Kitchen Remodeling Shocker

Vicki, from Uplifting Teaching who shared her Mannequin storywith us is guest posting for me today!  Vicki is a professor of special education at a Christian University.  She loves the Lord, her husband, and her family.

We’ve begun the process of remodeling our kitchen. In 40 years it’s never been updated. Yuk!  The dropdown ceiling had to go. But first, we needed to find out what was hiding above the ceiling.  My husband began burrowing holes. A huge waste pipe extended about 4 feet from the outside wall. That would have to be moved closer to the outside wall in order to rip down the hideous ceiling.

Enter plumbers. “How much will it cost for you to move that pipe, Mr. Plumber?”
“Two thousand dollars, Maam.”

“Yikes! Forget it. We can’t afford that.” Can our low ceiling be a good thing? Maybe it makes us feel taller. Maybe I’ll learn to love our claustrophobic kitchen. NOT!  My private mental negotiations were interrupted.
“Maam, do you know your waste pipe is leaking?” Waste leaking into our newly renovated kitchen? EEW!  The costly impossibility suddenly became a necessity.  Once given the go ahead, the plumber explained the process.  “We’ll have to temporarily raise the two toilets upstairs in order to put the new waste pipe in.”

Three plumbers arrived the next day. As promised, the upstairs toilets were temporarily removed.  A huge hole was cut into the kitchen wall. The decaying pipe was revealed. Another large hole was carved out of the ceiling. More decaying pipes.  By the end of the day, the job was done.  A nice PVC pipe had been installed close to the window.  The gaping holes in the kitchen remained, no need to repair them. In thirty days when our contractor would begin the remodeling, all the walls would be torn down.

After the plumbers left, I went upstairs to inspect the bathrooms. The toilets had been put back in place. Everything was working again. But, what’s that?  Behind each commode was a large hole.  I was stunned that I could see the kitchen from an upstairs bathroom. That meant…yes, someone could see the back of the commode from the kitchen!!!  I called the plumber. “You forgot to close up the holes in the bathrooms.”

“We don’t do dry wall, Maam.”  Really??? He had to be kidding!  He explained our contractor would close up those holes.  The contractor wasn’t scheduled to remodel our kitchen for a month.  A peek-a-boo toilet wasn’t what I had in mind for guests visiting during Christmas vacation.  It wouldn’t exactly spread holiday cheer!

I pleaded with him. “Please put something – anything – behind the toilets to conceal what goes on in the bathrooms.”
He agreed to nail a piece of sheet rock behind each toilet.

We spent the holidays with our waste pipe on display in our kitchen. It didn’t make sense to decorate like I usually do for Christmas. So, I seized the opportunity to (can you guess?)…decorate the new waste pipe! When would I ever get another chance to showcase the inner workings of our pipes?

Here’s one page of my annual hand-made Christmas card from my husband: