Day 2 Monday

monday morning I got the kids off to school, had to make coffee in the bathroom because the power to the kitchen was off. Made toast for the kids in the family room and off they went on the bus. I took my crowbar and hammer and headed for the corner cabinet. It took some serious effort to pull that built in apart and get it out of there. Then I moved the electric for the dishwasher in the basement rafters and drilled a new access hole in the floor of the kitchen under the kitchen counter where the dishwasher would have its new home. The smell of grinding wood and liquid nails was pretty strong! Once I got that done I went in the garage and set up my cutting area and marked the cut on the extra run of countertop I had in there from the previous owner of our house. It is an exact match to the one in the kitchen so I knew I could match them up. I measured and measured and measured until I was pretty sure I had the angle right then I started cutting. I had to cut a triangle shaped piece to fit into the countertop where i was removing the U or the counter wouldn't have the rounded edge on the front. So I got about half way through and wasn't having much success. I was chipping a bit and the saw kept locking up and I didn't know why. (Remember I only had the 10 min tutorial from a neighbor on how to operate this thing!)
Frustrated I stepped back and took a minute to evaluate. I was freezing in the garage. Wearing my slippers, only had 1 cup of coffee(this in itself could be causing major problems) and hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon. So like any good housewife I decided to clean up. I got mu broom and trashbag and cleaned up all the demo in the kitchen. Feeling better I changed clothes and went to lunch with a girlfriend. Stopped at Ace hardware and told the helpful people there what I was doing and what my problem was and bought what they told me I needed. I had to cut the pipe for the dishwasher and needed new compression fittings. I didn't know that is what they called them. I walked in with the cut end of the pipe and said "I need new ones of these little dohickeys" and of course they knew just what I needed. Thank Goodness!
Back home I changed into my work clothes again and went and measured all my cuts for the beadboard backsplash and marked them on the beadboard so I could start on that. Cut the first piece, much harder then I expected to cut straight! I am a small person and I found that with my small hands power tool buttons and handles are very much to big. It was a challenge to hold the safety and power button and still have a good hold on the saw to guide it. And being extremly short doesn't help for leverage and visual guidance.
But I cut the first piece drilled holes to start the cutouts for the electric outlet and light switch and liquid nailed it to the wall. Yay! I know people do this all the time but I was so pleased to put that first piece up there. Ragged edges, slightly 2 big cutouts and all I felt happy with it. The first positive step towards my new kitchen. Demo can be fun, and physically tasking! but it is demolition and I am a maker by nature not a destroyer. So this part felt great. Just as I was enjpying my tiny victory my oldest child came home from school. The horror on his face when he walked in the door would have been comical if it wasn't me who created the mess he was reacting to. He immmediatly headed for the basement and some video games but I corralled him into helping me take the cabinets I removed into the garage. Then I let him go hid. Poor baby. (He is 16) Then I wiped down all the cabinets, swept the floor, cleaned off the table and made dinner for the kids. My little ones(9 and 8) came in shortly after. They eat dinner when they get home.
As the kids were eating I started looking around. Oh my God, what a mess!
Just as I was feeling a little discouraged my friend Britt showed up with a bag of tools and plenty of energy. So we got to work cutting the end off the countertop. It took much longer then expected. Because it had metal bolts all along the seam I was trying to cut. I did not know they would be there. So it took us hours to cut through it, then cut a piece from the extra counter in the garage. And Britt taught me that my saw was locking up because I was trying to go to fast. You have to go slow! But how could I go slow when in 24 hours my husband was going to walk into the kitchen he was expecting to be freshly painted and discover I had ripped it apart! Then the moment of truth. Matching the angles up. And crushing disappointment when it was way off and the tiny adjustments we had to make in increments to try to get it matched. Hours and hours, finally exhausted we were left with 2 pieces that sat even at front and back and a half inch gap in the middle running down the seam. So we did what any girls from Ky who are doing construction and have no idea what they are doing would do. We filled it with liquid nails and nailed some wood pieces to the bottom to help secure it. See if all else fails, hit it with a hammer and then squirt liquid nails all over, really works!
Oh and in between all this, I helped my kids with homework, had them take baths and put them to bed. Then I sent a very tired Britt home, after midnite, to her own family with a very grateful heart for a friend who would devote her whole afternoon and evening to helping me. And I,exhausted, sore and a little scared of what I had done, went to bed wondering vagely how I was going to explain all this to my dear husband.