The Abbreviated Story

Well, where have I been this past week?  Let me tell you--mostly Lowe's and Kitchen Cabinet stores and Flooring stores and Large Appliance stores.  It's a little bit of a long story--got a minute?

A few weeks ago, the laminate floor in our kitchen looked like it was bubbling at the seams. Like there was water damage. Weird. No water anywhere on the floor.  I asked the girls if they spilled anything.  Nope.  I asked King if he spilled anything.  Nope.  There is a musty smell and the floor gets worse.  I figure the musty smell is from the open windows because it never stops raining and my (wonderful) husband has a habit of opening the windows in the morning, no matter what the weather, so that (I think) we'll know what it feels like to live in a humid igloo. 

But the floor?  It's a mystery.  Really.  Water damage getting worse, but no water anywhere.  I finally convince King that the floor is ruined and we must rip it up to investigate.  And...(drum roll)... our "floating" laminate floor is in fact floating on a small lake of water that we find is slowly, but surely, leaking from our dishwasher.   So, our floor is wet and ruined and one of our cabinets is also wet.  And has been for about two weeks or so.  Yummy. 

Oh, and that musty smell?  Yep, it about killed me when King lifted up the floor.  So we set up fans and we started shopping for flooring.  Once we knew that we were doing the floor, we wondered if this might be the time to replace cabinets and counters, which was a future plan anyway.  Needless to say, it has been a crazy time around here.

The good news:
--We have been saving for a new dishwasher.  Every time we ran our old one, a new little plasticky prong thing that holds your dishes in fell off.  It was becoming nearly impossible to separate the dishes as they were being washed, so we were anticipating replacing it soon. 
--We found the dishwasher I wanted and had it installed a few days ago.  We only tortured the children and made them do dishes for a few days.  (I wanted to keep doing this, but King is usually the one who is in charge of this form of torture, so I gave in when he wanted the dishwasher right away.  Looking for new ways to torture children--leave suggestions in the comment section.) 
--We had also been saving for replacing our cabinets.  This is a little sooner than expected, but it will work out in the end. 
--There are sure a lot of options for cabinets and counter tops out there.
--Our homeowners insurance may pay for some of this. 
--We think we've found a really great guy to do the work.  And I like the choices we've made for cabinets and counters.  At least from what I can tell with a cabinet door and a 4"x4" piece of counter sample. 
--We've made enough trips to Lowes, and the Kitchen store, and the Flooring store for estimates and the like that by the time we really need to go there and get work started, I think our car will drive there automatically. 
--Our cabinets won't smell anymore and I'm really excited to bleach the heck out of the floors and walls before we put new stuff in.
--We have linoleum  floor that was under our wood laminate.  So at least we don't have to walk on cement for the time being. 

The bad news:
--The laminate floor that was ruined in the kitchen is the same floor that covers our entry, dining, kitchen, and family rooms.  We can't match the old, so it all needs to be replaced.  Yikes. 
--There are sure a lot of options for cabinets and counter tops out there.
--A project like this is not cheap.  Which makes me sort of freak out a little when I wonder if I've made the right choices.  As in, I keep dreaming in laminate, wood, granite, and Formica colors.  Day and night.
--Insurance companies are slow and have been dealing with a lot of natural disasters lately, so we're sort of at the bottom of their priority list at the moment. 
--Even if there are no snags in the process, we might have a kitchen put back together by mid-July. 
--In the eighties (when our linoleum floor (that is now our kitchen floor) was put down) little pink hearts and diamonds were totally cool.  Not so much now.
--Our brand new dishwasher (which was worth every penny) is now making strange noises.  Am recording today as the first time that I had to call a person back to fix something I paid a million dollars for, and by golly, it better work right.  I have a feeling that this will happen a few times in the next couple of months. 

So, that's what we've been up to the past week or so.  How about you?


P.S.  Glad we aren't really royalty and don't really live in a castle.  Am beginning to think moats that were all the rage may have been trouble in the long run.  It's nice that I am a Queen of my little family kingdom only in my head.