Family acts in concert to remodel kitchen

Tag! I’m it! That’s how it has gone this summer with the project to remodel the kitchen of my oldest daughter and her husband.

I mentioned in June that I felt left out, and then proud, as my daughters tore into that 1980s kitchen without me.

Since then, it has been a remodelers’ symphony. Each of us with certain skills — or simply the time to do the work — has stepped to the front of the stage to perform a solo or take the lead.

It’s akin to the way that my bride (of 34 years next Sunday) and I did wallpapering years ago. We’d work together, even including our three little girls, to strip the old wallpaper. Then, I’d spackle cracks and do any other prep work on the walls.

After they were ready, I’d take the girls to a movie or shopping while my bride applied the new wallpaper. I offered to help with that job many times, but she insisted that it’s one of those things she needs to do alone. (Read that as, “I don’t need your ‘advice’ while I’m working.”)

In the kitchen project, my daughters did most of the work; my wife and I played supporting roles. My job primarily was plumbing. I removed the old dishwasher and installed the new one. I also took out the old sink long enough to remove the old cabinets and set the new base cabinets. Then I put the sink back in place temporarily while they worked to install the new upper cabinets.

Three weeks ago, I removed the sink so that the women in my life could install the foundation for a tile counter (daughter No. 3) and then do the tiling (my bride and daughters No. 1 and 2). They worked late one Saturday night, finishing the tile after 11 p.m.

Last Sunday afternoon, after two weeks of doing dishes in the bathtub,

daughter No. 1 and her husband had a working sink and dishwasher again. With help and moral support from my wife and oldest daughter, I installed the new sink and disposal and hooked up the new water-supply and waste lines.

The above sentence makes it sound so easy. Actually, the job took about six hours, including the mandatory

sputtering after ripping into my finger with a screwdriver and the mandatory trip to Home Depot or Lowe's during such a project.

In this case, I went to Home Depot to buy a 2-inch-long fitting for a plastic drain pipe, some glue to cement it in place and a few other things. It cost about $30, which barely registers on the expense meter when it comes to my projects.

The reason for the pipe is that all but one piece of the old

plumbing lined up with the new sink. The old supply lines worked fine. The drain pipes from the disposal and dishwasher were both fine. But the main drain from the sink to the sewer was about 4 inches too long.

I had to cut that existing pipe and glue the new fitting to it.

The trip to Home Depot took longer than it took to finish the project once we had all the proper parts.

And now, the kids are about a week of grouting and sealing away from a completed kitchen — in less than three months and virtually all done with donated labor.

And even though we worked in shifts, we were working together and had some fun performing our remodelers’ symphony.