I Hate Remodeling

Hate it. I am not the kind of person who watches home decorating shows, or fantasizes about having perfect fixtures. If walls are clean and white, I'm content to leave them so. But the time has come to redo our kitchen, and I must face my decorating demons.

We bought this house despite the kitchen. If it were any kind of normal, I wouldn't care--I am not particular about cabinets and lighting. But what the real estate listing called a "chef's dream" turned out to be a restaurant stainless steel sink, homemade wooden countertops and molding, and a stainless steel counter. After the first house we had a contract on fell through at inspection, we were within 30 days of moving to St. Louis, and we needed a house. We decided to buy this one and redo the kitchen right away. Here is a blurry picture I took on our house-hunting trip. (Don't ask me why the previous owners had 2 coffee makers.)



Have I mentioned this is our first house? So we have no practical experience in remodeling kitchens. For nearly 2 years, we've worked around the inconvenience of having a giant ugly sink in the kitchen and a dining table in the living room. We have finally consulted with contractors about renovations, and we thought we were on track--at least until our trip to Home Depot tonight.

We picked out countertops we liked, only to find out that workers can't do the measurements for them until we have our new cabinet installed. We can't install the cabinet until the sink is removed. So at the moment, the situation seems to boil down to having to go 3 weeks without a sink.

Have I mentioned that I hate remodeling? I wish we were rich enough to hire the remodeling and home decorating fairy, who would intuit our tastes, send us on a relaxing vacation, and make all the necessary changes.