The initial adrenaline of the kitchen remodel got us steamrolling through demolition, insulation and putting up drywall. When we reached the mud and tape stage, the endless coats of joint compound and sanding in between burnt us out. Let me say it out loud. Sanding joint compound is a bitch! Is there anything worse in home renovation? Please tell me. When we finally called it quit with the joint compound, we were covered head to toe by the dust. Hubby said we had enough dust on us to make a kung fu video showing all our moves with dust flying. And it’s true. I gently punched his chest and a dust cloud came up. … continue reading this post …
Friends and family kept asking about photos of the kitchen remodel. So, here are the links. I will add more links to new photos in this post until we cross the “finish line”.
It’s been 3 weeks since hubby and I started renovating our kitchen. It’s progressing faster than I thought. I don’t have any expectation on the schedule which happens to be almost everyone’s question. In my opinion, if you have an expectation on when a major home renovation will be done, you will only be disappointed. My high hope is we don’t go over the budget too much.
Demolition took more than 2 days. We got the built-in cabinets and the plaster/drywall combo walls and ceiling taken out in a weekend. We were puzzled by the multi-layered flooring. A relative suggested cutting everything up using a circular saw setting at a height just above the subfloor. We were a little worried that there might be asbestos in one of those layers. I asked the contractor who we hired to do plumbing and electrical work. He thought we should be safe but recommended against using power tools. When I told hubby about it, he decided he would remove the floor by prying from the bottom layer of tongue and groove flooring. It worked really well. Saved us time from pulling the the top 2 layers of old vinyl which were really hard to take out. Besides, the tongue and groove flooring could not be saved. There was a layer of tar-like adhesive under the vinyl and the black stuff was not budging using hand tools. … continue reading this post …
My hubby and I are planning a kitchen remodel. The kitchen in our 1947 home has the original cabinets which are sort of built-in but with rather low craftsmanship.
When we first moved in almost 5 years ago, a wall cabinet had a pair of doors with straight sections cut out of them and the bottom shelf had a large and irregular shape cutout covered by a piece of wood on top. We speculated that the cabinet was cut to accommodate a large microwave when the technology first became available to consumers. We traced the shelf cutout onto the piece of wood that was covering it, cut the wood, and attached it to what’s left of the cabinet with several straight metal connectors. I then covered all the cabinets with plastic shelf liner so the big flaw of this wall cabinet is no longer too visible and it functions like its old self.
While installing the shelf liner, I discovered that the base cabinets were attached to the walls without any wood in the back. What I mean is that the back of cabinets are the plaster walls with the sandy textures exposed and no paint. The sand is falling off constantly. Installing the shelf liner was a nightmare. The sand is also problematic for storing pots and pans. Who wants sand (or whatever it is) in their food? The solution was installing $200 worth of chrome kitchen organizers. … continue reading this post …
