Demo Weekend

This past weekend:we did the demo on our kitchen. Most people who are re-doing their kitchen can probably get away with just taking down the cabinets and tearing up the floor. Let's just say ours was a complete teardown and we took everything down to the studs. 

Here's a taste of what we did this weekend. Friday started with removing all of the "stuff" from the kitchen cabinets and relocating it. We put most stuff we won't use in a large tupperware bin and some glasses in cardboard boxes. Most of the rest we re-arranged in the dining room for now.  We've tried to organize the best we could and have easy access to some small kitchen appliances like a toaster oven and griddler/panini press.  Our microwave is currently plugged in the living room.

Saturday was complete demo day. I say we'd completed 90-95% of the demo with the help of my brother and parents.  Sunday we finished up the demo and started on the electrical work and plumbing work.  Not too many surprises underneath the walls. We found out a few things --- that our last kitchen renovation was in the winter/spring of 1983. We suppose this is how old our dishwasher was as well.  The cabinets came apart super easy -- must have been the great craftsmanship of the 80's.  We found some mold/rot near our large kitchen window which is directly below the shower.  We believe this was an old issue that was later fixed. We plan to correct this by installing a header and removing the rotted wood.  We also found out that our sink drain was leaking.  If you can see the first picture there is a pool of water and you can see large expansion of particle board near the bottom.  Probably the BEST surprise is we have gorgeous hardwood underneath!

Here are some pictures from the demo weekend.

Under sink base showing water and expansion of particle board

J flattening a wall cabinet

Takes about 5 seconds to flatten cabinet out

J removing wall corner cabinet

There is a method to the madness. Cutting the countertop near the sink allows us to keep the sink base and allow us to reconnect the sink

Bringing down the ceiling

Chipping up the tiles

Insulation that was on top of the ceiling...now looks like a disaster area

To the bones kitchen

Yup, we got a 30 Yard Dumpster. A tad bigger than a bagster. We've probably filled 25 yards

Hardwood!!!!