Project Has Expanded

Earlier this week, I mentioned that we were now involved in a repair of our kitchen's ceramic tile floor. We had thought that our 2-year-old dishwasher must've caused a leak that was "softening" our kitcher floor in the corner where the dishwasher and sink are. Stan began the project yesterday morning and quickly learned that the dishwasher was not at fault. Instead, we had a MAJOR water leak underneath the kitchen floor. Instead of the water going down, it was being directed straight up. Stan fixed that problem yesterday. Little by little and lot by lot, the water was destroying the floor. What we learned today is that the damage is much more severe than we had thought. The damage has expanded to underneath our northern cabinets, underneath our refrigerator and off towards the center of the room. When Stan moved our much-larger-than-normal refrigerator out of where it normally stands, we discovered that the damage had eaten a large hole out of the floor where the refrigerator sits. We are sooo fortunate that the appliance had not fallen through the floor!!!

Today, Stan has worked to remove all of the ceramic tile off of the floor so that he could guage just how much of the floor needs to be ripped out and re-built. Most of that tile could not be removed without it breaking. That particular tile is no longer being made which means that we now have to purchase tiles or some form of laminate to cover what will be the new floor.

Bottom line is that this news has not made any of us happy. Stan has to go back to work next Monday. The repairs have to be done before then. Stan has to figure out just everything that must be done very soon. Right now, one of our countertops is being held up where it belongs by jacks. We just re-did our kitchen countertops and cabinets less than 2 years ago. It is imperative that we make sure that none of the counters, etc are ruined while we work on the floor repairs.

Please say a prayer or two for us tonight. We are REALLY struggling with this issue...

VLE-B