We’d been warned so many times that it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that there would be surprises. When you start digging and dismantling, chances are that you find things that aren’t what they were supposed to be.

Usually, it’s where the builder (or those on his payroll) cut corners. Some of those will just make you shake your head, like our discovery that the floor had been tiled after and around the cabinets and appliances, including the island. Or that under the range even a bit of the subfloor had been missing–a time bomb that thankfully didn’t go off.

Other surprises will turn out costly because they hadn’t been factored into the budget. In our case, the blind bulkheads above the cabinets–a common cheap-o practice of past decades–turned out not to be so “blind.” Instead, they housed an array of unidentified wires and strange flexible water lines as well as a random plumbing vent that had no business being there.

“Pretty lazy,” said the carpenter. This was a case of literally cutting corners.

Before we can proceed with the kitchen remodel, we will now have to bring this up to code and first identify and then re-wire a total of 16 electrical lines. Additional walls and the ceiling have to be opened, and more time will be wasted.

Tomorrow we will find out how much damage this first hiccup will do to the budget.