Saturday, December 22, 2012

Gutted

The kitchen has officially been gutted.
We kind of started demo-ing on a whim but it was probably the best decision we made. Hurricane Sandy was on her way and we were bored and stuck in the house. We figured we would start tackling that lovely faux stone wall since we couldn't really go anywhere anyway. This made a much bigger mess than we initially thought it would because we didn't realize there was wire lath and cement behind the stone. Here's Greg at the very start of this endeavor, so unknowing and innocent- 

About an hour or two into this project we lost power. But we persevered, Greg smashing while I bagged it up, figuring we would have power back soon. Well, we didn't get power back that day, or the next, or even that week...actually, it would be 12 days before we got power back. So maybe not the best idea to start a kitchen renovation in the midst of a super storm, but it did give us that extra little push to take the demo all the way. Plus it made a much bigger mess than anticipated, dust and faux brick were everywhere. We figured since we couldn't use the kitchen, or really stay at our house at all, we might as well just rip it all out. So we did. With work closed for 2 days Greg was able to get most of the demo done fairly quickly and we ended up with the room looking like this within the first couple days-

Crazytown. Can't say I was sad to see it go. I even got to chuck a few cabinets in the dumpster myself and I have to say, it felt pretty damn good. We've been moving at a steady pace ever since- electric, plumbing, framing, sheetrocking...and of course the fun stuff that I get to do- picking out cabinets, countertops, tile, sink, etc...We are about a month and half in now and probably a week out from the floor going down and two weeks out from actually installing the cabinets. Not too bad. It is a little slow moving because Greg is doing all the work himself (except for electric and some plumbing) and obviously he still has his own full time job to go to, so he has been spending every spare minute of his nights and weekends to get it done. He is really doing an amazing job of making my vision come true. 
And actually not having kitchen isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.The mess that has been created is bothering me more than anything. We haven't been able to use our living room this whole time because it has to be plastic-ed off since it is open to the kitchen. With that our dining room has become the main dumping ground for the entire contents of our kitchen as well as our makeshift cooking/eating area. Eek. 
In the end my excitement for a new kitchen is far outweighing any of the inconveniences this renovation has caused. By the end of this weekend- so just in time for Christmas- all of the spackle and sanding should be done which is super exciting because that means we can get back into our livingroom and start living a little more normally again. 
I can't wait to share more of our plans and details. I feel really happy with all of the choices we have made so far and I'm psyched to see it all come together.