More work on the kitchen

C and I have spent a lot of time over the last two days on the kitchen layout. When we first bought the house, our intention was to make the kitchen simply habitable and remodel it later. Gradually, as happens many times, that has changed. As we've progressed with the demolition, I've realized just how gross the kitchen really is. I had to remove the lower cabinets due to water and mold damage. They were splintered beyond hope. I also removed the cabinetry around the washer and dryer for the same reason. That left only the top cabinets. I purchased a set that sort of matches for the bottom at Home Depot. They were a cheap line of basic cabinets. Then, while looking for tile for the laundry area, I found granite. I think this may have been the beginning of things tipping. While we were discussing the remaining floor, we decided to make hexagonal tiles out of plywood. Then I decided to get rid of the upper cabinets - they are really gross. One cabinet had a bug infestation in it that was never cleaned. One cabinet had a spill of pancake syrup that was never cleaned. I threw out tons of food that was just nasty - containers of sugary drink mix that was not sealed and things covered with a sticky residue of dust, kitchen grease, sugar and dirt. Yuck! I finally told the contractor to remove the uppers so I could stop waffling back and forth about whether to keep them.

That got me to a point where the only thing of the old style I had left was the cheap cabinets from Home Depot. I wasn't sure if they would take them back since they were special order. But, after finally getting through to the right person, they agreed to take them back. Wow, this is great news. I now have a completely blank slate. I am going to get cabinets from Ikea. They are reasonably priced, and pretty nice. They are also easy to buy and install, and they have lots of neat organizers you can buy for the insides. Perhaps most importantly, they can be purchased in stock, so there's no lead time. We're cooking now!

In addition to going to the Home Depot and arranging the return of the cabinets, I also spent a few hours at the house taping off ideas for a new kitchen layout. We're not radically changing anything, just some tweaks.

This is a hole in the wall where the old range hood was:

This is the bathroom light/fan. Believe it or not, this is a big critical path item because it involves a lot of inspection points. The inspector wants to see that the fan is properly attached to the framing, that it is properly wired, and that it is properly ducted to the outside.




It's a good thing new windows are coming soon - the glass just popped out of this one. It didn't break, it just fell out. You can see it leaning diagonally toward the right.

This is the new porch post. The metal end pieces will be concealed with trim.