What a christening! I am sure it will be better tomorrow:) hang in there!

Similar to creasing a new car, the first damage to one's kitchen seems the hardest to stomach. Two kitchens ago, I still remember my husband looking stricken as he told me he had taken a chunk of soapstone out with a water glass. At first it was all I could see when I entered the room. But I noticed friends didn't appear to see it and I relaxed a little.

I certainly hope that's the end of your bad kitchen luck!

My new kitchen isn't in yet, so no damage here. But when we first moved into this house we put a new tile floor in the kitchen. Within days, my kitchen aid mixer walked off the counter while mixing a particularly heavy batch of dough. My fault completely for taking my eyes off it! Left a nice crack in the new tile. But that's what rugs are for!

Oh, you really meant it when you said "damaged"! I was expecting a typical response to a dirtied sink or a child who spilled juice. You certainly have had a trial for your kitchen. All I've had happen is a chip in the granite at the front sink edge. Hope your karma turns around - FAST!

My damages started as soon as the house went up for sale. Of course.

One day my son opened up the cabinet with dishes, and for some unknown reason (except for gravity) all the dishes (the vintage square glass ones) slid off the top shelf. I have only heard that sound one other time--back in high school when a friend's sister was having party while his parents were out of town and someone knocked over the china cabinet. The sound of smashing glass on the granite was pretty impressive. Small chunk taken out of the counter, and the light rail was, well, derailed. I hammered that back in, and used crazy glue gel to repair the counter. (Used as a filler).

My son dragged my footstool, storage ottoman across the floor putting a nice gouge in the cork. Yes, I colored it with a stain stick, but you could still see it. He "didn't think it would hurt it" rather than lifting it. He was putting it back after I cleaned the carpet.

Then my dh was putting a wine bottle in the recycling under the sink, and "whack", a chunk of counter gone. Found the piece and glued it back on.

After that I pretty much banned anyone from going into the kitchen.

At least your kitchen has been christened early on. Mine came at the end.

I'm sorry you had these problems. Tomorrow will be better!

The funny thing is, none of this is lost on my dh as I've been hovering, just a bit, making sure he knows the care instructions for various items. And I'M the one who has done most of the damage. :-)

Glad to know others have their kitchen mishaps too! Shattering glass and chipped counters make for great stories after recovering from the shock, I'm sure.

Yep, I flooded our kitchen floor about a month after we moved in. I was running water in the sink while tending to the kids and didn't even notice until I heard this dripping sound like a waterfall. My husband had to remove the bottom drawers on that side and cut a hole in the plywood underneath so we could make sure that the water didn't get under the cabinets and dry it if it did before it got to the hardwood. I cried HYSTERICALLY as he did it, even though the holes are hidden and no one will ever know they were there unless they pop out those two bottom drawers. But it was quite the way to initiate a new kitchen!

I just posted pictures of our reno in progress. link

The butcher block was in for less than 48 hours when disaster struck. Our kitchen is pretty much *all* non-porous. Except the butcher block. My husband had placed a blue sharpie permanent marker on the butcher block. 5 minutes later I was getting a cutting board out of the cubby to the right of the range, and a second cutting board pulled out with it - landing EXACTLY on the sharpie... destroying/shattering the sharpie... permanent blue ink everywhere.

It came up from the stove, pot on the stove (we had a pot of beans cooking), from the backsplash, from the tile floor... But the damage was done to the butcher block.

Fortunately, he was able to sand it out to where you have to look hard to see the blue ink in the grooves. And a fresh coat of the wax/mineral oil...

Lets just say some choice words were shouted.

We got some nicks and dents here and there, and the guys installing stone on my pantry wall managed to stain the corner of my stainless steel fridge a bit.

Overall I have a pretty cavalier attitude towards my kitchen though. When I sell my house the next owner will probably rip it all out anyway. In the meantime I just relax and let myself (and the family) be comfortable in the space.

Ucgal,

That is why a friend of mine banned all permanent markers from her house, LOL.

OP,

Thanks for posting this!

It is funny how I don't care about any damage in our "old" kitchen but I am sure I WILL after the remodel. :-)

This thread makes me even "more sure" about my decision not to use granite...

On the day we were supposed to be moving in, I was attempting to sample the sealer on my sample granite chunk. I dropped the granite chunk (it wasn't large, but it was pointy) and it gouged the wood floor with its point. A few months later, I was preparing to have people over. I hand washed my nonstick skillet and set it on the counter. It fell off the counter (because it was set on the counter upside down). I attempted to catch it which only caused it to hit my white cabinets before hitting the floor. I now have a small gash in my trash door (not a big deal) and another gouge in my wood floor.

