Remodeling Project: The Kitchen

The "Before" pictures:

Pic 1--Looking down the hall from the front door--Kitchen is at the far end of the hall.

Pics 2 and 3--The kitchen is a dysfunctional "L" shape. A stove was in the empty space in the 2nd pic, rendering the cabinets on its right useless.

Pic 4--Shows a window to the porch where the basement stairs go down. At one time there was a restaurant style booth benches and table in the corner because the kitchen was too small for a regular table and chairs. The door to the porch is shown on the very left.

Pic 5 and 6-- the door to the porch and basement. (Pic 5 looking out, Pic 6 looking in)

Demolition Phase:

EVERYTHING goes. Cabinets, cupboards, countertop, sink, floor, ceiling, walls, doors-- the kitchen is gutted!

Picture 1 shows the little bathroom in process of being removed. Pic 2 shows the cutouts in the kitchen wall for the new electrical wiring and additional outlets. You can see the cast iron vent pipe that still needs to be removed.

The Pic 3 shows that the window in the kitchen wall adjoining the basement was removed, and insulation is ready to go in. The fourth picture is the same view as the previous one, now showing the sub floor being rebuilt and leveled.

Pic 5 shows that a new back door has been installed, moved from the kitchen wall to the outside wall of the old porch/new laundry room. Pic 6 shows that the little wall between the kitchen and old porch/new laundry room has been removed. It will be rebuilt with plumbing/electrical wiring for the new laundry room inside, and that cast iron vent pipe will also be moved to be inside the new wall. It also shows the framework for the new ceiling in the kitchen, the new rebuilt porch floor, and that insulation has been added in the porch/laundry room.

The last picture shows that the subfloor now extends to include where the old bathroom used to be.

Positive Progress

The first 3 pictures shows the newly drywalled kitchen. The second picture shows the rebuilt wall to separate the laundry room from the kitchen. The doorway has also been widened, and the actual wall has moved into the kitchen by about 6 inches so that a regular sized washer/dryer will fit into the laundry room side by side. This was an afterthought, but a very good solution to more than one problem.

These next 2 pictures are related. Picture 4 shows the original window that was in the little bathroom with drywall all around. But after the cabinet maker came and did measurements, it was determined that the cabinetry would extend about 4 inches over the window. The solution was to remove the window (it was broken anyway, and would have needed repairs, and was very high, hard to see out of if you were short like me!) Another afterthought that solved more than one problem! A piece of drywall was inserted over the window (pic 5.) The window will be removed from the outside, when the exterior is sided.

These last 2 pictures show the paint goes on! In retrospect, since cabinets will cover almost the entire wall with the window, I could have used cheap paint and wouldn't have needed to be so careful, but it looks great, and I am happy. I also want to add that I painted this myself with a little help from my grandson, Bailey, who helped paint the ceiling, and my granddaughter Kaylyn who helped with the walls. This part of the project has taken 3 weeks and brings us to Mar. 3, 2021.