Whaaaaaaa! Water Damage!

WATER DAMAGE!  Yep!  We had it!  A few years ago we noticed some pooling under and around the dishwasher.  Sometimes it would be after we had run it, sometimes it just mysteriously appeared!   My husband watch under the machine while it ran to see if there was any visible leak MANY times.  We even pulled it out & sat watching for the mysterious water source. Then, suddenly one day the water seemed to STOP!  Every now & then we'd see a tiny bit of water, but nothing to cause concern.  Problem solved, right?  NOPE!  Within a few months, I noticed that all of the pots & pans in my cabinets seemed to be shifting a bit to the back.  Little by little, the incline became steeper until the shelf was useless!  My husband put a new bottom into the cabinet, but we knew it was only a temporary fix.

  Fast forward about two years to late Summer 2015.  We could actually see that the cabinets were crumbling at the corner near the dishwasher & our temporary fix was also meeting with it's demise.  My  husband, once again, pulled everything out to investigate the extent of the damage.  (We had hoped that he could repair the base of the cabinets, but alas, it was not to be!  The damage was to extensive for a patched fix, so we knew we would have to start looking into replacing the cabinets.

   Having been home when the Corian counters were installed 10 years ago, I knew that cabinets would probably NOT be all we would be replacing!  Further research confirmed, that Corian counters are one molded piece & rarely survive simply removing the old cabinets to slide new ones underneath of them.  I had been noticing a slight slope to the counters for a few weeks, & figured that the the cabinets were no longer supporting sufficiently.  Then IT happened!  I found a small crack forming at the corner of the counter top about 5 feet away the origination point of the water damage.  (When we eventually demolished the kitchen for remodel it was along this tiny crack that the entire counter broke in two.)  It was TIME to get serious about replacing pretty much the whole kitchen.

  Like most construction projects, we had in mind what HAD to be done, and we ended up adding a few other unexpected & fun elements!  BONUS!  We didn't spend a TON of money either!  A little shopping around, and some help from Twitter really helped the budget!  Keep reading over then next few days & weeks to see how we changed more than JUST what's On My Kitchen Counter!  I promise I have LOTS of pictures!