Water leak fiasco

November 16th, 2009, we awoke to wet rugs in front of the kitchen sink. The faucet that we'd bought a few months before apparently had started leaking down into the cabinet under the sink... then the water spread out under the wood laminate in all directions! We called our next door neighbor who owns a restoration company and he started tearing things apart and put fans in etc. Next we called our insurance company and lucked out with a really great insurance adjuster who approved to cover repair costs. Some of the cabinets were ruined so they replaced the ENTIRE set of cabinets since it's impossible to match 15 yr old cabinets. They did not cover the countertops but we purchased new ones anyways. We also extended the island and counter along one of the walls... of course the extras were out of our pocket but if there is a time to do it, it was THEN. SO, we got them to throw our kitchen back together in time for Thanksgiving and a visit from Grandma Wawi and Aunt Kiki. Then of course a couple of days before we were set to go on our Christmas vacation, they came to tear out our old cabinets but our new cabinets did not get delivered in time for them to be put in before we left. So we left the house with a gutted kitchen. We followed Dave's instructions to ensure that we wouldn't have any pipes burst while we were away for 10 days. WELL we came home to strong mildew smells but everything looked okay on the surface... until we walked back into the basement and the carpet was squishy as a swamp. The plumbing that goes to the sink was left uncapped while we were gone and it very slowly leaked all 10 days, down into the basement. SO after driving 7 hours from Alamosa Texas, I had a breakdown as we started taking things UP from the basement and dumping it into the garage and as they tore carpet and walls out. AND since we had more fans running, that delayed everything in the kitchen. BUT eventually it was all done. And the kitchen looks amazing. Nothing too showy, but updated and just NICE. Pictures are below... ;)