I'm annoyed by both gouges everytime I walk through the kitchen in sock feet, but it's too late now. Oh Well. Our kitchen gets used. Hopefully all the years of abuse won't show too much when we go to sell the house. My husband keeps saying that kids or dogs will end up destroying it more than I have, but time will tell.

Within days after we moved in, photographers took pictures of my kitchen for my kitchen designers website. Her assistant dropped a camera on my hw floors and left a prett good size gouge. She wanted to pay to have it fixed, but really how can you fix a gouge like that on finished on site floors?

She felt so bad, she made me accept a gift of a free family portrait. Can't beat that.

I really do look at that gouge with affection, lol.

About a week after the kit was finished I had a clock on what I believe was referred to as a purlin (beam). For no apparent reason it fell off, hit the soapstone counter (gouge), bounced to the pine floor, another gouge and bounced again making a small chip in the paint on the shoe-moulding around the base of the cabs. Oh and the glass face on the clock broke.

Oh my gosh to some of these stories! I'm glad you can smile about them later.

OT but another Sharpie-leads-to-house-damage story: good friend had a Newfoundland who got ahold of a bright blue Sharpie. Not only did the dog leave blue-tinted puddles of Newfie slobber everywhere in the (beige and white) living room, but he also stepped in the ink and basically pattern-stamped most of the carpet with a paw print.

Almost as good as the time the same dog ate a half a pound of ham from the kitchen counter, and washed it down with the W-2 forms from the adjacent kitchen desk. Yum yum!

Note to self: No Sharpies or Newfies in new kitchen. I learn so much from GWers!

In our last house, before we even finished moving in all the furniture, I was breaking in the new kitchen by dying Easter eggs with my children. While being extremely careful wiping up any drips on the new granite, I set the dishtowel on the island behind me. I didn't realize that part of the the dishtowel touching the granite was soaked in green dye. Green stain on the granite--I was devastated. After my panic attack I called the granite guy who actually got most of the stain out--even used fire in the process. If you knew where to look you could see a faint discoloration, but no one could see it but me when he finished. This incident was followed by the youngest tracking tar up the back stairs while we unloaded a storage pod. Moving in another new house early summer and I'm sure there will stories when we break that one in too!

Wow! These stories. The dog eating the ham and the W-2's made me laugh out loud.

The only thing so far is that when a newbie guy for my contractor must have had a rock on the bottom of the shoe. I swear at one point I saw him scratch my wood floor that only had 2 coats down of stain. They blamed it some dirt that was on the ground, but I think I know the truth! Luckily, when my floor guys came back, they sanded and selaed it and the scratch is all gone.

Will remove sharpies from the kitchen ASAP.

Beware of goop that kids make at school (made with glue, borax and water and food coloring). My 8 year old brought some home, took it out to play with it and set it on our cherry coffee table which is stained natural and oiled. Left it there all night. Big, dark blue stain. I got much of it out with water and toothpaste of all things (I think I read this somewhere on the internet). But, it will take some sanding to get the rest out. At least it wasn't the new butcherblock in our kitchen (although we do have some smaller stains there from kids making jello).

More of a garage story but we were fostering a pretty crazy dog. We had just built our house about a year or two before. He had already done just about everything to the inside of the house so I thought I will just put him in the garage for one hour while I go to church. What could he hurt in the garage? It's heated and I don't think he can get out. He was an escape artist. If I put him in the yard he could climb the fence and would run down the street chasing me, if I left him in the house he would go insane and tear up any barrier he could to get out. He had severe separation anxiety. After I pulled out I shut the door and let him in the garage. It was winter and one of the coldest days of the year for us here in the south. I had a five gallon bucket of paint and glaze I had been glazing the kitchen with, put it out there and forgot about it some time before. It was just under the windows. I didn't have a fixed lid on it for some reason just covered with foil. He thought it was a stool and was jumping up and down and in that bucket of paint trying to escape through the windows that face out to the front of the house. He managed to tear down both window blinds from the two windows and cover them in the paint. They were hanging off their headers all askew. He then jumped up and down on the garage door which is white as far up as the windows in it, a double garage door covering them in paint. The garage was nice with dry wall and pretty paint and flooring and even base molding he had paint all over the floor and walls and to make it a true heart attack we had just gotten a new SUV that was parked in there and he jumped up and down trying to get into the truck. It was also covered in green paint. When I came home and hit the door opener he ran out covered in green paint I was in shock at the scene!! My next door neighbor who always has his garage door open and had his pride and joy white BMW convertible parked in it. I scream at him CLOSE YOUR GARAGE DOOR!!! My dog was heading to his garage covered in paint. I started running after him in my high heels and dress I caught him and got myself all covered in paint but I was able to hose him off and get him cleaned before realizing in disbelief the carnage in the garage. I felt so mean hosing him down outside in the winter and was terrified the paint would not come off of him but it did. Then when I looked at the garage it was one of those times when you truly did not know how to react, it was an out of body experience. It was a horrific scene and since my husband was out of town I had to figure out where to start on the clean up. It was really a job for Service Master or a hazmat cleanup, lol. I started with the SUV and to my surprise since the paint was still wet it came off, thank God it was latex. It did not come off of the black rubber or plastic bumper areas though, it just absorbed it. Then I tackled the garage door and windows and the people door that leads outside. Pretty good, got that up but it never did come off of the flooring or the drywall which I had to repaint. Then I went to Home Depot and got new blinds for the windows and it was pretty much as good as it was going to get. To this day there is still green paint on the floor out there a little reminder of our crazy rescue boy. My new house was definitely not new anymore!!

