Kitchen Remodel 2011: The Big Reveal

Some of you probably recall The Kitchen Remodel of 2011. We shared our progress along the way. This project was not easy or clean. But before we knew it we had a blank slate. Then we started to rebuild.

I bring you the newly remodeled, fully functional, vastly improved, and energy efficient I might add, Reed Family Kitchen:

Looking from the kitchen into the dining room

Dining room

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen

The back splash and counter top

Granite sink

Window looking into garage

Door to basement, side cabinet, fridge, pantry

Door to basement, side cabinet, fridge

This picture was a bit of an after thought, not staged well (dog butt), shows the pantry

An eye test... Which do you prefer, #1 or #2?

Sometimes I forget how much I dont miss this.

Because I get to wake up to this instead!

It's been a while, what's the latest?

This will be quick. We made some progress over the last week. We officially have a fully functioning kitchen! I haven't cooked anything yet though.

We still have a lot of details to tend to. Such as the ends of the countertops, finishing the floor near the cabinets, light switches, trim. We made progress last night on the backsplash... we picked out a few and brought them home. I believe this one is the winner:

That's all for now. Once we're all done I'll do the final reveal!

Can you tell what we did last night??

If you said "added hardware" then you are very observant.

Kitchen update: What day is it?

I can't remember where I left off. As of Thursday we had everything torn out. Friday after work we began our painting. We did a coat of primer, went to the hardware store (for the 468th time), had some dinner, and then painted our first coat of Milk Toast on the walls.

Somewhere around 12:30 or 1am we went to bed. Saturday morning we woke up around 7:30 and got ready for Uncle Sean who is the brains behind this operation.

After some careful planning, moving electrical outlets, and 2-3 trips to the hardware store the cabinets started going in!

Then more cabinets and counter tops...

This is where we stopped on Saturday.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we needed to get Griffin in Lansing. He spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Brunmeier's (where he had an awesome time, he is still sleeping it off). We needed to do some other chores too: grocery shopping, mow the lawn, etc. Today is Monday, I took the day off to be available for Uncle Sean to stop by. He put in the last cabinet (we had 1 cabinet delivered in the wrong size so I had to pick up the proper cabinet today), worked on our sink and drain, put our fridge in place, and mudded some holes in the walls. More progress! Tonight we are hoping to get the hardware on, install some shelves in the tall cabinet, and finish painting. We're getting closer!

Dining room progress

Night #4: Demo complete. Could it be?

It is now Day 5. We are totally sore and tired. Last night we finished tear out. Yesterday I had to work at home to wait for the cabinets and appliances to be delivered. I decided I couldn't focus knowing there was work to be done in the kitchen so I took most of the day off to paint the dining room ceiling, some beams, and begin priming. I only painted 1 thing that I wasn't supposed to. It's going to be fine, I have a plan. I have to say though, I am less than impressed with Lowe's Valspar ceiling paint. Hopefully the wall paint is a different story.

Gutted!

It's very echoey in here now.

It wasn't so easy to move the fridge, this is as far as we could take it...

Notice my handy work on the ceiling and the beams? No more throw backs to the 60's.

Tonight we will paint all of the walls. Tomorrow Uncle Sean and Jeremy (right brother?) are coming and we're going to install!

Night #3: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

We knew we would have some challenges last night. Two of the hardest pieces to remove: the cabinet with the stove top in it and the cabinet with the oven in it. We had to first turn off the gas to each. Turns out, in 1964 they didn't put levers on the shut offs so instead you have to use all of your might on a little nubbin and try to get it perpendicular. Okay, so we figured that part out. I guess since all of the pipes have been screwed together for 40+ years they don't want to be separated, ever. We had to get crafty. To save any of you from worrying I won't go into full details but let's just say we got the appliances out and we didn't blow up our home or even get light headed.

Recall what we started with. You can see the oven in the back left corner and the stove top in the front right corner.

GONE!

More progress

Rust orange wall oven is no longer.

In case you are curious. Tappan wall ovens from the 60's are HEAVY! Josh was proud of me that I was able to help him lift it. I'm glowing with personal satisfaction. Now that we have the appliances out, the remainder of the cabinets should be pretty easy. We'll need to be patient with the upper cabinet that has the hood attached. There is some electrical there and we'll have a big hole in the ceiling where it vents into the attic. Haven't figured that one out just yet, might wait for Uncle Sean. And by the way Sean, our workspace is very clean, I do in fact vacuum with the shop vac and my regular vacuums every night when we are done. I also dispose of any waste we created.

I grew up doing projects with my mom, can you tell?

Night #2: Starting to get a little gross

What kind of glue did they use in the 1960's

Sink removed, counter top off,  2 base cabinets gone

If you don't ever plan to remove your kitchen cabinets, do yourself a favor and don't think about what is under there. Gross.

Getting a little closer

The hardest part of last night was removing the cast iron sink. It fell through the hole which made lifting it a challenge. We are being very patient and after some trial and error decided to take the counter off to get it out. It may not look like much progress, but I tell you, this is a lot of work! We've put in about 5 hours on demo now because we just have the evenings.

I suppose I should admit that Josh had been working for a while to disconnect the pipes from the sink and remove the disposal. I walked up and poured my water down the drain. Which means I poured my water through a hole onto the floor. Good job.

The Kitchen: Before pics and night 1 progress

Before

Before

Before

Doors removed, 2 upper cabinets GONE!

Exposing the lovely mint green paint

We have a long way to go people.

The Kitchen Remodel

We're doing it! 2011 is the year of the kitchen remodel. We plan to start demo the first week of May. You haven't seen many pictures of my cabinets or counter tops because I'm not proud. Here is our current situation:

I didn't remove the clutter because there is always clutter due to lack of cabinets and no dishwasher. And that little guy standing in the middle, he gets to stay. Compare to picture #1 below.

Orange appliances = awesome. Compare to picture #2 below.

We will take everything out and the new layout will look something like this:

Picture #1

Picture #2

The cabinets will look something like this:

We'll add a few appliances that look like this:

And some counter tops that look like this (sort of):

We'll do most of the work ourselves with the help of Uncle Sean. I can't wait to get started!