Fridge Cabinet Dilemma

As mentioned, the wrong cabinet was ordered for above the fridge.  It was too deep... the floor plan showed the little alcove for the fridge, but didn't show that there was a framed out box above it.  Now we had to come up with a remedy, since we knew we definitely didn't want it sticking out so far (the whole reason behind recessing the wall!)

You can see it sticking out on the
left side of the photo

Our options were...
1-pay over $500 for a new cabinet.  We couldn't return the wrong one because it had already been installed (one reason you should be at home when the cabinets are being installed... but unfortunately, neither of us could take off from work that day).  They said they could put it on rush order and we could get it in about a week.
2-remove the sheetrock & framing above the fridge and use the "wrong" cabinet, just sliding it back to where it was measured for.  I was a little worried that there was a big beam or something behind there, which may have lead to the decision to frame it out that way, but luckily I had photos on the blog I could check!  There wasn't a photo of the exact section we were wondering about, but this post had photos of the coat closet that is on the opposite side of the wall.  It looked clear of huge beams.
3- not have a cabinet over the fridge at all.  This would require not even exploring option 2, or else we'd need to re-sheetrock.

We took the plunge and went with option 2.  Mike was able to do this himself.  After knocking through a hole underneath, he confirmed that there weren't any big beams.  Then he carefully sliced & took away the sheetrock.  He needed to put some framing in, so that the cabinet guys would have something to anchor the cabinet to.  They would then rip the long sides lengthwise, so they were the right size.

Of course, we discussed all of this with the head cabinet guy before doing anything.  He was on board with this, and I'm happy to report that it all worked out really well!  We now have a nice deep cabinet above there (that was one of my concerns with ordering a new, more shallow one!)