by Yvonne Perry

Created on: August 23, 2007   Last Updated: August 24, 2007

Ten weeks ago we started remodeling our 1980s kitchen. We had been putting it off since we moved here seven years ago. Ever since our dishwasher had to be replaced I've wanted stainless steel appliances. Our remaining appliances are old but they still work fine, and that makes it hard to justify spending money.

Over the years, we have updated our kitchen the best we could with inexpensive remedies. We took down the country print wallpaper and repainted the walls. We removed the worn, ugly linoleum and laid faux slate stick-on tiles on the floor. We painted the old cabinets with a fresh coat of paint. I sanded, primed and spray-painted the old laminate countertops and put a coat of polyurethane over them. It actually looked nice and worked well until someone used a knife without a cutting board to prepare food. Even then, the lines didn't show that much and most importantly, they didn't peel. After three years, the paint near the sink started lifting around the edge and I couldn't resist picking at it when I was on the phone or waiting for a pot to boil. I was satisfied to have gotten that much life out of the technique that probably shouldn't have worked in the first place.

I took the peeling paint as a clue that it was time to get serious about replacing the countertops. And, while I was going to the trouble of replacing countertops, I might as well replace the old, ugly cabinets. Well, if the cabinets and countertops were going to come out, I may as well rearrange the traffic flow so the kitchen is not a pass-through to the back porch. If I do that, then the flooring is going to have to been patched, so I might as well put down the travertine tile I've been wanting. Since the kitchen is part of the dining area, that room would have to be painted as well. As you can see, one thing led to another and there was no stopping point.

It was time to talk to the bank about an equity line of credit. We needed to refinance the house anyway. We were not getting anywhere with an interest-only loan. After weeks of waiting for all the paperwork to be completed, we finally had the money to start the project. We would save money and do the labor ourselves. Okay, you can stop laughing... We can do this...I think.

The first thing was to demo or remove the old cabinets. They had a bulkhead over the top that was ever so popular in 1988, but served absolutely no purpose since I couldn't store anything in them. That's when we discovered that the builder didn't put any wallboard behind

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