Not Our First Rodeo

When we decided to put an offer down on our house, one of the first questions our realtor asked us was "have you two ever attempted a remodeling project as a couple before?"  For couples that have not experienced this, you may be curious as to the relevance of this question. But if you've even so much as painted a room with your partner, the legitimacy of this inquiry could not be more important. It doesn't matter how much you plan or how many times you watched that YouTube video showing how easy it is, something always goes wrong. And sometimes, the unthinkable happens.

Dear readers, do you remember our nightmare of having our contractor resign after we had put an offer on our house? Would you believe this wasn't the worst thing that has happened to us in the middle of a project? Prepare to be amazed my friends, as we reminisce about our first home remodeling fiasco.

In the summer of 2011, we decided that our condo needed some major upgrades, especially the kitchen. Low and behold, our culinary space pre-renovation.

 

Our original plan was to simply replace the crappy laminate counter-top and paint the walls. This was a rookie mistake. Because walking into a kitchen or bathroom or any other room besides a closet with a plan renovate ONE thing falls victim to the inevitable snowball effect. Once we decided to replace the counters, we realized the existing cabinets would look even worse next to some brand new granite so those had to be replaced. And then you look at the new nice cabinets, granite counter tops and reluctantly agree that the appliances from 1979 just have to go too.

We thought we had some luck on our side, however, and could use our friend Chuck as our contractor. Not only does he do fantastic work, but he agreed to give us the "friend and family discount." So, we ordered new cabinets to be installed by Chuck and his son that Monday. 

And over the weekend, Chuck got hit by a truck. 

On his motorcycle. 

Not. 

Kidding. 

(Before you all freak out, Chuck lived and made a complete recovery, minus some scars and swearing off motorcycles for life).  

But that left us with an empty kitchen. And cabinets filling up our living room for two weeks. 

We managed to find another contractor on short notice, but that meant doing the demolition and minor stuff ourselves. And this is where it gets even more fun.

For starters, the week we decided to start our project was one of the hottest weeks here in Minneapolis on record. In fact, it hit 100 degrees twice between Monday and Thursday. If you recall your world news from 2011, Japan was still reeling from a devastating tsunami in March which, in turn, caused a shortage of wall-mounted air-conditioning units across the United States. And the week prior to our renovation, both of our units decided to die.

Boys and girls, this is what you resort to when it's 100 degrees in your second floor unit: you prop up a fan and attempt to steal the slightly cooler air in the shared hallway (spoiler: it doesn't work). On the third day when temperatures surpassed 100, I called Josh at work and told him I would be staying at the Homewood Suites in the West End for the night and he was welcome to join me as I had absolutely no intention of sleeping in our crowded, sweltering condo another night.

The day before the crew was to arrive to install the new cabinets, we needed to rip out the old ones and completely turn off the water source. What was supposed to be a simple three-step process took three hours and six trips to Home Depot.

See that gross bucket? It is catching the slow but persistent leak that took us HOURS to locate and stop. We learned a valuable lesson that evening: buy one of everything in the "plumbing" aisle and return the stuff you don't use. It doesn't matter how many times you measure or read the existing parts, you will always end up with the wrong stuff.

Over the next few days, we installed the cabinets, the new granite tiles for the counter and the fancy schmancy backsplash. Josh even learned how to grout (on YouTube of course) and that was the ONE thing that actually went right the first time. And here is the end result:

 

So, when Shelly asked us if this house was our first project as a married couple, we smiled and politely replied "let's just say, this isn't our first rodeo."