A while back you may remember we had some leakage that we discovered from our water heater, which turned into the washer, which turned into the dishwasher as well; pretty much destroying our flooring and cabinetry.

After a few months mulling over it, I finally got the claim filed and completed and here we are, upgrading/fixing our kitchen. The flooring isn’t in yet, but we’ve managed to procure some really nice cabinetry for CHEAP and also managed to get a sweet deal on a new microwave and dishwasher.

It’s been way more than we bargained for, taking up all of our time and lots of money but all in all it’s been worth it so far.

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The plan:

• New dishwasher & Microwave – DONE
• New Cabinets – DONE
• Replace flooring & shoe moulding
• Replace baseboards
• Replace light switches & outlets – DONE
  
• Wire for under-cabinet lighting & recessed halogen lighting above sink – DONE
• Wire for recessed halogen lighting in laundry area
• Wire for above-range microwave – DONE
• Install Cabinet-Matching pantry
• Install bypass doors w/frosted glass over laundry/utility area
• Install Granite or Corian countertops
• Wire for phone, data & cable  lines in kitchen/dining area – DONE

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I have been pwnd this past week, pwnd by not one, not two, but by three separate kitchen appliances. The common thread? they all use water; and when they break, they all leak water.

Washing machine rusted through last year. The metal bin so it stopped holding water, and consequently; stopped washing clothes and instead wanted to wash the floor. We replaced the washer & dryer and didn’t think much of the floor damage it might have caused, honestly I didn’t see anywhere where the water could have gotten up under the floors. I found out this week that I was WRONG! – pwnage #1

Water heater went out last week, slowly leaked gallon after gallon of water into an opening at the edge of the flooring where the floor meets the wall. Ond day we noticed we had floor boards lifting & coming unlocked over by the water heater, it was a bit of a wtf moment. – pwnage #2

So I lifted a few boards up and pretty much kept taking floor up until the water stopped:

Well, come to find out after lifting up the boards all through the kitchen, that back when we first had our flooring installed, and we thought that the slight amount of water damage we had by the sink was the result of a spill & bad plumbing… turns out was our washing machine, which has likely been leaking since not long after we put the new floor in. The leaking made it all the way over to the center of our kitchen and ate up the bottom of our center island. – pwnage #3

The thing about standing water under floating floors, especially when you have laminate flooring with a integrated padding is that sometimes it waterlogs the wood, sometimes not. I found water under almost EVERY BOARD I pulled up in the kitchen.

Here’s some of the damage:

Yeah folks, that’s mold. So we decided to pretty much just rip everything up, re-lay the flooring and replace most of the kitchen. Everything from cabinets to the island to the appliances; it’s all fair game. It’ll be a long project but obviously someone else is in control and was trying to tell us that it was long overdue.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

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