Kitchen remodel with a twist

     After 27 years of woodworking I did something with a kitchen remodel that I never tried before; and most everyone said it couldn't or shouldn't be attempted.  Let me give you a little background on this job before I get into the actual remodel.

     I have a customer I've done many projects for over the years, including their main home, his office, their cabin in the mountains and their condo at the beach.  They purchased a new upscale condo in North Myrtle Beach, SC about 5 years earlier and they were never that impressed with the kitchen, so I was asked to quote a price on designing and building a new kitchen.   So far, so good!

     Existing kitchen cabinets were white melamine cases with MDF termofoil 1pc. raised panel doors (typical cabinets used by contractors for many price level homes).   The counter tops were Granite with a 4" high Granite back splash.  The overall footprint of the kitchen was going to remain the same as the original layout.  New cabinets were to be Euro style (cherry inside and out) with modern style doors and drawer fronts.

So..........where's the twist?  Let's count the twist.
First; they had installed a new tile floor earlier and did not want to disturb that.
Second; they had just wallpapered the walls in the kitchen and did not want to disturb that.
Third; the upper cabinets were mounted tight to a soffett with no moulding and did not want to have to use moulding when the new cabinets were installed.
Fourth; All new appliances, including range, microwave/hood,dishwasher, refrigerator, sink and they wanted to add a small under counter refrigerator.
Fifth; They had beautiful Granite Counter tops and wanted to keep those.

So.........what's the big deal?   Well to start off, the granite people said they could not pull the old Granite counter top off without breaking it. Their excuse was; the granite was siliconed down and since the area around the sink cut-out was only a couple inches wide, they were sure it would break at that location since the counter ran from wall to wall and it was approx. 10ft. long.  Now; my customer does not like to take "No" for an answer, so you can see where this is headed. 

Now my customer wanted to know if there was any way I could remove the old base cabinets and install new base cabinets without removing the granite counter tops and back splash?

I had to give this one a little thought.  Let's see, I have granite counter tops "siliconed" to the old cabinets, a new tile floor that was installed after the cabinets were.........which means the cabinets are sitting basically in a hole so even if I can somehow cut the silicone, I can not pry the counter tops up and I can't slide the cabinets forward because of the floor.  Anyone besides myself see a problem here?

All I'm going to say for now is, I took on the challenge.  I'll tell you how I handled it and how things turned out in my next blog.