Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Kitchen Re-doux

The last major project in our house is nearing completion.  We decided to remodel the kitchen, and tonight I was able to start loading the cabinets! Why are you just now hearing about it?  Good question, but lets get caught up with the project to date!

Demolition was planned for April 23rd. Yup Easter weekend, and right before my last regular week of classes before a week of finals.  My parents came up on the 22nd to help me pack up everything in the kitchen to prep for the fun part.  It took almost all day, and a few bumps and bruises (one that I still have a month later, yeah ouch) but we finally got everything taken out, and cleaned up!
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My favorite part of the demo was finding out that the insulation in the walls was Gustin Bacon...yup, only the bacon queen would have bacon insulation, this means that I win the bacon contest forever!  LOL

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All of the old paneling had to go, so to save time we just removed all of it and started from scratch, and added a half wall...

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After that things moved along nicely!  We only had a week to do the 24 hour thing, so we are now just doing it a little bit at a time.  I helped stain the cabinets, and used that wonderful dark brown Jacobean I had used last semester on the bench project...Looks great!
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Finally it was time to get all the drywall up, taped and mud-ed, then to re-spray knockdown on the ceiling (thanks Adam!)
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After the walls were painted, and cabinets installed (sans doors) we were finally able to lay the tile floor, and grout!  I love the way it turned out, not bad for re-sale tile!
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So now here we are one month later, most of the doors are on the cabinets (a few need to be re-drilled to open the other direction), the appliances are in place (all the plumbing needs to be done still so no dishwasher or sink), counter tops are installed...this week we are working on the trim for the windows then we can tile the back-splash!  Course the East wall still needs custom cabinets, but we are going to build those ourselves after we get the kitchen functioning!
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Almost forgot the vent hood for over my stove!  We purchased it at a resale store, got a great deal on it, but we have to keep calling to get more parts for it because it had been altered, or was missing a few things!  Luckily for us the replacement parts aren't costing us a thing, just time!

I was excited to be able to cook a meal in the kitchen the other day, nothing special, just bacon and eggs for breakfast!  But it is really nice to be able to cook again!  And soon I will be able to do my dishes in the dishwasher instead of the bathtub!

Till next time...
Onward