When our friends were helping us move into our house six weeks ago, someone stacked and slid boxes on my marble slab and etched a nice 5" scratch in it. My husband had to remind me that we are grateful for the help, and wanted a Euro style patina anyway. I'm getting there.

Wow! These are some tales! My daughter had a black sharpie that she found in my husbands office and almost accidentally drew on the new granite. I had nightmares for days and it didn't even happen! No sharpies allowed in our house either:) oh we are also dying Easter eggs OUTSIDE! You guys all have a great sense of humor.

A fiction writer couldn't come up with stories more heart-stopping and funny than these real-life mishaps!

We moved into our new house before Thanksgiving last year. When we were doing dishes, my daughter noticed some water on the floor and said, gee, you must have a leak somewhere. I said, no, I think that was your daughter's water bottle spilling a little. Then I moved and saw water squishing through the wood seams. We immediately thought it was a problem with the radiant heat, as did our builder, but thank goodness, it was (only) a leaky valve from the dishwasher. Those ruined planks were just replace this week as everything needed to dry completely. Oh, and the builders left the hot tub switch on for several weeks with no water in the hot tub. And then there are all our french doors to the deck that were refinished in the wrong color, but no one caught it til after install. And we won't event talk about the etching on the marble from Christmas margaritas. Or my soapstone that gets scratched if you even look at it. But I still love my home.

DH installed the sink and faucet, then left town for two months. I needed the kitchen to be functional and he did it, in a rush. We threw odds and ends of the junk lying about in the kitchen into the undercab space to get it out of the way. Never cleaned it out and never even swept out the sawdust.

This was result...the cold water pipe was not fully tightened. The drips followed the sawdust to the edge of the undercab floor. So very glad that I unearthed the cab floor and found the problem and was able to tighten the pipe and figure out how to dry out the space--pulled out the dishwasher myself, ran fans day and night.

Cab man later said that if I hadn't done what I did, he would have had to make new sink and dishwasher housings and maybe the floor would have buckled.

In the photo, the cardboard rings were my detection system...when they were dry day after day I knew I'd ended the leak. I was very glad that the cardboard showed me that there was only one leak in the first place. Kept me from wanting to throttle DH with both my hands.

Ouch & 3-cheers for you rescuing your kitchen from further damage!

We just threw our new-kitchen happy show-off good-times party! It was a blast! I don't regret it. I don't regret any of the 3 glasses that were broken on the granite counter, I don't regret the piece that fell out of the mosaic backsplash, I don't regret the gouge in the drywall of the archway, I don't regret the bootprints that only mostly wiped off the paint (lean back on the wall, put a foot up for stability). Really it was nothing major, the wine didn't stain, the granite didn't nick, the walls were going to get some love-marks eventually... but it was all the little things, really an overnight evolution from "new" to "lived-in".

gr8day: I don't want to be mean but I laughed until I cried when I just read your post! I love the bit about you screaming at the neighbor to close his garage! I hope all is well now....

What could ever be that important to label with a Sharpie (freezer bags of leftovers we will never eat, kids hoodies that they will grow out of while they sit in lost and found, potluck serving dishes?) that people routinely risk Sharpie havoc?

This I do not understand. Sharpies (and chewing gum) are not allowed in my house. Better to lose whatever sorry piece of junk someone "needs" to mark with their Sharpie than to allow these dangerous tools in my home.