When we bought our house and began doing work, there was a desk in the kitchen next to the refrigerator. I knew we would never use the desk as a desk, and as we were replacing the flooring, we took the desk and drawers out so the flooring could be laid underneath that area. We wanted to find a piece of furniture, a hutch of some sort, that would fit in the space and be usable but pretty. We have looked and looked for something, had a couple of bids to have something built in that would like a free-standing piece of furniture but be attached to the wall, but haven't really found anything we liked.
Until now. About a month ago, Kent found a great hutch listed on KSL for $500. We watched it for a couple of weeks and when it was still listed, Kent called and asked if she would take $400. She agreed, and this past week, while Kent wasn't working, we went out to Lehi to pick it up. I had pulled all the stuff out of the upper cupboards that would need to be moved, I had sorted through cookbooks that were on the shelf next to the fridge, and I had tried to get rid of a few things and rearrange other things so we would have room for everything. All we had to do was remove the cupboards, paint behind them, put the hutch back together (it comes apart in several pieces), and fill it up. The work of an afternoon.
So we thought. It didn't turn out that way.
Here is the before picture. Cupboards above that needed to come down. Drop leaf table that went to Mikayla with microwave, Kitchen Aid, wheat grinder, and fruit bowl on top. Bookshelf filled with cookbooks, a metal bin filled with CDs, and a box with phone book and other important papers in. I cleared everything out of the space and prepared to remove cupboards.
Here is what we found when we got the cupboards down--a HUGE hole in the wall. Apparently, there needed to be some repair made before the cupboards originally went up, and because this hole would be covered, they didn't bother to fix anything. They didn't even bother to make a tidy hole. Kent and I both groaned when we saw it. Instead of it being an afternoon's job, it turned into a five day project. Kent had to cut out drywall, get another piece to patch, tape, mud, and prime before we could paint. We also decided while mud and paint were drying over several days, we would tighten up and repair the hutch. We put on a new back to hold it square, replaced some supports, glued on a broken piece, and generally made it more usable.
Unfortunately, while all this repair and refurbishment was going on, the stuff that needed to go back into the hutch remained spread all over the kitchen counter and table. It was an absolute mess. I couldn't prepare food and there was nowhere to eat it even if I could have. Everything was in disarray and until the wall was fixed and painted, we couldn't put anything in the hutch because we would have had to empty it all over again. Five days the kitchen looked like this. FIVE DAYS! What a mess.
I am happy to report, however, that after the paint dried and we reassembled the hutch, I was able to put almost everything that had been in the cupboards back into the hutch. We added another shelf to the game cupboard and I put all the cookbooks there, and with the exception of a couple of oddball items that didn't fit, everything was ordered. And I'm even happier to report that we LOVE the hutch. It is beautiful, with a marble top and a mirror between the top and bottom pieces. The glass in the upper section is the original streaked glass, the dishes look pretty, and it is all very functional now that we have tightened everything up. It looks great in the space and we are pleased as Punch. Not an afternoon's project, but a success nonetheless.
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