kitchen reno #1

My husband gave me the "Go Ahead" to start renovations on our kitchen.  When we moved in, late summer 2009, it was on the 5 year plan, and that was just for new flooring, and to move the peninsula to be flush with the wall. 3 1/2 years later, it's a total gut job.  Our house was built about 1950, his family has always lived here.  And it's always been expected the next generation will live here, after the parents have gotten all the kids out of the house, and are ready to build a big new house in town.  I don't want to live in town, our big new house will be further back on the farm, allowing us more privacy.  Our house has been pretty well maintained, but not so much has been done to Improve upon it. Before we moved in, we pulled up all the carpet on the main floor, except the kitchen, because there was hardwood underneath everywhere, except the kitchen, and had it refinished... it's beautiful. The water lines were all full of gunk, but I imagine after 60 years, my body plumbing might get full of gunk too.  There was a leak in the laundry room water disposal line, so it got wraped in towels.  Some old galvanized pipe to our main floor bathroom had sweated so much, it leaked on the celing tiles in the basement, so they got wraped in insullation.  It's all getting replaced. Now it's a big project, not just a kitchen gut job.
   We are redoing the plumbing to the entire house, apperently our water lines all back feed, which is why it take about 20 minutes to get hot water to our main floor bathroom sink.  All the wiring to the laundry room (directly below the kitchen), has been replaced.  More lighting in our hall way, closing a door from the living room to the hall way, and one from the dining room to the kitchen, opening up an archway from the kitchen to the living room, new wiring in the kitchen (all new), insullation in the two exterior walls on the kitchen, new flooring, new cabinets, new fixtures, new counter tops, and new appliances, and new flooring for the stairs that come off the kitchen and lead down to our basement. And I think I'll have spent just more than my husband's new semi truck, and new semi trailer (maybe not that much), cost.  So, without a kitchen, I've gotten creative about cooking.  I'll post about the cooking on another post...  because I'm getting really good. :)

Here are a few pictures of where we are, so far, in our remodel:

This picture, is a "Before" (it's a mess, because I'd started packing up).  A 12'' soffet, on 8' ceilings, makes for a low height between the counter tops, and upper cabinets.  We will take the cabinets all the way up, and have the standard 18" backsplash.

Between the stove, and the refrigerator, is a doorway, to what was originally a dining room.  We aren't formal dining room people, it's a play area for my son, and a pass through to our living room.  There is no direct path from our kitchen to our living room, you either take guests through the play area, or half way down the hall way, to get to the living room.  Most guests never go past the kitchen.  Behind the pie safe, next to the refrigerator, is a huge mirror that was hung before the pie safe arrived, and I just kept it there, because I wanted to keep it, knowing a remodel would happen sometime.  Above the stove, in the ceiling, is the exhaust fan, that no longer sucks air out.  Above the stove, on the wall, is a heating/cooling vent.  And typically, about 5 minutes after I'd start something, it would start blowing air, right down on my stove, and onto me.  Every night, I smelled like food.  I hate cooking bacon and sausage, between the smell getting stuck on me, and my carpet, it was gross.  This is getting reconfigured.

These are the stairs.  They lead from our basement, up to our breezeway (where everyone enters our house), and to the kitchen.  The carpet does not match the basement, the breezeway is tile, and this carpet is the same in the kitchen.  I like continuity, so the flooring will match the kitchen.  The wood floor going in the kitchen will match the rest of the house.

Pie safe moved, this is the mirror, the door leads down the hall way to the bedrooms, the bathroom, the office, and the door way from the hallway to the living room. this door will stay.  When the kids are asleep, and we've got company, in the kitchen, we can close this to muffle the noise.

This is a picture of some of my construction crew, after they've made a hole from the kitchen to the living room.  This is where the refrigerator and pie safe were, before demo.  To the right of the hole, is the former door way to the dining room, now play area, it will no longer be a pass through.  There is an arch way from the living room, to the play area, that will be mimiced here, and from the kitchen to the top of the basement stairs. 

Here is some of my demo crew (my sister's in-laws are teriffic!  I'll claim them as my own 90% of the time).  The window in the back, is where the kitchen sink was, and will go again.  BTW, my kitchen is 22' x 13.5'

Here is our other exterior wall.  Our exterior walls had about an inch of wool and sawdust insullation.  It's about to get sprayed in insullation... much better.  Also, the peninsula, in the first picture, ran between these two windows, dividing my kitchen almost in half.  So one side you walked in, and walked around, the other side held the table (you could squeeze 8 adults, if you got creative, but was much more suited for 4), all the prep space, and all the cooking space.  It was a wonky layout.  I'm looking forward to my huge kitchen table, and functional lay out. :)

Tomorrow, the insullation guys come.  Along with the kitchen exterior walls, part of our basement has exposed ceilings.  Where the concrete block walls meet the wood exterior walls of the main floor, they're filling a gap with insullation.  This is about 1/3 of my basement that will get some added efficiency. :)  Tomorrow will be a great day, and I'll be out of the house while they do it.  Next up, drywall!