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We had a very productive weekend with our Kitchen Renovation Project! I could not be happier about how this is turning out!
We started by taking the door/window back out & set it aside so it wouldn't get broken accidentally. If you have different tools it could've been a lot easier but we chose to use a hole saw to cut holes all along the border so the center part out would fall out. Once the inside part was gone we used a reciprocating saw & cut along the edge to make it straight. It wasn't too difficult or time consuming.
This was a great feeling when he pushed the inside out!
My dad built us this awesome solar screen for it to make it more energy efficient! After attaching the hangers we used some flashing tape so no water can get in. We haven't decided how we are going to trim it exactly. We want to be able to still remove screen so we can clean the window when needed.
Then it was time for more demolition. I took this part upon myself while he was at his dads & enjoyed it a lot! The sink was already taken out a while ago but this is the ugliness we have been looking at in our kitchen the entire time we have lived here. The bottom cabinets were not usable at all what so ever. The cabinets had been rebuilt with all different pieces of scrap wood by someone previously. When doing that they lowered the height of the counter making it so the dishwasher wouldn't even fit.
The next part quickly became pretty gross which we were expecting. We sprayed the entire area with bleach to hopefully kill all the bacteria.
One day this house will be 100% mold free!
I got too excited during demo & didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to unfortunately. But basically my son & I just unscrewed all the random pieces that they had used to build the cabinets. The original cabinet frame was still screwed into the wall with wood screws. After tearing all the old cabinets out I tore a lot of the insulation out that had been chewed up by rats. The whole wall will be getting new insulation & a lot of new sheet rock but I will be pausing on the wall for now until the sub floor gets replaced.
I took step by step pictures for the upper cabinet removal to help you if you are trying to take some down. If you look you won't see any screws, but trust me they are there. First remove the cabinet doors. Ours were just regular phillip screws.
To make them easier to separate from the wall I used a box cutter & sliced all around the entire cabinet. The reason I did this was to break the seal of glue and/or paint between the wall & the cabinet. One less thing holding it to the wall.
Make sure you have safety glasses on for this next part as pieces might fly. Using a hammer I hit the bottom shelf of the cabinet down as hard as I could. This allowed me to see the wood screws holding it to the wall.
If you don't have one of these I recommend purchasing this bit set.
It has every bit we have needed for all our projects we have done.
Mine only had two screws holding the bottom in. Once removed I was able to move the bottom half of the cabinet off the wall a couple inches. There are also screws at the top. Now I am short & Caleb was not home at the time, so what I did next wasn't ideal but it worked. So caution before you do this next part as the cabinet will fall & is kind of heavy! But I basically shook the cabinet side to side as hard as I could while I was pulling it away from the wall at the same time. I finally snapped the wood at the top & the cabinet came falling down. Luckily I was holding it pretty good & my son was close by to help. After setting it aside I removed the two screws to get the left over frame down & that's it!
Coming Soon:
sub floor
sheet rock
window
cabinets
counter
light fixture
Can't wait to replace all of this!
The next part is the wall parallel to the wall pictured above. I always thought this whole cabinet thing was just really odd. So it was torn down a long time ago. I tried to make it work as a little coffee bar area for a while but it was just too weird for me.
I took off the crown molding along the ceiling & the trim on the walls. Then started sealing up the gaps in between the sheet rock. I had never done that before & was very happy with my first cover up. I still need to go back & do a second coat. I didn't take a picture of the exact strip I was working on before so I have a different one pictured so you can see what it looked like. I will be posting a step by step tutorial on how to do that at a later time.
After doing all of that, my landlord came over the following day & informed us he wants to take down all of the sheet rock on that wall & install insulation. Then put new sheet rock as well. At first I thought I had wasted my time then realized I got to practice for next time.
I got the upper & lower cabinets emptied out, doors off, & ready to be torn down. I took the top one down but decided to leave the bottom one for now to have at least a little more storage space. For this wall, I want to display all my cast iron & copper pans across the top & build an appliance shelf underneath.