Welcome back! As I ended the last post this picture was where we were at the morning of day three. The cabinets are off the back wall along with the the microwave and I have started the shiplap. Using the fence pickets for the shiplap was not very expensive as they are only about $2.60 a piece. The upside is the the character of the boards. We ordered all brand new appliances for this kitchen the stove and microwave are hideous, the dishwasher is sketchy and the hubs feels that at extra fridge in the garage/workshop is a great thing.
This kitchen was very dated as you can see. Formica countertops, plain cabinets, old flat front door on the pantry with those awful wire rack shelves there is a lot of work to do. So outside of unpacking and trying to get the mess organized the day was spent finishing the shiplap on the back wall. And yes there was no cheating the shiplap goes all way to the floor behind the the stove and refrigerator. We were really happy to discover during this process the the vent over the stove vented to the outside of the home. We also decided to pull the counter tops off the the two little cupboards next to the stove. Theheatheredhandyman created the counter tops at the previous house. For the forever house we decided to go with the birch butcher block from Homedepot. We love the look of the wood and if you are doing this yourself this is really cost effective. We did the whole kitchen for about $600. But of course as when any project is going on we were out of supplies so we had to make another run to the store .
The pictures about are from the morning of day number four. Of course this chaos is killing me but the mess is necessary for a few days. The other issue is I am going to start a new job in three days. During the most recent supply run we decided to pick up the microwave from Lowes. We planned on having it delivered with the other appliances but it needed to be installed during this part of the process. The new custom vent hood is being planned out and honestly this is the preferred method of cooking food in this disaster. Having gone to the store the day before allowed for an immense amount of progress during day four.
Miguel got the cabinets down from the other wall to continue the shiplap around to the other side. We really needed to get that side to a place where we could put some shelves up so the mess can start getting organized. He was also able to get the microwave mounted up the the back wall. He also pulled to door off of the pantry with the idea of zhooshing it up a bit (its a surprise later). It might not look like much but notice that things are starting to get organized. We got a couple shelves up for dishes thank god. In the last house we just used L type metal brackets for the shelves. We decided to get these new brackets from Hobby Lobby that have more support this time. There will be more dishes and the last ones were a little shaky. We will probably use some for the upper shelves though.
Day five starts with things starting to come together. Today this the big day for the kitchen. The pony wall is coming down!! We had this crappy thing at the the old house and we took it out. I have no freaking idea why anyone thinks a 11 in wide piece of counter 4 feet off the ground is a good idea. The kitchen is open to a huge living / dining space. The whole space has a 10 foot high ceiling why would you want to chop all that up. Crazy!!
That being said this is a pretty large undertaking. The entire counter needs to come out including the sink. Wiring and plugs need to be removed from the pony wall and moved to other locations or taken out completely. There is also a air inlet for the plumbing that for some reason runs up through the pony wall and then to the vertical wall and out of the roof. This stupidity was the same a the the old house. Lots of wall cutting and PVC work thank god the hubs is a trooper and can literally do anything. After all of that is done you can start cutting the new countertop and putting that down.
So at the end of day Miguel was able to get the countertop out, the pony wall cut down, the pvc cut and moved, the electrical rerouted and half of the countertop put down. The kitchen of course is still not back together and I have to start a new job in two days. We will end this post with the stop at morning of day six. Miguel has to run to the dump to get rid of all the junk, its piling up in the garage.
Thanks for checking out our journey. Please come back next week for what will be the mostly finished kitchen.
the.heathered.farmhouse 