So I may have taken the “I have a dream” part of MLK day a little too far when I decided to rip out 2/3 of my lower cabinets and counter tops this past Monday. After watching Dr King’s infamous speech on YouTube and doing a project with the kids for school that morning; I realized that I, too, have a dream! That I don’t wake up to 2 or 3 mouse droppings on my kitchen floor! That I don’t feel the north wind on my feet as I cook dinner! That I don’t have to wonder just what kind of nasty lies below where I store the things we eat on! It’s not like we don’t have enough projects started, but I had hit the limit on this issue. Anything else we tried wasn’t resolving things, so time to get destructive. At the very least, the endeavor would get some aggression out on that kitchen! And just a week later, I have no regrets! Nathan came in and made a perfect temporary kitchen that I KNOW is clean and operates better than the previous set up. Here’s a photo progression of an impulse desicion gone wonderfully right.

Mom came over and assisted/supervised my controlled chaos as I removed the cabinet and countertop that was furthest away from the plumbing. Those pipes are sensitive in this house.

It took a small amount of prying and banging and a few “sumbitches”, but it came out piece by piece. The adjacent countertop was going to need to be jigsawed alongside the sink, because we were hoping to do this without pulling the sink as well. What we revealed under just this section was enough to convince me we were doing the right thing!

That would be a freaking nest where all the stuff is piled up on the left side. Apparently mice and (ugh) rats like to “decorate” with treasures from around the house. Some of that stuff belonged to us! Grrroooooossssssss. With lots of gagging, I got it swept up and that old linoleum lifted right off the floor. Nathan came home and got the cut done on the counter top and we were able to remove the second section of cabinet right at the edge of the sink.

I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture of the huge crack that we revealed between the floor and the exterior wall, but there was an obvious “highway” back there.  It was getting late, so Nathan quickly cut some 2×4 to place over it. He was able to slide another board behind the sink cabinet as well, so that doesn’t have to come out right away.

Look how clean and mouse poop free we are now! I just don’t have any countertop or storage and I only prepare 3 meals a day in this kitchen…. 😳 I was prepared to work off of card tables for quite a while, but Nathan was able to construct some incredibly sturdy workbenches and this girl just got her “butcher block” wood countertops she’s been wanting! 😆 A trip to Target fixed the storage dilemma and within 5 days I had a kitchen again!

We’ve been mouse poop free since! Call me crazy, but I LOVE this little set up! Nathan says it’s because it’s reminiscent of camp/cabin kitchen and I feel like I’m at a vacation spot. Haha! I’m super excited to experiment with the wood countertops before the real thing goes in. Honestly, this little sidetrack from all the other projects has kind of encouraged us to look into DIYing our kitchen renovation! After the mudroom, of course. Yea. Go ahead and call us crazy.

-Lindsay