Day three of the renovation was supposed to be the day all the cabinets would be installed. And it almost happened.
By the afternoon, all the lower cabinets were in and leveled. They looked great!
Then the electricians came to put in some wiring for under the counter lights, add an outlet and move a light switch. This should have been an easy task and it started out just that way, until one of the electricians was under the sink trying to pull some electric lines down through the wall when he hit a blockage. Seeing some foam insulation in the area of the upper cabinet space, he assumed the blockage was more insulation. Uh, no. It was the cold water line for the kitchen. A geyser of water erupted from the wall and sprayed all the way across the kitchen soaking not only the contractors and electricians but our new cabinets!!!
OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!! I just about freaked out.
While we were trying to get the water turned off, the contractor stuck his finger in the wall and did his best to plug up the hole in the pipe while the other contractor broke open the wall to get to the pipe and put a clamp on it. They successfully got it clamped but not before a ton of water covered the floor.
The rest of the crew was busily using two shop vacs and every bath towel we own to soak up the water. They also took out all the cabinets they had just finished leveling and attaching to the wall and dried them off out on our patio. Thank goodness we paid more for all wood cabinets. If they had been made from particleboard like our old ones were, they would have been destroyed.
So now, just over five hours later, the pipe is fixed, all the cabinets survived, the electrical work got done and Jim is out getting us some dinner. We briefly contemplated an all-liquor meal but thought a real meal would be better. And my nerves are just about back to normal.
Tomorrow will hopefully be much less eventful. The cabinets will be reinstalled and the appliances will arrive and be installed as well. We hope.
Original source: http://yougonnaeatallthat.blogspot.com/2008/10/kitchen-renovation-part-2-water-water.html
