Kitchen Remodel, Phase Two, Day 15

It’s been fifteen days since we began Phase Two. Please note that it doesn’t mean we’ve been working on the kitchen for 15 straight days.

You are looking at the last meal to be cooked on this cooktop. It is coming out today, as is this whole counter top and cabinet base.

On Wednesday, we will remove the island. At that point, we will be without a functioning kitchen. Susan and I, but mostly Susan, have agreed that we will allow ourselves to go without a kitchen for a period of one month. That means the clock starts ticking for March First.

So now the nerves are being exposed.

5:45PM: We are done for the day and we are done with destruction. And I mean, we are completely done with Phase Two. We got very ambitious and completed everything left to do to clear the kitchen of cabinets. It all went very smoothly. The most difficult part was getting cabinets up around the water drain and the water supply lines.

Here are some pictures.

NOW the clock is ticking. We have established March First as our day to reestablish a working kitchen.

Remodeling Destruction

 We had a successful day of destruction.

Randy and Karen came over to lend a hand and we really tore through it. The desk is out and the oven is out. All the remaining flooring is out.

We managed to coordinate and get Randy's truck loaded for the dump whilst we loaded my truck with the oven and a bunch of cabinet cupboards to donate to Habitat for Humanity.

We also had a visit from Jerry who is guiding me through all the electrical work. We are getting that worked out and he'll be back in about a week and a half.

We ended the day with beer at the Hub followed by a nice soak in the hot tub.

The temperatures are supposed to dip substantially over the next few days so it looks like it's still winter.

Prep Day

We are trying to get things in order for our big day of destruction tomorrow.

Susan is packing up the remaining plates, cups, pots and pans and all the assorted cooking equipment we have acquired over the last 20 years.

I made a small hole in the Laundry Room ceiling to get an idea of what's up there. I had Susan tap on the floor with a hammer while I went to the basement and did my best approximation of where the tapping was. I'm happy to say I was pretty close.

I still have a lot of hand sawing to do to remove a good long run of drywalled ceiling. The hope is that run will give me access to do some wiring and the ducting for the down draft fan we just purchased.

Later: I have just come up from the crawl space under the kitchen. I have the shopvac in there and I'm trying to clean up all the cobwebs and lint that have had free reign for...you guessed it, 20 years.

I'm heading out right now to the General Store to buy a new dryer hose. I touched the old one trying to move some sheets of lint around and it crumbled.

More Later: Okay, I’m back and all is well in the crawl space. Along with a shopvac full of lint, I gathered another five gallon bucket full of lint...one might say, 20 years of lint.

I could probably go back for more but I think I have the crawl space sufficiently cleaned out.

I think I shall end my day with a visit to the hot tub.

Much More Laterer: After the hot tub for me and a nap for Susan, we rallied and went down to our neighbors house for Thirsty Thursday. We had a great time talking with our neighbors and getting caught up on all the gossip.

One of the main reasons I like to go to Thirsty Thursday is to avoid being the subject of the gossip.

Remodeling Day Off

We took a day off from remodeling to attend to our financial health. We drove over to Coeur d'Alene to see our Financial Advisor, Glenn.

While we did not have a very good year (Thank you Stock Market), we are still cruising along and not in any danger of financial insolvency yet. We are both managing to live on our Social Security payment. I get a little help from my 401K, which is why I have it.

Afterwards, we went to Costco where we purchased gas for $3.09. The cheapest we found here in town was $3.50. Then we went to lunch at Paul Bunyan's. It was okay, not great.

On our return trip to Spokane, we stopped at the Cabinet Pro warehouse in the Industrial Park to check out how big a package of boxes we had. I think we can fit them in the garage except for the really tall ones which we'll bring right into the house and put them in the Living Room.

After a quick pass through the car wash, we went to Fred's Appliance and bought a down draft fan for the kitchen. It was a G.E. product marked down from $1199.00 to about $900.00.

We got that home and unloaded into the aforementioned Living Room just in time to take a nap.

I have several small items to attend to tomorrow before our big day on Friday of removing more cabinets, the oven and the remaining flooring under the fridge.

It looks as though I am going to have to open up the ceiling in the laundry room in order to lay the exhaust fan pipe as well as get access for some wiring.

It's getting to crunch time were we will be without the convenience of a kitchen. That means no sink (we'll use the bathroom) no cook top (we'll use the toaster oven and microwave) and no storage space. We need that period to last as short a time as possible. Perhaps two weeks.

I told Susan that tomorrow night is her last chance to use the old oven. It's coming out on Friday.

I would be enjoying this journey if I wasn't so uncertain about what we're doing...skill wise. 

Remodeling Abides

We made some really good progress today that I did not anticipate.

I made really quick work of removing the remaining soffit so I thought we should adventure on and get part of the cabinet down.

It took us about an hour to unload the contents and stow them away. We are taking a lot of wine glasses to our church basement sale.

It was a bit of a struggle because the screws that secured the cabinet were mostly immovable. But, once we realized we weren't trying to save the cabinets, the sawsall did it's work and the cabinet came out pretty easily.

Once the cabinet was removed, we took a trip to the dump to unload all the drywall we had.

We have been vacillating over the cooktop. We started to think we might go with an induction cooktop. It's the hot new thing. But it's not the economical new thing. We stopped by a local appliance store to check out induction. They are an easy $1500 item just for the cook top. It will cost $1100.00 to lay the gas line and we already have the gas cooktop. We think we are best off to go with our original plan to use the gas cooktop.

That means I am likely tearing out the ceiling in the laundry room to get access for the gas line. It will also help me lay the duct work for the exhaust fan.

