Walls. It's Nice to Have Them.

Hallelujah, it's starting to look like a room again!  This week, the drywall went up, was mudded and sanded, and brought my house into an absolute state of FILTH.  Even with the tarps up, that drywall dust just seeps its way through every nook and cranny.  I'm pretty sure it's alive and has figured out a way to permeate plastic like some sort of intergalactic plasma goo.  I can even feel the dust in between my toes, with socks AND shoes on.  Yuck.

Oh kitchen, how I cannot wait to walk through your doorway again.

The new doorway studs into the living room have been closed up, and the walls and ceiling have gotten a coat of primer.  Things are moving in the right direction!!

Is heaven on the other side of the plastic?
That glowing blu orb sure looks like it.

The outlets are finally at even heights!
I can sleep easy tonight.

My window wall into the dining room has been temporarily closed up to help tame the dust.
What's taped up there, you ask?
Only my cabinet layout...it's finally time!!

The floors are also going in- I bought salvaged hardwood from the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit - hooray for less environmental waste!  Everyone is jumping on the "salvaged goods" bandwagon - check out this great article from the Huffington Post to see what some of the incredibly talented people in Detroit are doing with salvaged materials from the city!!

Guitars from Detroit wood?  Check.

Because the floors were removed from someone's else's house, they aren't in perfect shape, and the boards are shorter than most brand new board lengths would be.  Once installed, they'll be sanded down and refinished to match (as closely as we can get it anyway) the existing hardwoods that they will butt up against.  I'm excited about all of this- because they aren't "brand new", I have zero worries about dropping a knife or splashing bacon grease on them.  They'll already be worn in, so I can enjoy them to the fullest! And let's just hope that when I DO drop a knife, it stabs into the hardwood, and not into my foot.  I have squeamish nightmares that this will happen one day.

It's been moved from the basement to the kitchen floor...baby steps!

The appliances also were delivered this week, so now I've got my full new kitchen sitting in my garage.  We unpacked the cabinets from the boxes, with only one fatality- one cabinet door was scuffed up.  Lowe's has promised to deliver a new door within 5-7 business days, and the scuff won't delay installation at all- thank goodness for small favors!

They're crying to be brought inside.
And I'm crying for that white stove to be sold.  Come on, Craigslist!!

Things are moving along! Hopefully we'll see some great progress within the next week- removing and rebuilding the guts of the kitchen is over...on to the pretty stuff!!!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race...and makes me impatient.

I'm sure you're all waiting on pins and needles for something exciting and dazzling to happen with this kitchen.  So am I.

This past week, we passed the electrical, plumbing, and mechanical rough inspections, which means the walls are now being closed up.  While that means we've been making good progress, it isn't especially exciting in terms of how my house looks.  It just means more tarps are now draped across my doorways.

Should there be a tarp on that chair?
Yeah, probably.

How is it possible that this space looks even smaller
WITHOUT the walls???

I'm stuck.  Can't use the front door, can't use the side door, and while the guys are working, I can't even get into the dining room to heat up a cup of tea.  Life's tough when you're lucky enough to be getting a new kitchen, right?

Even though I've been banished to the back of the house, and there's nothing pretty to show quite yet, we did find something interesting!  Stapled behind the door jamb were two of the original permits to the house:

Sorry online creeps, I photoshopped out my address.
You'll now have to do 1.5 seconds of sleuthing work to find it.

Pretty neat, right?  Even though they are old and tattered, I plan to frame them and keep them in the kitchen- I think this old house deserves to keep her historical documents, don't you?

By the end of this week, the floors (and maybe the cabinets!) will be going in, and I'll have some fun pictures to share...eek! 

I Have No Kitchen.

Well, it only took 4 hours on a Saturday morning for my kitchen to go kaput.  Minutes before hammer met wall, I began to feel a bit guilty about what was about to happen.  Someone built a kitchen that has lasted for almost 70 years, and here I was, about to destroy it.  It might not have been functional for modern day living, but it WAS solid.

Look at the inside of those cupboards...I will miss that pop of teal blue.
Miss Mamie was a color rockstar when she lived here.

The hesitation was short lived, though.  Dreams of a dishwasher and actual counter space becoming reality trumped any guilt I felt about destroying someone else's work.

And just like that...

...my kitchen disappeared.

When Dave came home to an empty room that afternoon, his first response was, "This place stinks".  He's right.  Uncovering wood and insulation that hasn't seen the light of day in 66 years doesn't smell like roses.  It smells....old.  I'm just waiting for the smell of new wood, fresh paint, and wet varnish to fill our nostrils with the pleasant aroma of toxic cell killing freshness.  It'll come soon enough. Till then, we breathe deeply to inhale what are most likely asbestos and lead particles.  (Don't worry, Mom...the dust was properly contained and removed during demo- I'm just making jokes.  Promise.)

So what surprises has this house revealed thus far? 

1.  Wires hidden behind one cabinet bulkhead that need to be moved.

I forgot to snap a picture of the wires before they were moved.  Whoopsie.
Instead, you get more holes and future range hood draft ducting.
Bonus? If you look closely, you can see remnants of all of that glorious
mid-century metal mesh that holds the horsehair cement and plaster to the walls.
Old houses are where it's at, yo.

2.  Pipe hidden behind a second bulkhead that needs to be moved.

Well, umm, once again, my contractor was too quick,
 and got to the pipe before I had a chance to take a picture.
At least I know he's doing his job, right?

3.  Wallpaper!

You'll have to pretend you're in a drug induced haze while looking at this picture.
The only strip of wallpaper that was left was stuck behind molding that was ripped off,
only to be promptly covered over with plastic to contain the dust.
I can't even gain access to the kitchen without asking permission,
so fat chance I was going to get a clear picture just for you all!!

4.  The kitchen wall cutout (not original to the house) was never properly supported by a header.  My closet is directly above this wall.  Could it have caved way at some point?  Maybe.  Wouldn't that have been an absolute mess?!

The ceiling was bowed about 3/8" in the center...yikes.

Whew...all better.
Notice something else that's now missing, though?
The ceiling.  Had to make a sacrifice to get all of my new lights wired in.

Next up?  Finishing the non pretty stuff...electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work.  Snooze fest.  Wake me up when the cabinets arrive.

Sorry, Not Sorry...to see you go (and other passive-aggressive titles)

Hey you guys!!  It's finally happening...the Great Kitchen Renovation of 2015!!  I can't even BEGIN to tell you how excited I am to say goodbye to my current kitchen.  Before demolition begins next week, let's take a (very short) tour of my (very small) kitchen, shall we?

There's a small window each day when my sink doesn't look like this.
It's elusive, and hard to catch.  Consider yourself lucky if you've ever  seen the
bottom of the sink.

There are many things about this kitchen that just drive me BATTY.  At the top of the list?  No dishwasher.  Unless you count this guy:

Christmas Card 2014 Outtake.  He's alllll mine, ladies.  Back off.
(What a good sport he is, right?)

Right up there with the lack of a dishwasher?  This stove:

Why is it so BIG?
(The Office has forever ruined us with, "That's what she said," jokes, hasn't it?)

It's huge...40 inches of mammoth hunk o' electric metal.  This beast is being replaced by a beautiful gas convection slide in range with 5, count 'em, FIVE burners.  Dave is very excited about this fifth burner.  Whatever floats your kitchen boat, babe.

Next on my list of annoyances is my lack of useable counter space.  This is all I've got.  Twenty seven and a half inches.  TWENTY SEVEN AND A HALF INCHES.  Let's move on.

White, on white, on white?  This kitchen delivers.

Oh, this guy?

Despite the small stature of this fridge,
an amazing amount of food still manages to get lost in the back of it.

Yeah, he's an apartment sized gem.  Can't replace him without ripping out all of the cabinets on this wall, though- they're one continuous built in piece. 

We've already discussed the flooring issues in my last post, but let's see a quick picture for old time's sake, shall we?

Absolutely disgusting.  I am embarrassed.  Completely embarrassed.

Hasta la vista, baby.  You're getting the boot.

RIP: 1949-2015

See ya!

Up next?  New layout plans!!