No Stain, No Gain

There is not much that is visually exciting going on right now. We've got the electrical 'roughed in' (I'm speakin' the lingo right there) but all you get to see is where the outlets are going to go. Oh and apparently the drain from our kitchen sink is so completely clogged it needs to be augured out. Yay. Thankfully this can all be done while we're blissfully unaware ('cept the eventual bill) and out of town.

We met the flooring guy today. We have Douglas Fir subflooring that doesn't appear to ever have been used as real flooring. Scott and I both feel we'd really like to re-use it, both from a 'green' standpoint and from the perspective of trying to maintain the character of our 1930 house. However, we have some staining from the adhesive that was used before, that may, or may not show up on the rest of the floor (see the top-most plank). We're going to take the week to think about it - but the rest of the example looks great! We're inclined to stick with it.

The Vision

So, I had a friend mention she'd like to see what the kitchen is going to end up looking like - what's the plan and vision? Good point, I said, it helps to know what we're working towards.
As I looked at the pdfs we had, I realized we don't have the final, final drawings in electronic form, but these from April get us reasonably close (give or take a few pull-outs and drawers).

Here's the basic plan (click on any of the pics to get a bigger view):

And here are the range and sink walls - the location of most things is basically staying the same - just lots more cabinet & countertop space, including a penisula. (We nixed the appliance garage, and extended the open cupboard up to the ceiling, and I think added some drawers in here somewhere).

This is the East wall, facing the street - formally the 'breakfast nook', which was never really used for breakfast, or any other meal for that matter. Now, we will have a window seat, flanked by cabinets, and an arch over it all to mimic the existing arches in the facing wall and the rest of the house. (The lower cabinet on the right is no longer going to be open.)

Credit for the drawings goes to Judy Kurtz of Larkspur Designs (who was a big help!). And Stinson Builders is our contractor (Jason Stinson, we know through friends and Camp du Nord).

So that's the vision and plan. Tomorrow we do an electrical walk-through and Friday we have our 2nd cabinet meeting, after which the above plans may get tweaked even more. And appliance choices and plumbing choices are due too (we're keeping our range and refrigerator, so not too much new there). It's getting real!

Demo 2

More and more demo pics! Turns out Scott took a bunch more photos than I realized (I was out of town during this phase) so here's some more pictures capturing the results of all that noise I missed. We did have lead down a few layers in the paint, so much of the demo had to be done all closed off from what we could see. No asbestos in the floor though! :)

The Demo - week 1

Day one of the project saw mostly the plumbing work in the basement. I wish I had a picture of the disgusting, moldy concrete sink that we got rid of to create all that debris!

Of course, in the planning process, one thing led to another and we found out we also have a leak in the 1st floor shower, so we had to have the piping and fixtures replaced as well.

Then demo on the cabinets began. They are now in our basement, conveniently blocking the way to our elliptical machine.



Day 3-4 - after a very loud couple of days, the kitchen is completely bare and open.

And there may even be usable wood flooring underneath it all!

By the end of week one, we have a new utility sink and a fairly sweet set-up in the basement for washing dishes. And our makeshift kitchen is not too bad either, thanks to the table - top oven and a hot plate (thanks Kate and Josh & Jenn!).

The "Before" kitchen

It all started with a plumbing problem. We were getting just a trickle of cold water in the kitchen, due to the crud and gunk built up in the old galvanized pipes. We wanted to replace all the old pipes, but due to the unusual configuration of our faucet coming directly out of the wall (see pics), in order to do that, we'd have to bust through the kitchen wall tile. And as long as we were going to do *that*, how about remodeling the entire kitchen?...... and so the story goes.

First, it helps to know what the kitchen used to look like. The 1930s kitchen had not been updated much over the last 80+ years, except for perhaps adding the lovely linoleum floor. The birch cabinets were in pretty good shape (and currently for sale, btw!) and it had a lot of character with the arches and the breakfast nook. What was great for character was less than desirable for storage and counter-top space. Here's a view of the old kitchen: