The Kitchen: Part I

The wife and I have been slowly remodeling our kitchen since the day we moved in to our home almost three years ago.  It was a small cramped space hemmed in by four walls and a giant peninsula that took up 55% of the available floor space (I did the math).  Over time we made some minor adjustments (ripping down a wall to connect the kitchen and dinning room) and some major adjustments (ripping down another wall, retitling the floor, installing a dishwasher and island in the place of the peninsula) but left the ancient cabinets and most of the appliances in place.

After approximately 1 year, 3 months, 21 days, and 2 hours of me making the case to completely overhaul the kitchen, the wife relented so I immediately grabbed a hammer and threw it through one of the remaining kitchen walls (that is the custom that signifies the beginning of a new job in our household, it's rather permanent).   

That weekend I convinced my father to come down so we could buy cabinets from Lowes.  In an effort to save the all mighty dollar we went with stock cabinets rather than custom.  While much cheaper, this would cause some serious problems down the road.  Additionally, if I never again hear someone at Lowes explain "Lowes is a warehouse, we only have what you see on the shelves" it'll be too soon.

Once construction (or destruction) began we immediately recruited the most useful family members to complete key jobs.  Johnny (the 5 year old nephew) and Jordan (the 2 year old niece) came over to pull the the wall oven out and remove the wall that contained it (their dad and mom came too but honestly Johnny was way more useful than his parents, Jordan not so much).  Note to all aunts and uncles; When attempting destruction jobs with 5 year olds, give them toy hammer, the real thing is far too nerve racking as it seems they are always inches from whacking themselves in the noggin.  After 4 hours of "hard work" the kids left and our kitchen was minus one cooking implement and another wall.

Then the real fun began because the bulk of the kitchen work was done over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Dad showed up on Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) to begin old cabinet removal.  We'll pick up the story from there in the next post!