Our Next Major Project In The New House
"The Kitchen"
The kitchen started out like this....very old, very run down and very dirty....ugh
They had
ripped the ceiling out when they added the upper level.
And throughout
the remodel, they never removed the old window.
After she moved out, it looked like this....still very old, still very run down but a
little cleaner....;-)
Now that we've been here for two weeks, it looks like this...the outside wall has been ripped
out all the way down to and even including some of the floor that was rotten.
Then we found
a "deal"....a very nice couple who live off Brownsboro Rd are remodeling their
kitchen and had listed their kitchen in the paper and my mom, "the best deal
finder ever", called and told us about it....we got all of these kitchen
cabinets, the countertops, the two built in ovens, the cook top and the range hood
for $1000.00...money very well spent! They are beautiful solid oak cabinets and though we
had in mind a much lighter color of wood for our kitchen, we can always strip and
stain
these or even paint them white...for now, they are a terrific buy just when we need it!
Here is our
makeshift kitchen with a coffeepot, a microwave and that's about it...all the
new plumbing for the new washer and dryer had just been run so this "kitchen"
was about to get much smaller...lol....we also have a
new grill in the backyard that helps too...;-)
Tony, our
terrific plumber working on the new kitchen plumbing.
Michael rented
a heat gun that goes up to 2000 degrees and pulled up all the old nasty tile
from the floor....there were two layers! Then we had the "stickiness" to
deal with....not to worry, we covered it with baby powder!!!
"The Tool
Cabinet"
And that's how
it sits for now....Bruce will be back on Tuesday to lay the new floor and set in
the wiring and then we get the new cabinets on Wednesday evening of this week...we should
have a smashing new kitchen by next weekend!!! ;-)
Michael and Bruce brought the kitchen cabinets home in a U-Haul.
...and just
when Michael had managed to get the garage door to close...lol
...it was the only
place with plenty of room for the new cabinets...
Karyla and
I watch as they unload....
The
cabinets are a honey color.
Thursday
afternoon when I got home from work, Bruce already had the entire kitchen rewired and they
were stabilizing the floor joists where the building contractor had sawed out
slots for the old wiring to go instead of drilling holes through them....go
figure!
CORRECT WAY TO RUN WIRING....
INCORRECT WAY TO RUN WIRING....HOW
DUMB!!
The way Bruce does wiring....lol...just kidding Bruce, you do EXCELLENT work....thank you so much...;-)
Can't
hardly wait to get it all installed.
And I get
to be Chef Tel tonight grilling for the guys while they work into the
night...;-)
This is just like playing with
Lego's and making everything fit just right.
The good news is that we get to keep
the kitchen window! {I'm NOT kidding!}
Jim & Robbie brought over the
drywall hanger for us to borrow.
We won't be using the old counter
tops for these cabinets but they do alot to help you see the layout. This
weekend, Michael is working on getting the plumbing set, then the drywall on the
outside wall and ceiling, then the floor, THEN the cabinets get to come back in
the house for good....;-)
The master at work...*grins*
With a great deal of the purple stuff and 3 more trips to Lowe's...we finally have all the kitchen plumbing complete...;-)
It took him almost 2 days, but in addition to the kitchen plumbing, he also connected all of the the vents out the roof of the house. It's ready to go now and just waiting for some faucets...we sure hope there are no leaks....of course, with all that purple stuff and glue, how could there POSSIBLY be any leaks...;-)
Okay....here we are one week later and the kitchen has had quite alot of work completed...the ceiling has the first drywall in over five years....
the old window on the back kitchen wall had to be removed and the pantry door
was also covered with drywall.
This was the original back door of the house.
This is what you look like after you sand down an entire kitchen and then remove
your mask...lol
Now all the walls have been textured and painted.
Just a little comparison for you....
the kitchen before.....
and the kitchen
after.....well, so far......lol
The floor comes next....;-)
We finally
decided on vinyl flooring and William and I brought it home in his mom's pickup
truck. He's never let us down yet...he's made drywall trips and plumbing
trips and this just happened to be a flooring trip. Thanks so much William
and thanks to mom...;-)
This is the
luan over the subfloor...it's 1/8" thick and the floor had to be sanded first...this will
help our vinyl flooring wear evenly.
Both of the
doorways were a mess and Michael had to patch the wood with plywood.
Finally the
luan flooring is in place.
All the
nails had to be covered with crack filler and then we had to unroll the vinyl
and then turn it.
And, of
course it had to be trimmed on two sides...the kitchen measures 10.5' X 14.5'
It's
gorgeous and we just love it!! The cabinets come in tomorrow morning....;-)
Michael got up bright and early this morning and started carrying in
cabinets.....what you see here is a "pretend snack bar"...we're just testing it
out to see how we will like it...we think we like it alot!!
This is the pantry, the cabinet for
the double ovens, a cabinet and upper cabinet to house the microwave.
Everything has to line up and fit just right.
I swear, this is just like playing
with "tinker toys", only larger...lol
The "low" cabinet in the center is
the one that will go above the range hood and cook top.
This is looking in the doorway from
the living room.
and this is looking in the doorway
from the back door.
Email us with comments, suggestions and criticisms too,
but please be gentle...lol
This site was last updated 01/08/04