The Remodel: The First Week

Well, here it is Saturday and I haven't posted any of the promised photos. The demolition started as planned, on Monday 2/11. By Thursday late afternoon, the demolition, rewiring, some plumbing stuff was pretty much a done deal. Friday was inspection day which went along without a hitch and the contractor (who grumbles about 'wasting time' waiting for inspectors), was pleasantly surprised to not have to wait as the inspector was on time, and had signed off on this portion within only a few minutes! On to the pictures with brief comments on them.

Before: original 1966 kitchen cabinets and brown range hood.

Before: front shot of same cabinets. I did like the flat top and front of the range hood; it gave me a place to set salt & pepper and to use magnets to hold a recipe while I cooked. The fan no longer worked without fear of catching fire - too many decades of grease drifting into it.

Before: lower cabinetry; face plate has been gone for a long time. The little drawer was stolen from another, lesser used area when the original one fell apart. Bread/cutting board has also been gone for a long time. We discovered the counter top (almond colored formica) was probably new ca. 1991 - about the time Marty bought the house. We had the tile put in about 21 years ago after a water leak flooded the entire kitchen/dining room but I learned to hate the edges & the grout which could only be cleaned with a brush on your hands & knees...grout was not originally 'brown' but a light cream...what WAS I thinking?

Before: upper cupboard at right of sink and above where coffee pot was; very worn.

Before: the sink was not centered under the window, off by about 2"; that will be changed. 15+ year old dishwasher, you can see all the rusted (some missing) prongs. The camera actually makes the cabinets look better than they were. A chip is showing just to the right of the dishwasher on that faceplate.

Before: A narrow area at the right of the refrigerator. These drawers were probably in the best shape of anything in the kitchen. The board on the right is where the wall oven was SEVEN years ago when we did the two bathrooms (upper/lower) which we had to remove because we added a shower into the lower bathroom which previously had only a toilet and sink/vanity.

Before: a closer look at how beat up the little drawer is...ugh, and how dirty the top of the pieces look even though I would wipe them frequently. And knobs, ugh, I have never cared for these. Things get caught on knobs. The drawers got caught on the knobs at this right angle if they weren't close, and they never closed nicely. A galley kitchen will not have this issue.

Before: the fluorescent lighting; this, a light over the sink and the over the range hood light was it in the kitchen. I had a great dislike of these fluorescent bulbs, as did Marty. Their brightness usually failed quickly and continued to fail. At times, there was barely enough light in here to see before I could get Marty to replace them, then it was sunshine bright for about a month before dimming (or getting used to it) to a fairly constant level that eventually dimmed again. And we all know what those tubes do when start to go bad, flicker, hum, even smell!

Before: This was the vent for the old swamp cooler that was changed to A/C over a decade ago with different ducting, but was never removed. It is now gone along with a segment of the tube above it; a segment remains which runs through an area within my closet in the master bedroom - maybe someday it'll be gone too if we ever get the master bath done and reconfigure some closet space.

Before: This is my pantry. All that's changed here is Marty removed the popcorn ceiling, and the floor tile was removed. It will get repainted, but I like it as it is. To the right, behind the slatted door is the space where the furnace was. When we had the A/C installed, we chose a rooftop combo unit, so that space has remained an ugly hole ever since after the removal of the old equipment. To save on cost, rather than open up the wall between the pantry and that space, the space will have it's own door and will have similar shelving, ceiling treatment and floor tile installed. It will house those small appliances and some larger pantry items that have been stored elsewhere. At the left of the pantry door, you can barely see the knob/lock for the door going into the garage.

During: this is the ceiling of the pantry after Marty wet and scraped the gunk off, disposing of appropriately as it had 3% asbestos - something we learned at the time of the water leak when we had the dining room ceiling repaired. At the time, our budget only allowed for encapsulating rather than professional asbestos removal. Personally, I think the asbestos laws are far too stringent and overreaching/overkill for the reality of the carcinogenic results. I recognize the issues with asbestos, but also that the common consumer was generally not affected. Those in the manufacturing process...different story.

During: some of the hard materials removed :)

During: after all the cabinetry and floor tiles removed and areas opened up for electrical and plumbing access. The brown stains on the walls? That's the back of the inside of the cabinets - guess that was a pretty standard method in the 1960s...don't have a back, just paint or stain to match. What's funny, is the end cabinet, it was only stained on the upper shelf level and not the two lower ones on the one side. There's that board where the oven used to be...g'bye!

During: before the tile was removed showing where the peninsula was, which is where the burners were on the counter.

During: that cupboard painted  stained wall, funny, no?

During: the leftover hole from the swamp cooler vent removal. The old (no longer used) galvanized water pipes that ran through the ceiling. Above that is the second floor floorboard. A different opening showed me why our upper floor creaks so much. The nails holding the flooring plywood to the joists/stringers/2x4s (?), barely caught the boards at all. They went in at an angle and caught a very small portion of the top of the wood before coming out the side.

Since Friday was only an inspection day, it was quiet, as are today and tomorrow before work resumes on Monday. Our kitties are rather stressed with this and remain upstairs, often hiding under the bed. There is no good place to get completely away from all the noises (nor the dust for that matter). The door from the kitchen area to the hallway is closed but it's slatted so dust still creeps through even with the crew taping plastic over it. We're letting them use our restroom so they still need to come through the door which also tracks dust and dirt through; all to be expected. 

I'll be spending some time today trying to clean up some of the dust from everywhere before it attacks again. It's also been quite cold in the house while the crew has the garage door open and the door from the dining room into the garage as well. Because of that we only have the downstairs heat zone set to around 65. We've also removed an 8' window and replaced it with a 5' sliding door, so that opened things up and cooled the house down too. No insulation in our walls...at all!! That really wasn't a surprise though knowing how cold indoors that it gets in the winter and how hot in the summer, and that's why we had A/C installed...those hot southern California summers.