This weekend we will have most of the demolition completed for our new house kitchen remodel. Thanks to the help of our babysitter (J stayed back at the old house safe from lead and asbestos dust) and of a couple of B's friends, we were able to tear down most of everything pretty quickly. This definitely saved us several hundred, if not a thousand, dollars by doing it ourselves. We will see how far we can go DIY-style, borrowing tools everywhere, before hiring a contractor to finish the rest. We probably have enough knowledge about home renovation due to our respective fathers' occupations to be dangerous. We're not touching electrical work, I will say that. Leaving that to the pros.
Here's the old kitchen before the owner moved out:
And the destruction begins:
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We later found some mustard baby poop yellow paint and moldy sheet rock. Older homes have story-telling behind ever layer. But we don't want to listen, we just want it gone! Byebye! See ya!
Our plan is to knock out this wall between the kitchen and the dining room:
And replace it with a small bar with stools by extending the new countertops around in a U-shape. (It's currently an L-shape.) Something that will look close to this but for our way smaller house, of course:
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Speaking of countertops, I thought we might go with Kashmir White granite since we could afford to do a more luxury stone with such a small space. But after researching about its maintenance and problems with staining, no way. Who wants to be that host who chases down every guest with coasters? We have a friend of ours that did that to us because of her new marble countertops that she never touches and doesn't want anyone else to, either. That's not going to work for someone like me who cooks a lot, forgets to put the butter away and lets it get a little melty on the counter (big no-no, oils will stain), and, oh, has CHILDREN. Durability is key. So we will probably go with Corian, which I think is really beautiful, anyway.
Silver Birch, maybe?
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The cabinets will be of the pre-painted white, cheap, stock variety. We'll probably have Lowe's or someone who specializes in assembling Ikea (depending where we order them) to install them. Anything nicer would be "over-building" in the neighborhood and not give our investment back, we think. All the nicer wood seems to be in the style of Italian Villa, too, which I hate. So, score for us. More money to spend elsewhere, possibly.
Media unavailable · Original sourceOver the next week I'm going to check out a few tile places to see where we can get the best deal for flooring. I actually liked laminate due to durability but it reminds B way too much of the trailer home in which he grew up. Tile on the floor is pretty but also cold and any dropped glass shatters into millions of pieces. Bamboo or other wood won't work since we can't match the wood in the adjacent dining room. Whatever we decide, I think I'd like something darker gray since everything else will be white or white-ish. I do like light-colored subway tile for the backsplash, however. Maybe like this?
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Surf colored glass subway tiles from modwalls.
Anyway, we are having fun playing around with ideas. I've lived 10 years now in rentals with wall colors and other ugly crap I could not change so, yes, we're enjoying home ownership so far. Though, I never thought I'd enjoy spending my weekends hunting around home improvement stores. The child-me who got stuck on those miserable adventures with my parents would be horrified!
And, in case you are worried about the baby, I don't go around the demolition much. I've been staying in the back rooms prepping the walls for our zero-VOC primer and paint. Which, actually, is more dangerous since that involves lead dust when sanding, rather than asbestos fibers in the kitchen. Asbestos doesn't get to the baby, but lead will. So, enter my apocalyptic gas mask!
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I'm ready to play an extra in one of those movies where the townspeople run screaming and looting due to an impending catastrophe. Sign me up.