I am happy to be a participant yet again in the One Room Challenge. This is the 19th season for this event. Linda Weinstein is the creator of the One Room Challenge. It started out as a challenge for designers to do a room in their own homes as most of us never have time to do our own projects. Thanks to Better Homes and Gardens for being the media sponsor. You can read about the 20 featured designers and all the guests participants here

One Room or One House Challenge?

This is my third One Room Challenge and the biggest challenge. To see what I have done before, here are the links to the reveals on the other two – Spring 2020, Fall 2020. This time, I have to admit my plans for a kitchen renovation started much earlier than I anticipated. I wanted to remodel my son’s bathroom for the challenge but that was not to be. This should be called Most of the House Challenge.

How I decided on the kitchen Renovation for the ORC

Actually who decided it was going to be my kitchen? Honestly, it could have been my kitchen, living room , dining room or laundry. As a result of Snowmageddon, or is it Snowvid or the Snowpocalypse I could have chosen any of these areas. If you don’t know what that is, that is what we lovingly call the 4 days of the Texas freeze that we had in February 2021. I wanted to redo my kitchen in the fall but a burst pipe decided that it would have to be now. I chose my kitchen out of everywhere because it is the largest expense and also the place where I could really be the most creative. This is certainly not the only space that needs help. Pardon my iphone photo’s taken during our time of distress.

How did this happen

During the lovely afternoon of February 16th 2021 we were warming up in our car since we have not had electricity for about 36 hours and it was freezing cold inside and outside. Our son chose to go back in the house to do homework. (Gotta love him for his school ethics) He came running out telling us that there was water gushing from the ceiling. Only 10 or 15 minutes later did we find the main water shutoff and were able to shut off the water. By this time I had the whole neighborhood helping us. Truly there is no time I feel as helpless as when there is water involved.

The Damage

Here is the damage that 2 inches of water can do to your house…. Ruined the ugly brown shag carpet that I hated anyway. Overnight that carpet sucked up all the rest of the water. We did get most of the water out of the kitchen and laundry but could not use a wet-dry vac as we had no electricity or a generator. It ruined my lower cabinets. The sheetrock sucked up considerable amounts of the water so we had to pull out sheetrock and baseboards.

The financial burden

Did we have insurance? Heck yeah we had insurance! What did we find out about our insurance?

We have a $15 500 deductible.

We would only receive compensation for the lower cabinet. Ugh!! who can replace lower cabinets but not the uppers? Even if we did that the chances that the paint will match is nil. No I did not like my half overlay cabinets.

The insurance company wanted us to reuse the (ugly) granite and the sink.

The estimated cost of repairs as per our insurance was $25 500 and after depreciation we received a whopping $5700! Ok we are fighting but in the meantime we need to get our house back. The costs are much higher than the insurance will pay (of course)

What’s the plan?

There was the initial oh sheet! shock, anger and outrage. I knew from the time that we bought the house that I hated the shag carpet, the cheap beige tiles and the kitchen with a layout that did not work for us. Oh and I truly hated that Santa Cecilia granite. There was also a weird box where the vent went out above the cabinets (see top right picture) and the pantry was a total waste of space.

I have had almost 3 months and 15 pounds of weight gain and countless dinners out to think about my kitchen. The plan will be revealed next week!