It’s been more than a month since the cabinets fell off the wall. However, the Great Cabinet Crash of 2019 is still the bazaar happening I get asked about most often.
I get more questions about the time cabinets fell off the wall than the surprise mouse infestation, yellow jackets living in the walls, or all the weird treasures I’ve found since moving into Acorn House. Even people I barely know (or don’t know) seem to know about the cabinets.
So I thought I’d better sit down and write the whole thing out. That way it doesn’t turn into a “fish tale.” And the details don’t get too blurry.
Just a normal day.
October 25 was like any other day. Derek had just gotten back from a 3-month training in Louisiana and was at work. Gideon and I had spent the morning running errands and attending Baby Play at the Library. We came home and ate lunch, then we set to work in the kitchen. The roofer was working when we left, but gone when we returned.
While cleaning Acorn House (which was a MASSIVE undertaking) I found a multitude of keys. I dumped them all out on the counter to sort. Gideon likes to stand on a step ladder to be at counter height when we work in the kitchen, so he was standing next to me. Together we sorted through the keys, labeling the ones that matched and trying others in doors. It was all pretty mundane.
The Crash
At 1pm we went to Gideon’s room. We read a few books then he laid down to nap.
I went back to the kitchen and made a cup of coffee. Then, I sat on the couch and started scrolling Pinterest. Around 1:30, just as I was telling myself I shouldn’t be wasting nap time I heard a crash.
The crash happened suddenly, without warning. My first thought was that the roofer had returned and dropped something outside. My second thought was that Gideon would soon be crying.
I paused to listen.
Nothing happened.
No hammering. Silence from the roof. No crying.
I got up to investigate. From where I sat on the couch, I only needed to take a few steps to see into the kitchen. The first thing I saw was a glare off of something on the floor. Now I was thinking that our fridge had fallen over.
Only a few nights before Derek and a friend had moved a vintage refrigerator from the upstairs apartment kitchen (see the house tour here) into the kitchen on the main floor (there was no fridge there when we moved in.) I figured it wasn’t level and it had tipped.
In hindsight that’s totally implausible, but cabinets falling is also unlikely, so don’t judge me.
As I fully entered the kitchen I could see what had actually happened.
A wall’s worth of cabinets were on the floor. My cabinets fell off the wall.
Pure Shock
The cabinets were mostly intact. Only one had a significant crack. Doors were open, food was everywhere, glass was glittering across the floor, the terrible smell that is jams + salsa saturated the air. Gideon’s stool had been hit and was pushed across the room. Some of the keys we had sorted still sat on the counter.
Now I was completely in shock. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this is what I was going to find in the kitchen. I didn’t know where to begin. So I walked out. I turned and left the mess where I couldn’t see it.
I tried to call Derek. He had just given me his work number. I hate to call him at work. But this was an emergency. I tried several times, but there was no answer. Thanks for the help.
I sat down in a collapsable camping chair (it had been left at the house and my furniture wasn’t all here yet) and sipped my coffee. After all, the damage was already done. Things weren’t getting worse.
I posted the story to Instagram. Then after a few minutes I called my parents to talk things through. They helped me form a game plan. We all agreed that I should put the baby gate up to keep Gideon and Panda-Cat out of the mess.
Shortly after hanging up with my parents, I got a message from a friend who saw my post on Instagram. She offered to come hang out with Gideon after he woke up so I could clean up the mess. That was a huge relief since I didn’t know how late Derek would be.
The Damage
Now that I had vented my shock, I set to work. Five cabinets fell off the wall. Luckily, we keep our dishes in the cabinets on the opposite wall. Clean up was like a giant, nasty game of pick up sticks. I needed to pick up items that wouldn’t disturb others that would cause the rubble to crash again. Gideon still hadn’t made a sound, and I wanted to keep it that way. I began tiptoeing around to pick up glass and stack spice jars out of the way. It wasn’t a silent process, but the cabinets (in a precarious position) didn’t fall over again, and Gideon didn’t wake up.
Around 2:30 Derek came home. By this time the mess was mostly cleared up. Really all that was left was to move the cabinets to the basement, mop up the sticky food mess and vacuum. I honestly don’t remember what his reaction was like. He offered to do clean up, but by this time I had a system. I told him it would be more helpful if he would take care of Gideon when he woke up.
While Derek changed his clothes Gideon woke up. Derek got him dressed and our friend Naomi came over to take him to the park. Derek moved cabinets to the basement. I started mopping up the mess left behind from three jars of homemade jam and two jars of salsa. The smell of this combination still haunts me.
Together we got the cabinets all out and the floor thoroughly clean.
But, why??
So that’s the story. But the burning question everyone has is WHY? Why did they fall off of the wall?
The most common assumption is that the cabinets weren’t screwed into the studs. Good guess, but wrong.
The screws that once held up the cabinets are still screwed into the studs in my kitchen. Here’s what happened.
Whoever installed the cabinets screwed them into the studs through the back of the cabinets. If you’ve ever looked at an uninstalled cabinet you probably noticed that the back wall is just thin MDF. This is okay because no one sees it. It’s only there to protect the wall and enclose the cabinet.
The MDF adheres to the frame of the cabinet with glue and staples. It’s flimsy. Not meant to bear weight.
Properly installed cabinets attach to the studs through the framing piece at the top (and sometimes bottom too) of the cabinet. This is a piece of real wood and part of the structure of the cabinet. Our cabinets were screwed into the studs through the MDF backing, not the frame. The photo above shows the MDF backing, still hanging on our wall. Screws are in the studs, the staples are sticking out.
Properly installed cabinets attach to the cabinet next to it through the stile (the face of the cabinet) via a screw. This part of installation was correct.
The weight of the cabinets pulled the backing off of the largest cabinet on the wall. That cabinet fell. Since they are all attached to one another, the large cabinet pulled them all down together. The back of the largest cabinet is still on the wall. The other cabinets kept their backs, but the screws pulled through the MDF. This left holes in the backs of the cabinets and screws still securely in our walls.
What happened next?
This is our kitchen before the crash. Better, but not great. We were planning a kitchen remodel anyway. I hate to do work twice. So instead of rehanging cabinets destined for the garage or basement anyway, we chose to make do until we redo the kitchen.
Eventually I’d like them to live in a basement laundry room or kitchenette, but that’s a long way off.
We mounted a small cabinet on top of another over the fridge. The one above the fridge didn’t fall because we had already remounted it ourselves when we put the apartment fridge in the kitchen. We slid another one next to the range to use as a spice rack. It’s all very rigged and trashy. Living and cooking in this space has definitely taught me what I can do without. And it’s teaching me daily to appreciate well thought out spaces.
I’m looking forward to completing this remodel. I think what I miss most is counter space. Since we are short on cabinets, lots of things clutter up the already sparse counter.
A remodel is in the works. (You can see faint chalk lines on the walls where new cabinets will soon hang.) New cabinets are due to arrive in January. We’ve got appliances standing by. We know what walls are coming down and what walls are moving. The new flooring is already in the basement just waiting to go in.
It took a lot of planning, but we are finally ready to start. (Just as soon as we install our new front door…because it’s about to get really cold and I really want to keep the drafts out.)
One more thing. This was a really stressful situation. But it’s not hard to find the silver lining. I’m so grateful the cabinets fell off the wall when Gideon and I were out of the room. I’m grateful we are safe. It’s five fewer cabinets I need to remove. It gave us a definite direction on where to start on this house.
And now you know the whole story.