Kitchen Remodel Continued

It's been a week since I started the kitchen demo. I didn't make as much progress last week as I had hoped but...oh well.

Today I continued taking out the soffit.

I made it half way across the kitchen.

I'll finish the last section tomorrow. I haven't taken out all the framing of the soffits yet because I think they are holding up the cabinets. 

We have our friends Randy and Karen coming on Friday to help with the destruction. Our main goal is to get everything on the south wall out next Monday. One week!

While I worked on the kitchen, Susan worked on the stenciling in the TV Room.

She made great progress. She wanted to completely finish the south wall so we could get the TV back into place.

It looks really good.  

Kitchen Remodel, Phase 2, Day 2

 My goal for today was to get the soffit down. It actually went pretty easily. However, it was a giant mess.

The next project is to attack some walls. I need to move a couple of light switches and add a switch or two.

Kitchen Remodel, Phase Two, Day One

This is it! 

This is the day we start on the second phase of the Kitchen Remodel. The first phase was tearing up the floor. Phase Two will be removing the various cabinets and getting the drain and gas lines in place. Phase Three will be installing the new cabinets and Phase Four will be the Flooring.

Also during Phase Two, there will be some electrical work.

Today we are taking out the cabinets in the pantry. Here are some before photographs.

1:35PM: We have been working for about two hours to empty the cabinets of all the stuff. A good portion has gone in the garbage. Another large portion is going to our church basement sale. I found a can of whole white potatoes that had a "Best by" date of 2011.

5:17PM: Whew! I’m glad that’s over. I was hoping to get the cabinets out in one mostly intact piece. That was not to be the case however.

The question now is whether I cut them up for firewood or just take them to the dump. I'm thinking I'll go with the firewood route. We already have a rich history of the burning the parts of the house when we remodel. Might as well continue.

Here are some final photos to peruse. 

Rain & Kitchen Remodeling Date

I am not sure how much rain we have received in the last few days. Not as bad as what they have been getting in California. Their three year drought has come to an end. At least until later this year when they say it's back. They've had lots of flooding and several weather related deaths. Still, we have had three days of pretty constant rain. WAIT! I'll go check my rain gage.

Well, how about that. Isn't that interesting. The gage is almost full. Unfortunately, I don't remember the last time I emptied the gage. However, it's not completely full so I'm guessing that a good portion of the measurement came in the last three days.

Anyway, the nearly 14 inches of snow we had on the ground is all but gone. My snow stake is just about kaput.

Fortunately, the moisture has been falling in the mountains as snow so Mt. Spokane is still doing great. Although it looked like it was raining up there this morning.

So that is my very confusing weather update for the day.

February Second is the day slated for the plumber to come and start laying the drain line for the new sink in the kitchen. That gives us three weeks to get the cabinets out of the way.

We have decided that we will start with cabinet removal in the pantry on Monday.

So I am a little nervous because this means it is about to happen. The thing that makes me nervous is our history with past projects. One bathroom took three years. The other bathroom took two years. If we are without a kitchen for an extended period of time, I'm going to have a very unhappy wife.

A Post About Nothing

I feel compelled to write something today but at this point, I’m unsure what to write.

We’re about to head to the Mall for our walk. We haven’t been very religious about walking. I walked the park last week and it still was precarious out there. Lots of chances to slip on the ice. I find that now I’m no longer in my 30’s, or even my 40’s, slipping on the ice is something I want to avoid. 

Perhaps something will come from the walk to give me interesting content to place here. But I don’t think you should hold your breath.

2:30 PM: We are back! We ended up being out for a while. It took us just over 30 minutes to walk our 2.25 miles. I was out of breath at the end. I wasn’t holding it…just out of it. The good news is that I recover quickly.

From the Mall, we went to Michael’s, the craft store. Susan is looking for paint for the stenciling she wants to do in the TV Room. We also went to Hobby Lobby. I get to feeling very creative when I’m in those stores. I was looking at canvas and oil paints and felt like painting.

Instead, I’m going to take those creative juices and work in the Carriage House. Maybe I’ll do some paper mache.

Something

The train has been put away. The tree is on the front porch awaiting it's trip to it's final destination.

We still have some stuff to stow. We have a lot of Christmas gear.

Things are slowly getting back to normal.

I had a plumber come by today and give me an estimate for getting a gas line into the kitchen. This quote was about $2,400.00. 

I have at least one other company coming by to give me a quote but I don't have an appointment set yet.

We need to get over to the mall for our daily walk. The only other thing on my agenda is to do something in the Carriage House. I have yet to determine what that something is. It's going to be moving something to a better spot or throwing something away. But it will be something!    

Warm New Year

It continues to be unseasonably warm. We had all this snow on the ground and now we have had a substantial melt. My poor snow stake in the backyard is down to 4 inches.

I probably shouldn’t be complaining about the temperatures. This is much better than that deep freeze we had two weeks ago. But I am of the opinion that if we’re going to have Winter, let’s have Winter.

The other reason I am happy about the melt is that I let my snow blow area get a little out of control. This will help clean up the sidewalks before the next round of snow…if it ever comes.

I got all the Christmas lights down from the front of the house. That went quite smoothly. We still have to clean up the Living Room and take down the tree. I’m going to take the train down later tonight.

So here’s a final look at the Christmas Train.

Obligatory Post

I believe it is obligatory to end and start the year with a post to your Blog. After that, you can just coast. But at least people will know you're still alive.

And so here is my start of the year post.

It's New Year's Day so we have taken it easy. We are starting to get to point where we will be working on the kitchen but we're trying to get organized before the destruction begins.

So I did a little messing around in the Carriage House, Susan took a nap, and I got some nice photos of the Christmas House before it all get packed away.

So that's what we did!