" cabinet to fill one space, this would necessitate more whacking away at the remaining unit of cabinets containing three 24" units to fill the left side. When he left to search for the tool I grabbed a tape measure and determined that the length of the right side cabinets would fit nearly perfectly in the left side space, and then all we would need was 1/3 of the remaining set.
I thought this knowledge would be helpful and that he would appreciate my measuring skills. No, he did not, claiming that I was making this more difficult and creating more work. For some reason he wanted those cabinets on the left to remain on the left and the right to remain on the right. I think because of the overhanging counter top to meet in the middle. I had already dismissed those two odd pieces in my mind as being useless without the part left behind. Not to mention that we would have had to cut through the middle of a cabinet to fill the space.
Next error I made was trying to convince him to remove the top. I was of the opinion that we could just pry it off. He insisted that it was screwed on under the laminate. So, he did get to use his blade to whack off the odd overhang. I examined the remaining set to see where it could be cut and not look like crap and sustain the structure. I did not see ANY screws. Nails, all nails. The hinges on the doors were flat head screws, not Philips. I told you theses were old cabinets made of real wood and were of quality construction. I won and we pried the second counter top off and dismantled the cabinet and cut it so that it maintained stability before installing it.
So, I thought I could leave him on his own. He had his circular saw in hand and said he was going to cut a piece of the removed counter top to fit the cabinet. What could he possibly screw up?
He declined my offer to help and he used the remaining piece of cabinets as a cutting table. There were laying on the floor, door side up. I had removed the door next to the cabinet we took. Just because they would not fit in my kitchen did not mean I did not have plans for these cabinets.
He cut into the cabinet door. I just discovered that this morning as I was planning my clean up. I still have no sink. We haven't even begun to think about the upper cabinets. He Who builds has left the building and gone to far away building supply for a piece of plywood to create the sink top.
He also has to obtain new shower handles and toilet seat bolts to repair the ladies room. It had a rather rough day yesterday. Like me.
4 comments:
I have a friend who lived with a blue plastic sheet covering the back of her house for more than a year, including a brutal winter, while her "he who" futzed along with her kitchen remodel. I think she did dishes in the shower, too.
You make me think that pioneer women had it easier! While traveling the Oregon Trail! Good thing they didn't have He Who along to repair the Conestoga.
I foresee you taking matters into your own hands really soon. WHY won't they listen to us?
Oh, all of that business with the cabinets left me exhausted. I would go, screaming loudly, running from the building, and would not return until the kitchen was functioning.
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