I just have to pause at the end of this crazy week to reflect on the whirlwind that defined it.

Wow.

I survived!

Rewind about 2 weeks. We selected granite for our house, committed to it, had it measured and cut, and we were told that it would be delivered and installed in 4-6 weeks. We told them that we would do the demolition (you can see where this is going), and also that we could be flexible to fill the void of any cancellations (now you can really see where this is going).

I have travelled for work for each of the last 3 weeks. This was my first week that I've been home, and we were looking forward to some relaxing. We also started the kitchen demolition last weekend. We were able to remove the center island countertop as well as all the tile on the back splash. That was Saturday, and we were quite proud of the effort we had made, knowing we'd continue working the following weekend.

Then Monday hit.

Jon got a call on Monday from the granite installers saying they had a cancellation on Friday morning and would be at our house at 7:30.

Gulp!

I'm SO thankful I didn't have to travel this week. There would have just been no way, as it's a two person job.

Here's a list of what needed to happen before it could be installed:
1) Kitchen countertop (not island) removed (including sink / disposal removed)
2) Laundry sink countertop removed (including sink removed)
3) Basement bar and countertop removed (including sink / disposal removed)
4) Install oven / stove
5) Remove old dishwasher and install new
6) Remove backsplash from basement
7) Remove old dry wall and replace with new
8) Pick out faucets for 3 sinks

I think that's it. I could be wrong.

So I took off work on Tuesday and bought the faucets, then set to work prepping as much of the other stuff as I could. After Jon's work audit was finished (i.e. around noon), he joined me at home. We were able to get items 2, 3, and 6 complete in the basement. We were feeling pretty good about things on Tuesday night -- felt very accomplished for our day's efforts.

Then Wednesday night came. We were intending to get the sink removed in the kitchen, as well as the dishwasher. So I crawled under the sink to turn off the water -- but no matter how hard or which direction I turned it, the water wouldn't stop flowing. Great. We tried everything. We couldn't very well shut off the main water supply to the house, because we still had to live there and wouldn't be able to turn it back on. Wednesday night ended with us both very frustrated, as we made absolutely NO progress on our very lengthy task list.

Thursday I frantically called for a plumber to fix what we assumed was a broken valve. At the end of the day, we were very thankful that we discovered a broken valve this way and not as a result of a leak. That would have been horrible! Anyway, plumber came out, fixed the valve easily, looked at all our new fixtures and agreed to come back on Saturday to install everything. Jon and I agreed that while we're capable of doing the plumbing -- water and the potential hazzards of it are something we'll leave to the experts!

So by Thursday at 5pm, we were where we had hoped to be on Wednesday night. And we had basically 14 hours until our granite was arriving.

We worked until 1am. Good grief what a long day!

We started with removing the countertop. This countertop was ridiculous. It's L shaped and probably 8 feet by 4 feet. It's made out of particle board with a 1/2 inch layer of cement over it, followed by a layer of chicken wire (it's probably not chicken wire, but that's what it looks like), and then followed by white ceramic tile and brown grout. That beast was over 300 pounds and as ackward to carry as it possibly could be. Not to mention it was wedged into place, trapped behind the island and the refrigerator. So to maneuver it without damaging the appliances or the cabinet faces was crazy challenging. We think we made it out with only 1 "oops" which will be largely hidden under the new countertops. We're actually lucky to have made it through uninjured!

Then we installed the oven. We had spent probably 8 hours on the oven alone just before Christmas, only to discover it didn't fit properly in the hole. The ease with which we installed it last night was (a) a blessing, but also (b) maddening that we spent so much time on it the first time around! Thankfully the hole which holds the oven was plenty big, it was the old cabinet tops that were slightly too narrow for it. So it slid in easily this time around.

Then we removed all the sheetrock from where we took down the backsplash. I have a LOT of dishes to wash as a result of all that drywall falling into the counterless cabinets. Lovely. But hey, it's down! Then I went out and measured / cut the new sheetrock while Jon installed each piece I cut out. We had quite the assembly going!

The finishing touch, at 12:45am, was to install the new dishwasher. It will be SO nice to not have to wash dishes AFTER the cycle completes.

As we fell into bed, our bed fell to the floor... literally. We've GOT to put those stabilizers on the legs! HAHA!

We aren't compeletely done. We still need to tear out and replace the drywall in the basement. However, compared to what's behind us, that task seems very doable!

Sorry there are no pictures attached. While trying to push through a weekend's worth of work in an evening, I had no desire to stop to photograph the efforts. However... after today, I'll have new granite photos to share! Whoot whoot!