Underway

About a month or so ago Mike and I decided (really decided this time...) that we were absolutely going to move the kitchen to a new location. Neither of us wanted to call in the appliance order for a revamped kitchen when we knew that wouldn't fix any of our problems. In fact - the fridge we expected to get was going to give us less space by a couple inches - which we barely had where it was going to be located.

We've been spending the last month getting things ready and ordered. We changed a lot of the appliances we were getting and got those ordered. After SEVERAL trips to many different tile companies we finally picked a tile we think we will like. (And thank you to the many people that we pulled inside for a second and third...and fourth opinion!) We spent the last couple weeks looking at granite. We think we have one picked out. I'm not totally in love with it - but there doesn't seem to be a lot of options for exactly what we are looking for. We are still waiting to place that order in case we run into something else. We are hoping our cabinets can get ordered this week; we are just waiting on some color samples.

In the meantime though - we can and did finally get to work on other things. Mainly demo.

Last Thursday we spent quality time together as a family packing up our kitchen and relocating it to the bar in the basement. I had gone through and pulled out some of the things that I thought were absolutely necessary. The rest was boxed up and will be stored in our room until we are finished.

July 4th we were up early and started in on the demo! First we removed appliances. My dad came over to help. He unhooked the dishwasher and as I walked over to help him carry it out - he popped it open and walked out himself with it. We all just stared and started laughing. It's kind of a running joke in our family how much weight my dad can lift. I ran to offer to help open the door and Jake yelled after me, "Don't bother mom - Grandpa will just open it with his mind!" (Dad didn't...but he did open it with one hand while holding the dishwasher with the other...)

In removing the microwave we found out why we never had a vent that seemed to work. The microwave flap that was supposed to be open for venting was still taped shut. Someone had forgotten a minor detail upon installation.

Here is what we basically started with on the that day - the appliances were moved out shortly after this.

My mom had offered the night before to come over and break down walls with a sledgehammer. She said she likes demo-ing things. We didn't think it would be a wise move for her to wield a sledgehammer though when she has some ribs that are currently mending from over-strain. We did put Maddie and Jake to work though!

They were both looking forward to two things: busting up the counter and tearing down the walls.

They really didn't bust up the counter - they just knocked it loose. But they did love tearing into the walls!

So did Mike and I - GREAT stress reliever!!

This is about the point where Mike decided safety glasses would be useful. Then he put them on and he was sweating so much that they fogged right up and he couldn't see a thing.

We did have our first unexpected situation. We thought we'd be able to save more drywall than we actually did. The cabinets had done a number on the wall and we didn't think they'd be salvageable.

It wasn't all work though. Dad offered a ride for Jake:

He also offered one to Maddie. She hadn't been downstairs to see Jake's ride so was a little skeptical to stand on the Dolly when dad told her to. Please see her face...she was quite surprised when he took of running with her on it!

It was a messy, messy day - we all looked a little worse for the wear...

By the end of that first day we had accomplished a lot -

On Saturday the last bit of demo was done. We removed the island wall and tore out the portion of vinyl flooring in this area. Mike, Dad and I were crazy people getting that all up and out! It was to the dump by noon!

Day two did come to a screeching halt for a couple hours. Mike and Dad had to figure out the riddle that is our electrical wiring. They couldn't figure out what our builders had done to certain rooms and how they were (or weren't) wired together.

I was in charge of cutting a couple wires out of boxes and removing the old boxes we no longer needed. I must have checked about four times with my dad to make sure all the wires were dead and that I was definitely cutting the right ones. Mike and he assured me everything was good to go. I cut the first wire then as I cut the second wire I felt this vibration and jumped up a little expecting a sudden volt to go through me. Turns out it was at that exact moment of cutting the wire that someone texted me and my phone vibrated in my back pocket.

I don't have any updated pictures from the last couple days- but not much else looks different. There's more wiring and piping since these were taken. They've built a second wall to make wiring and piping that much easier. We've sold half the appliances, all the cupboards and our table and chairs - which I wasn't really expecting to sell, honestly - not until we found something we liked. Mike had different ideas. I'm set next week to go furniture shopping with my mom and Tracy.

So we are off and running. We expect this to take a couple months. Maddie and Jake were in charge of making a dinner list this week and one of the items to try is grilled pizza from Papa Murphy's. They heard good things from someone at church. I'm sure we'll be trying any number of grilled combos in the next couple months!