The Saga of the Never Ending Counter Tops

Where to start, where to start with the saga of the Never Ending Counter Tops. I guess we have to go all the way back to 4 years ago when we bought this old diamond in the rough of a farmhouse. Now I know that there are lots of other things to worry and fuss over but humour me just for a few minutes as these counter tops have been the unending test of my patience these last 4 years. Of course I knew going into a huge remodeling job that not everything would get done at once, but being the kitchen is a wife's main domain I had really hoped (begged and pleaded and even bribed) to have the kitchen be one of those first things that was done. First of all tho there was the furnace shooting flames that had to be taken care of, then the failing sewer, the fences and falling down sheds and all the other immediate necessities that kept coming up, like installing a bathtub and replacing the water pump. Eventually about 2 years into this place we started on the kitchen which meant tearing down a wall, rebuilding a wall, living with a curtain bathroom wall for 6 weeks, building yet another wall, moving plumbing and gas lines, taking down and reassembling the existing cabinets, ripping up all the old linoleum and old flooring, pouring new cement to level the floors, then top with new flooring. Now being all this is supposed to be done with cash and only Rob's extra hours makes things go slow, so when the old counter tops just got put back on I resolved myself to be happy with that. Granted, most of them did not fit again, but I have tried my hardest to be humble about the whole thing and not that many people laughed at me when they came to visit. Especially because the estimates we got for new counter tops was astronomical and would take way too many 30 hour weekend shifts to make it worth it. So I waited patiently. Until that day 2 months ago when I was strolling through the back rows of Menard's and happened to spot their precut counter tops. Luckily I only had 1 child with that day so we stuffed three 8' pieces of laminate counter tops in the van (to the surprise and snickers of the yard crew) and proceeded to finish our grocery shopping at Aldi's. The dreaming wife I am I thought Rob would just do back flips and be so ecstatic that I just saved him well over a thousand dollars and he could just put those counter tops right on that very night. Ahem. He wasn't that excited, hence the reason they have sat in my kitchen for 2 months. Now to his credit he did acknowledge that they were there but what I didn't realize was that he would need some very expensive tools to cut such counter tops. So he contacted a couple of guys who weren't too interested in doing the small job. Then he finally got a hold of a brother in law who agreed to cut them for him. Thanks Kevin:) But, it couldn't be that easy because as they went to cut the last piece they saw that the laminate did not go all the way to the end of the counter top and had to be returned to good old Menard's. So much for my great idea.

Back to Menard's we went. And, ahem, amongst those fabulous counter tops there was barely a one that didn't have a scratch or a bow that Rob figured he could get to straighten out. These guys just couldn't believe that I had brought my camera into Menard's. Moooo-oooom!!!!!!

But Alas...... two of those crooked counter tops are setting in place with the hopes that they will straighten out enough to screw down some day. And if he can figure out how to glue the end caps on (some day after he finishes the barn the granary the shop doors the arena the hitching post the garden fence and the trim work besides the other things on his own list) he promises to get to putting that fancy new sink in for me. And then maybe we can hope to get that dishwasher. And that island counter top. Bet he'll never buy me another old farmhouse again.