Reflections on Remodeling the Kitchen-Part 2

I've always felt that I am never too old to learn and one thing that I am learning is to hire a general contractor to do any construction type job.   We are just remodeling our kitchen with new cabinets, new countertops, new flooring and a new dishwasher.  That didn't seem like too big of a job as we bought everything but the dishwasher at a big box home improvement store thinking that it would be so much easier this way.  We also bought the installation of each of the subprojects so it should work smoother.

 Unfortunately, we were wrong as the cabinet installer, the countertop installer and the flooring installer never have heard each other and their schedulers never talk to each other.  You also have a plumber in the midst of all this to take care of shutting off the water and various other add-on jobs that added up very quickly. 

We spent the weekend preparing for all of this by tearing out all of the cabinets and counters.  I'm not as young or spry as I once was so getting up and down all weekend took its toll on me by Sunday night.  The plumber came this morning and capped the pipes, replaced the 50 year old galvanized pipe and disconnected the dishwasher.  I missed the best part of hauling out the last countertop with the sink as I was at work but luckily, Dale and Mike were able to handle it.

 When I came home from work, we had about 60% of the cabinets installed and they look really nice.  The countertop scheduler person who was calling every other day wondering if they could come over and do the final measurements for the countertops, couldn't work us in until Friday so we may have a kitchen back by November 15.

Why have a general contractor?  Because that is what they do for a living and they probably could have had this all done much faster.  While this being a small project, we will get by just fine as we live in the upper midwest and most people are very forgiving of the dumb and inexperienced.

Ok, you must be wondering how this has anything to do with relationships?  I have found that it is better if either my wife, Dale is packing in the kitchen or I am in the kitchen undoing cabinets and countertops.  However, we both can't be in the kitchen at the same time doing our tasks.   We move at a different pace than each other and while that is not bad, it is also incompatible to be doing it in the same location at the same time.  I guess after 33 years of marriage, that I've learned a few things and this is probably one of the most important. 

When we get done, I'll put up a picture of the finished project before we bury it in clutter.