Demolition 2008: Kitchen

So, we're re-doing our kitchen.

Yikes. I feel so extravagent even writing it; like I have to justify all of the really good reasons why we're doing this. But really, you just don't know how hard it is to be the only house left in the country without cathedral ceilings, wood floors, and granite counters. So I'm merely giving in to the relentless fingerpointing and whispering about my laminate counters, nearly 30 year-old MDF cabinets with laminate veneers, and the charming faux-brick (and torn) vinyl flooring. And once you decide on getting new cabinets and counters, then you might as well open those remodeling floodgates and knock down walls and change the floor layout. So now we're well into full-blown gut job that will hopefully result in a much more efficient and workable use of space--oh, and those wood floors and granite counters too, of course.

(Warning: you can probably already tell that this will be long and rambling, and that maybe only my Mom and possibly Anna will be interested in reading every word, so I'll try and post lots of pictures for the rest of you to just scroll though.)

Besides the old kitchen being really outdated and, frankly, junk (although I'm dying to use much stronger wording here), it was also a really, really inefficient use of the space. And if there was anything taught as fiercely as religion in my own growing-up, it's making the best use of every available inch of space. I think that I've spent the better part of the last 2 1/2 years lamenting what a terrible layout it was (at least for our family's needs), but running through just about every possibility of how I could make it work anyway.


However, my DH (as he would be called in all of those online home forums I've started frequenting), relented to my constant whining and started figuring out just how we could realistically do this. He's actually been a really methodical kitchen designer (or KD...again, for you forum people) and super thorough with just about every detail of the planning/execution aspect. I constantly wonder how people who aren't married to him actually get by. (And lucky for him, the cabinets were scheduled to be delivered on my birthday, so now he can literally say that he got me new kitchen cabinets for my birthday.)

So, here's how it's breaking down so far.

Before:

And here's the new plan:

Here's Weeks 1 & 2:

Phase I: Demo the old kitchen

• take out cabinets
  
• take out floors


• take down existing wall between kitchen/DR
  

Phase II:

Frame in new opening between Kitchen and DR

Take down ceiling .....surprise!, look what's in the ceiling. It took Jesse (our friend we hired to do the labor) 3 hours of shoveling this insulation into large garbage bags to get it cleared out.

Patching damaged subfloor:

Newly installed (but not yet refinished) hardwood floor that is weaved in with the DR hardwood. Those lighter "stripes" are the places where they had to fill in with wood putty. It will all be sanded away at the final finishing. Oh, and that's a door in the background there. We got a new back door and new storm door (and changed the swing on both).
New electrical in ceiling:
Adam working on the plumbing. (Can you see that torch? Pretty cool, eh!)
New insulation for the ceiling:
New drywall for the ceiling and walls:
Hey, happy early birthday to me! These came on Saturday morning. Everything is stacked in the garage.

Week #3 should be the drywall taping/mudding/sanding etc. to get ready for painting and then on to the cabinet installation. We've been fortunate to move along pretty quickly thanks to our being able to hire our friend Jesse to do a lot of the construction work like the framing, drywall, doors, windows, cabinet installation etc.

Ok, so that's that so far. I'm basically giddy at how well everything has been going. So keep your fingers crossed for me, and I'll try and do a better job at posting the progress.