In 2013 we embarked upon our first major project in our home…the kitchen. At the time I wrote about it on my personal blog but thought I would share it with you here. To be honest it is still a work in progress but we are nearing the end… 5 years later.
It seems that we are happiest when we are the busiest despite what we say or wish as we go. Last month traveled to Florida where it was cold (er than we hoped) but perfect for sight seeing… to bad my kids became sick on the way. Instead the week was spent inside our room while my husband was working, that is how sick they were.
This was our one good day, it was the end of the day so our oldest was grumpy.
This month is remodeling our kitchen. We decided to gut and start over. At first we thought gutting was a mistake until pulled the cabinets. Then we noticed all of the “shortcuts” made by those who previously did a quick remodel job.
Planning Ahead
We have already learned so much just from getting cabinet quotes. Make sure to talk to several people. We talked to 3, one kept putting us on hold (8 weeks). The next one answered right away but was very high and later we learned some things about the design that would have had us frustrated with the end result, number 3 fit close to our budget but looked like an updated dated kitchen.
We went back to number 1 but talked to another representative with amazing results. It wasn’t the design of the second consultant, but he took us through every choice personally making sure it would be happy. For instance we will have to move the fridge to go with one larger than 30 in wide.
We were really confused and doubting because everyone else left it in the same place and said we could do a 36in fridge. He physically showed us that if it was in that location and that size we would never be able to pull out the fridge drawers without pulling the fridge out every time.
That was just one of many things he showed us. It really is important to test out how you will reach in and store things in your cabinets. In the end we ordered our cabinets which should be here in 3 more weeks…EXCITED!
Initial Gut
In the mean time we are prepping the kitchen by well gutting it. Cabinets took all of Saturday because we had to stop to get some equipment to deal with our plumbing. We are still living in the house so we need water. The current plumbing does not have a shut off valve for the kitchen sink, it will once we are done though. Plus our kids (5 and 2) try to be helpers which of course adds more time to get them interested in something else or to let them help with something not so dangerous. While my husband disconnected the sink, I tore out the old back splash, removed trim, and peeling paint.
Make sure to cut a hole somewhere hidden yet gives you a great view of what is inside the soffitt. We were very lucky, it was empty. All wires were in the wall, so we were able to remove the soffitt. It took a little elbow grease but my husband got it down within a few hours. Maybe I should explain our house was built in 1962, not terribly old but yet old enough that paints have changed. If you mix oil and latex paints the walls will begin to bubble and crack. The sheet rock is in great shape for the most part. The only damage is at the parts that are flaky yet the oil layer is sticking. We had to scrape and redo most of our living room, luckily a large portion of this is on the soffit which was removed.
Destruction aka Demo Day
Tonight we started to really work on pulling up the old tile. We hoped that we wouldn’t have to rip up the tile to get to the underlayment but since it was screwed down (the proper way). Now we will pull it all up before trying to find all the screws and hopefully unscrewing them with success. The night ended getting about half the room done.
There were few injuries here and there but nothing major. It is pretty much on every site with information of how to rip up ceramic tile but here is another reminder be VERY careful. It does not just pop up it explodes into teeny tiny pieces. Avoid it by using caution with every blow and keep your work area clear of debree.
