No Dishwasher, No Sink

Let's face it, a dishwasher is a luxury.  Although extremely nice, it isn't a necessity.  On the other hand, a sink is pretty essential.  We tried to demolition the kitchen in sections, so it wouldn't be a complete disaster all at once.  But after going without a stove for longer than I had hoped, I felt slightly panicked as I looked at the sink unceremonious tossed on the back porch next to my sadly neglected tomato plant.

The entire contents of the kitchen were now stored in boxes lining the dining room walls.  To make anything to eat you first had to find what was needed from one of the open boxes.  Once we removed the sink and dishwasher you had to go in the opposite direction to use the laundry room sink to wash anything.  Making food of any kind became a lengthy affair.

We tried to make this part of the process move as quickly as possible, but we hit some obstacles.  We had been given a wrong upper cabinet, so a trip to IKEA was needed, only to discover after our return that the counter tops that had been delivered were damaged and needed to be exchanged.  That was followed by discovering we were a foot short with the counter tops, thus another trip was needed.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but the nearest IKEA is a two-hour drive.  Needless to say our progress was slow.

Maddie built cabinets, Addison hung cabinets, and I supervised and asked the dreaded question - 

"Are they level?"  

Finally, all the cabinets on the L-shaped wall were in place.  Addison installed the dishwasher and put in the counter tops and sink.

Now if we only had plumbing...

At least we were clearing out the contents of the living room.

Some helpful hints:

Photograph everything.  We took photos of the walls when there were open.  It helped us locate studs when we hung the cabinets.  We also took pictures of the plumbing.  It was a great reference when Addison did the new plumbing.

Use a new saw blade if you use their counter tops.  It can be difficult to get a clean cut.  Addison used painter's tape and cut from the top-side.  Cutting from the bottom and without tape seemed to cause more splintering.  He cut slowly and let the saw do the work.  Ask at your hardware store for advice on cutting them correctly.  The counter tops are IKEA (white).

If you do an IKEA kitchen, check and double check and recheck everything - and then, check it again.