Kitchen Remodeling Project

So, for those who are interested in what really happens when you decide to build some 'sweat equity" into your home...I bring you the great kitchen remodeling project of 2008! This isn't one of those "we did it in 48 hours" tv shows - this is real people, real budget, real timeline. Things could very well go wrong, and there isn't a perky host to make it all better.

To say I'll bring you in from the beginning would be a bit of a fib. We've done a couple of small projects already - or more accurately, made a few purchases (a fridge, a stove, a hood, a sink - you know - small cheap stuff snort). But, the cool, scary and sexy stuff is just getting going... So strap on your tool belt and put on your safety glasses, because the plaster will fly (and likely tempers will flare, so bring your asbestos apron, too!).

For starters, here's what my kitchen looked like before:

Oh, alright, so I didn't bother to take good "before" pictures that don't show my kitchen full of booze and drunk people (there isn't a whole lot of time that it isn't). But I guess you get the drift: tiny space that people love to hang out in, yellow walls, old cabinets, a counter top that's slowly flaking away (yeah - flaking - we'll get back to that in a minute) oh, and:

a sink that's getting old, nasty and starting to clog a lot. EEew. The model, however, is lovely. She makes the sink look even worse. Some applause for Vana, please...

So, plan is: new cabinets, new sink, new counter tops, keep yellow walls and drunk friends. While we're at it, might as well modernize so that if and when we try to sell the place, people don't have feel they have to avoid references to Geico and sweep our stone-age tool fragments from under the furniture. So, new appliances (or new old appliances) and some upgrades such as a dishwasher (although I find my current 'dishwasher' to be fully functional and sex is cheaper than electricity), a garbage disposal (to avoid messes like the one above - eeeew) and a vent hood (so I don't turn the kitchen into a Hopi Sweat Lodge each time I cook). The end result should be eclectic, homey and (with any luck) slightly more functional. I hope we don't drive the drunk people out with all of our modern gadgetry, though!

Progress to date: BIG FREAKING MESSES MADE!

Removing the upper cabinets (see I told you my 'dishwasher' was sexy)...

Removing the counter top (yes, he's using a pneumatic chisel. It's hard stuff.)



So, the counter top was "flaky" because it was plaster or cement which had been poured over lath and then painted with some sort of enamel finish (likely lead based, tasty). Over the years, no doubt water had infiltrated the protecting layer, and as a result that layer was lifting, the porous cement was allowing the water through to the wood, which then expanded and contracted, causing the material to crack, letting in more water... Well, let's just say that we were experiencing a little riparian erosion right in my kitchen (I feel so privileged).

Now we fell better about ripping it out (because we probably could not have ever really repaired it). It also proved that the kitchen was pretty much original, because behind that was...brick.


Here's what the kitchen looks like today:

Guess the Mexican food restaurant down the street will be getting a lot more business from us over the next weeks. Lets just hope the cabinet maker doesn't delay things any more! Watch for more installations of "a new kitchen in an old house"...