Day: September 6, 2006

It seems like a long time since we’ve written anything substantial in the houseblog—and that’s because, after two bathroom remodels and a full HVAC system replacement, we were on Houseblog Hiatus. But no longer. We’ve been removing bits and pieces of the kitchen over the last month and this weekend everything else came out. Yes, we’re in the throes of a kitchen remodel—but this is going to be a remodel on a budget. Alas, no granite for us.

You could really say that this project started shortly after we moved in, when we realized that we couldn’t get our new fridge into the kitchen. As part of that effort, I ripped out the cabinet above the fridge and realized that the plaster ceiling above it was in pieces. Since then we’ve dealt with freezing pipes, leaks from ice dams through the kitchen ceiling, kitchen cabinets that don’t close and drawers that shower sawdust on the cabinet areas below each time they are opened and closed…

So we decided that it was time to bite the bullet and remodel. I wrote about the general scope a while ago, but didn’t get into any details. So here is the plan:

1. Set up temporary kitchen in the dining room, complete with fridge, microwave, toaster, coffee pot, and hot plate. Done, and let me tell ya, it’s compact. As they say, we are camping with a mortgage…
2. Rip out all the old cabinets. Done, finally (see the photoset).
3. Have plumber reroute the sink plumbing and the gas line. In progress.
4. Remove the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.
5. Install new cabinets.
6. Hook up old stove and sink and new dishwasher (finally) and fan in their new locations (a picture is forthcoming).
7. New countertops.

And now we’re on the way. The photoset gives some interesting glimpses of the things that we’ve found in the demolition, and I will annotate each photo over the next day or two.