The Story of the Kitchen Fire

See my nice kitchen counter top with it's little burn mark? It's a tiny spot, but ugly none the less. I don't love these laminate counter tops to begin with, but I also wish I hadn't ruined them. So here's the story:



It was July of 2007 and Amy and her kids were still living in Massachusetts. They were coming down to stay with us for awhile and I was SOOOOO excited! I had the house in perfect order, all the laundry done, a fresh warm batch of brownies sitting on a burner on the stove and I had dinner ready to go. I don't remember exactly what we were having for dinner but it did involve corn on the cob. Amy and the kids were going to eat as soon as they got to our house and I had everything timed perfectly so it would be ready for them. Christian and I sat on the couch, by the front window, waiting for them to pull in the driveway. As soon as we saw their van pull up I ran to the kitchen and turned on the burner to boil the corn and then we ran outside to greet our cousins.

There was lots of hugging and excitement outside. All the kids were running around like crazy burning off their "stuck in the car" energy. I told Amy I had to run inside real quick to turn off the corn so I wouldn't over cook it.

When I walked in the house I froze in disbelief and I don't even think I moved for a minute. The whole house was filled with black smoke and the stove was on fire. Actual flames were coming off the stove. There was glass ALL OVER the kitchen and living room floor. I couldn't figure out what had happen, but then I snapped out of it and ran over to the stove and started pouring water on everything. That's when I figured out what had happen. The corn wasn't boiling because I never turned the corn on. I turned on the wrong burner and it was the burner that the Pyrex pan of brownies was sitting on. The glass from the Pyrex pan had heated up and exploded and literally spewed glass and brownies all over the house. THANK GOD WE WERE NOT IN THE HOUSE! The glass was so hot that when it landed on the kitchen floor it actually melted the floor. It was a disaster and my husband was NOT happy. I actually think that's the first time he's really been mad at me. It took hour upon hour to clean it up and I still didn't let the kids walk in the house without shoes for about a week. We had to replace the kitchen floor immediately. We managed to save the stove by just replacing a burner and burner pan and we've just ignored the counter for awhile....BUT since our house is going up for sale, it was time to do something about it! We've decided to have the counter top resurfaced. We have now seen an example of one that's been resurfaced and it looks good and definitely saves us about 60% over replacing the counter top (even if we just replaced it with another laminate one). I'm not sure I would recommend resurfacing counter tops as a long term solution. From what I understand it only lasts about 5 years, but if you have some 70's looking counter or a little blemish like mine and you want a quick fix, this is the way to go! I'll take some before and after pictures so you can see what it looks like once it's done.