So BIG changes happening of late. We officially don’t have a
kitchen! The old cabinets, sink, and dishwasher are gone thanks to Craigslist. Friends
took our bar top/stools and kitchen cart. The range, fridge, and microwave all
have a home in our living room. Having everything crammed into the living room
isn’t ideal, but we don’t have much of a choice. I did find one perk however –
after napping on the couch I was hungry, and all I had to do was reach a little
to get into the fridge. Compact living ain't so bad.
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Welcome to our new first floor/studio apartment. |
So here’s a breakdown of the work thus far. After we got
back from Hawaii, we unloaded the rest of the kitchen. Most stuff is boxed up
and crammed into our basement bedroom. Once everything was out of the cabinets,
we started taking down the cabinets. We started with the uppers and then we
removed the base cabinets. It wasn’t terrible work, but it was arduous at times.
The big pantry was the biggest pain because it seemed almost built into the
wall. Removing the cabinets was the moment when everything was like, okay, this
is real. No turning back now. (Interestingly enough, the guy who took them from
Craigslist was going to reuse them in his own kitchen. I’m not quite sure how old, beat up cabinets
are going to be successfully repurposed, but more power to him.)
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One empty kitchen. |
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D vs. the cabinets. |
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Progress! |
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Even more progress! |
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Down to the studs! |
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Adios, cabinets. We will not miss you. |
After the cabinets came down, we began to tear up the
flooring. The laminate flooring we had in there was so cheap and it came up
like big puzzle pieces. Underneath the laminate there was early 90’s linoleum. Truly classy stuff. Upon pulling that stuff
up, the backing stuck to the underlayment. That didn’t matter too much because
the underlayment was coming out as well. We saved that job until the next day
though.
Next we removed the rest of the soffit and then drywall in
order to rewire the kitchen. Most of the electrical was in the soffit and with
that gone, now has to be hidden in the wall. Most of this happened during one
day, and to say we were tired would be an understatement. Big thanks goes out
to Derk’s dad for helping us BIG TIME. He’s a bit stronger and more able-bodied
than me, and was such a huge support to D.
After a good night’s sleep, Derk tackled the underlayment
the next day. He needed to use a saw to cut out tile sized pieces in order to
fully remove it. Once that was gone, he realized that the old dishwasher had a
leak and rotted out the floor. So that was completely removed which left a nice
hole into the basement. That’s when I realized that nothing but thick slabs of
wood support your entire house. Which is awesome yet scary at the same time. I
really thought there was cement, metal, something besides wood. But nope, only
wood to hold up every floor in your house.
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Derk's text to me after making a hole in the floor: Oh hey, laundry room. |
After this crazy weekend, we spent Monday night pounding floor
staples, patching the hole and getting ready for the electrician. Most of what
we’re doing is DIY, but we are hiring a few professionals to save us time and
energy. An electrician will be hooking up all of the new pendants, recessed
lighting and speakers. Then a handyman will be putting back all of the drywall
we tore down. But that’s it. The rest is
on us (and our dear family and friends who wish to help.)
So the good news is, we’re on schedule and everything is
going according to plan. There haven’t had any more ER visits and Fitz didn’t
fall through the hole in the floor. And our neighbors don’t hate us too much
yet. (We're still waiting for the HOA to send us citations for the obscene amount of trash bags and saw dust in our front yard though.)
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Three cheers for being on schedule! |