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celticmoon_gw

Water disaster opportunity...vote to gut or not to gut (long)

celticmoon
13 years ago

Sigh. Many fans whooshing as I type.

Dishwasher drain hose was apparently leaking for months (likely since the Marmoleum install in December though I cannot prove any negligence). We found the slow leak when the wood flooring in the adjacent DR began to buckle. There is some mold and damage to the particle board subfloor, the particle board cabinet bases, etc etc. A real mess.

Aaack.

We are doing the obvious: the leak is fixed; DW is still out; we pulled off the back of the passthrough cabinets to open everything up; we have tarped off the area and are running fans to dry everything out. I have a mold specialist coming - safety first and all. Whatever the structural damage, we will definitely do what needs doing.

Question is how far to take this 'opportunity'?

Many people would jump at license to tear out these 23 year old cabinets and Corian. Despite being a TKO kitchen junkie for decades, I have always been oddly loathe to take on a tearout remodel - all the decisions, all the upheaval - and how would I eat, LOL!?! And justifying the money - yikes. I can afford it, but I'm not keen on it. Makes me kinda sick actually. The frugalista in me is still proud of my DIY cosmetic update of three years ago. I am happy with the overall feel and function of my kitchen as is. There isn't really any "look" I would prefer. I even like the Corian (please, no stone vs Corian wars).



OTOH the cabinets are 23 years old. And there's room for improvement: more drawers, undermount or integral sink, prep sink, wall ovens, etc etc It would be thrilling to strive for a 'perfect' kitchen. Unless I go crazy.

Could the current design be better? Sure. Tens and tens of thousands of dollars better? Meh. Insurance? 5k deductable, so I dunno. Resale? Nonissue, though we are aready high for the area. Stress tolerance? Kinda tapped due to DH's protracted health issues the last 3 years (He is OK now). Whatever path, I am looking at some upheaval and expense - no choice on that. There is choice on how much upheaval and expense depending on whether we:

A) Rip it all out: 38 linear feet base cabinets, 20 linear feet uppers, 90 sq feet counters. Feel free to propose a better layout. "There's no pockets in a shroud" -Irish saying

B) Fix just the water damage (cabinet guy sez he can replace sink cabinet, etc without pulling off counters)

C) Exploit the situation enough to right a few other wrongs in addition to fixing the water damage. (Corian has a crack near DW so replace that 25 sf part with an integral sink run, maybe rework base cabinets to add a couple drawers and get DW away from corner sink...auggh, this is how it starts)

Choice A overwhelms me, but if not now, when? Frugalista of course likes B. Choice C is very tempting, but that is SUCH a slippery slope.

Thoughts?


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