What Was I Thinking? (Part 1)

Oh, where to begin? How about February 1999 when Wife and I first looked at the townhouse we'd eventually purchase? The place was nice and spacious, coming in at just over 2,000 square feet with a two-car garage, conveniently located, just at the high end of our budget and in a good neighborhood. Of course, there were some problems, but nothing we couldn't eventually get fixed up. Those problems were the kitchen and all three bathrooms. We eventually fixed up the two upstairs bathrooms and figured the downstairs bathroom was not too bad. That left the kitchen...

So what was wrong with the kitchen, you might ask. Go ahead, ask. I'll wait. I said ask dammit! See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Next time just do what the blog says and we'll all get along fine. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, the problems with the kitchen. The stove was a piece of garbage that died not long after we moved in. The floor was scratched and stained. The tile on the wall didn't match the rest of the kitchen. The cabinets were made of something only remotely resembling wood. The intricate carvings on the cabinet doors only served to accumulate dust and dirt which made them look even worse. The lack of counter space was made worse by the need to take up some of it for our microwave. The ceiling exhaust fan didn't work. The location for the refrigerator was less than optimal, particularly when it sticks out as far as ours does. The railing was loose and wobbly. Need I go on?

The plan was to refurbish the kitchen when we could finally afford it. Granted, when we moved in Wife was already three months pregnant with Son, so we weren't going to be able to afford it any time soon. Flash forward about three years and we actually got to the point where we had Home Depot come out and start giving us some real estimates. The idea was to replace all the cabinets and fixtures, leaving most everything where it was but adding an island in the middle. The whole job would have run around $15,000, using their standard materials, not exactly "the good stuff." Knowing what we know now about Home Depot's incredibly shoddy home services, we're very lucky that we decided to hold off doing anything, most notably because the company I was working for at the time had lost pretty much every hope of stability. It was only a matter of time until I'd be laid off, which did indeed happen less than a year later. I eventually got a new job, though Wife would go through her own period of employment hell, leaving our kitchen dreams unfulfilled for a few more years to come.

Now we move forward to a few short months ago, not long before Halloween. What made us decide to take the leap this time? You'll have to wait until the next post to find out. So check back for "What Was I Thinking? (Part 2)" Coming soon, possibly even with pictures.