The first official Kitchen Renovation post!  Back in November, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, we started demoing the kitchen.  And when I say we, you all know I mean Mike, right?  I'm way to cautious too be helpful during demo.  I'd hurt myself, then distract Mike causing him to hurt himself.  It's better if I just watch.

The kitchen that we've been living with for the past 4 years never worked for us, it was too small and not effective use of the space.  We were happy to see it go.  Here's a look at what we bought:




And, after our $89 makeover:





But, that was only makeup covering much bigger problems.  We started by removing the appliances and all the cabinet doors and drawers, (I actually did help for this stage).  We donated the dishwasher and all the pulls and hinges to ReStore and sold the oven on Craigslist. 


Mike even let me take the first inaugural sledge hammer swing.  I chose this offensive cabinet as my victim.

   
Once that was out we were a little surprised at what we found.



Bright orange linoleum tile underneath. Ick.

After the cabinets and appliances were out, Mike went to work.  It was messy and loud and he worked nights and weekends until everything was out.  The most important being the wall dividing the dining room and kitchen.


The wall housed a closet, (with a mirrored door that also went to ReStore), the patch from the chimney removal, electrical work, water lines, and HVAC duct work, (the whole on the bottom right).  Even with all that, it's still awesome seeing it gone.


It was still dusty, but I was so excited so I just snapped some shots on my phone.  Below is standing in front of what would have been the refrigerator.  


I did get a sneak peak while Mike was knee deep in the demo, from the safety of the porch.  Mike's not messing around: respirator, goggles, gloves, and ear protection.  Who knows what's in 87 year old plaster. 


We have 2 trashcans that get picked up by the city, so we were able to throw away everything over the course of a month of so without getting a dumpster.  We had a little help from our neighbor when the kitchen demo trash left no room for our normal trash.

Once everything got cleaned up a little bit more, I sneaked back in for some more shots.  I also got all fancy with a panoramic shot showing what once was 2 rooms is now 1 big one.



Next up is re-routing the water lines, ducts, and removing the drywall!