Better now than after reno!

Have you had a lot of rain lately or an early frost? The house may be settling as the soil shifts. Or it's a different act of God.

Or...Call an exorcist!

Yes!! There was a period of about four months between the time that we committed to do the remodel and the time the work started. Before that, the only things really wrong with the old kitchen were a few of the particle board cabinet doors were loose on their hinges or cracking slightly and the dishwasher was not always draining completely. Most of the really bad things were just cosmetic.

During those four months, however, the dishwasher stopped working altogether, the refrigerator died completely, the ignition on the gas cooktop started clicking randomly, one of the wall ovens quit working, the faucet's hand sprayer handle fell off, and the drain pipe broke away from the drain in one side of the sink.

It was as though the kitchen got the news that it was about to be replaced and it let out a huge sigh of relief and quit trying to hold itself together.

Me too. Within 6 weeks of demolition, my dishwasher called it quits and hinges on 2 different cabinets broke. Made the anticipation for the new kitchen that much greater! About halfway there now! Woo hoo!

Well at least I'm not alone. If anything else weird happens over the next couple of weeks I may call an exorcist.

The broiler door on my old range started falling off when it heard me talkin' about the new Wolf, before we even bought it.

Our kitchen was in need of new appliances and had some missing tiles on the counters when we bought it. We planned on waiting 6 months to a year to make sure we knew what we wanted to change (discovered it was more that counters and appliances), but about then the people we rented our former house to (saying they wanted to purchase it) moved out and left us with a lot of damage to deal with. Selling the old house took priority, so those repairs came first. When we got done with that and finally sold the house, we started looking, thinking, planning. Then we were at a granite place and looking at some remnants to find other color choices when a stack shifted in the soft soil and fell on my leg. That set us back another year.

It took us 3 or 4 years to get to the kitchen. Meanwhile, I think we lost another couple of tiles, the upper oven didn't work properly and then the door wouldn't close (we forced it so we could walk past), the glass in the lower oven cracked and couldn't be replaced, the microwave had some problem that couldn't be repaired, the cooktop was horrible for cooking and the burner plates were rusting out around the edges -- felt like they were about to go at any time, the dishwasher (still "working" but noisy and not very good) was tiled in by the countertop edge and couldn't be replaced until the counters were ripped out, and the faucet that had a minor leak became a major leak -- and the faucet had connections had corroded to the point that the faucet couldn't be loosened to be replaced, so we had to pay to have the thing rebuilt. It went out during demo still attached to the sink and counter. LOL

We were hoping and praying we'd get an order in before we were relying on the grill and the bathtub even pre-demo.

It could be that your house can't wait for a new kitchen. Maybe it's starting to shed the old one like a snake.

I would, however, definitely tell your contractor what happened. Something is going on, and you need to find out what it is. Plywood doesn't normally shatter unless I'm practicing my kickboxing on it. Oh wait, that's my knee.

Anyway, do find out what he thinks.

After our renovations started, my dishwasher got recalled (something about starting a fire), my fridge started humming and my cabinet drawer started shaving chips of wood into the lower cabinet.

Okay, there is some kind of karma going on here. Should we feel badly for our old kitchens that have served us so faithfully for so many years and now 'they' realize we are ditching them? My frig just went a month ago - 2 months too early. My d/w is acting up, and just tonight the m/w handle broke. Hmmmm

My kitchen KNEW her days were numbered a year ahead of schedule. My kitchen waste pipe split (2nd floor of a two family) and huge holes in the walls to fix; my oven died 10 months ahead of time and no way would the new range fit so we cooked the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill and bought a bigger toaster oven; the frig died the 1st day when 7 people were staying with us for 5 days and I was making dinners for 20 -30 every night - throw out all that food, lived out of coolers and the frig we wanted was taken off the market to fix a plastic problem with the ice machine (didn't get the new frig for 4 months!); and one of only 2 lights in the kitchen switch broke and we just kept the light on for 5 months. My kids were praying that the DW wouldn't go because they knew they would be doing dishes by hand!

Marcolo, I will be asking the GC if they see anything odd once they start demolition. I have wracked my brain to figure out what caused this. BF doesn't agree with me, but the only thing I can think of is that morning I had taken my many granite samples and put them on the back of the counter to see them under the only UC light that I currently have. A large piece was on top of the DW, which was running. Maybe the weight caused the counter to twist which caused the panel to snap.

LOL!!!!! OMG this is EXACTLY what happened to us. It was SO SO bad. So many things were bad that I won't rehash it again here. At least you have a light at the end of the tunnel!

The condo a few floors above had a fridge water line spring a leak, so our ceiling grew mold and stank.
Wood trim fell out of grooves it had been glued into for 26 years.
Laminate delaminated.
Shelving sagged.
The countertop bulged where the DW vent had steamed it.
The fridge froze everything overnight and thawed it out by morning.
The oven stopped working. It wasn't the fuse.
One or two of the electric elements on the stovetop stopped working too.

It was more and more like camping out.

The $20 builder's grade faucet held out till the bitter end.

my stove just broke. renovation not scheduled to begin until november. i am not happy.

2 weeks before our kitchen renovation was scheduled to begin our refrig died. We knew it was ill, but didn't realize how quickly the end would come. Our new fridge did not fit in the old space--so we have had our a new fridge in the living room for 6 weeks. Then we started removing things from the kitchen drawers and noticed that several of the bottoms of the drawers were coming apart.

Mine had nowhere to go but up.
It was already a slum kitchen..

I can't believe this has happened to others! We are about to embark on a major house and kitchen remodel. New master bath addition, gut the main part of the house, bump out the kitchen, new floors and doors for the whole house, etc. Within the past 3 months, doors on kitchen sink cab fell apart, fridge door stopped shutting by itself and is leaking water or ice from the freezer, cold water handle in shower broke, bath sink is dripping, toilet is running constantly no matter how I jiggle the insides around, grout has disappeared from b/w floor and shower, washing machine threw out it's rear bearing, garage door goes up and then comes back down about a foot, french door in kitchen is sticking and becoming increasingly hard to open and shut....I could go on. I thought maybe it was just ME. I'm so glad to know others have had this happen. How STRANGE! But it does make me feel better throwing all this crap out and starting new!

It's karma. After I started my renovation my washing machine died, my TV died, my pool heater died, my pool cover died, someone ran into the back of my mininvan necessitating the purchase of a new car. AGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

My kitchen self destructed down to the studs :). Just kidding, but I know exactly what you mean. The minute I started talking about kitchen reno, the dishwasher started leaking, disposal stopped working, and so on, and on. The list is just too long.