Kitchen Progression

The kitchen is nowhere close to complete, but I did want to post some pictures so you could all see the progress.

As you probably remember, this is what the kitchen looked like when we first viewed the home while the previous owners were in it (prior to being damaged by them)....

Obviously, the kitchen was not in this shape when we finally moved in.  In addition, since we were replacing the cabinets we decided to open up the kitchen/eating area/den to make a true great room by extending the kitchen, adding an oversized island, and making it an eat in kitchen.

Demo began last Monday, and this is what the kitchen looked like after the demolition was complete.

Oven and sink walls

Old breakfast room and peninsula

As you can see, the house has been full of boxed cabinets and I took these pictures at the end of the day once the sun was down!  The next morning, cabinets began being installed:

Pantry cabinets
(in addition to our walk-in pantry)
 and stove base

Sink base

Location of the new island

Old built in desk area, now the bar!  :)

Slowly, but surely things began to take shape....

Stove area

Sink base

Bar area

...and things have continued to evolve into what looks more and more like a kitchen....

Stove, sink, and beginnings of the island

Fridge and oven built ins - fridge to be installed

Bar area (wine fridge to be installed)

Glorious island!!

What's left in order to complete the project?
-Cabinets and window seat under the old breakfast room window (waiting to be delivered in order to install)
-Countertops
-Flooring removal and install
-Backsplash
-Install of stove, wine fridge, and fridge
-Install of under counter lighting
-Install of light rail, toe kick, etc
-Painting of the disgusting walls!!
-Final walk through

Hope to post more pictures of progress on the kitchen soon!

Kitchen Demolition!

Today officially marks the beginning of our kitchen remodel!  Our kitchen contractors arrived this morning to begin demolition.  However, I must first back up to Friday, when the new appliances and replacement cabinets arrived.  Yes, you read that correctly.... replacement cabinets because the kitchen was originally mis-measured, which pushed our start date back even more than the first time! So, the new cabinets arrived, and since our garage was already full of the old cabinets that haven't been picked up yet, our den looks like this:

Then, we spent our Sunday cleaning out the kitchen and completing our makeshift kitchen in the dining room to hold us over for the next few days!  I kind of like our mini kitchen in the dining room -- it is nicer than what we had in the hotel for several months!

Makeshift kitchen in the dining room with stacks of dishes

More stacks of dishes in the guest bedroom

...and that brings us to this morning, and all of this:

Carpet Detour

Today was the day I had waited for since we moved in (among many other dates, but this one was up there).  I was looking forward to the bleached/makeup stained/urinated on carpets to finally leave this house along with their horrible stench and be replaced with brand new!  Not only were we replacing the carpets, but we were pulling up some beaten up hardwoods in the loft that didn't match the hardwoods throughout the rest of the house.  The upstairs had four different carpets and hardwoods in two bedrooms a bathroom (yuck!) and a loft.  In addition, the stairs were a totally different carpet from the 4 already used upstairs.  The previous owners did so many strange things in this home, and we were looking forward to some consistency beginning with all one flooring upstairs!

However, my big plans for finally moving and arranging furniture and unpacking the last of the boxes this afternoon quickly faded.  The carpeting guys began just before 8am ripping up the old flooring.  They soon slowed down after pulling up the carpets and spent over six hours (yes, that does say "six") to remove the hardwood flooring in the loft.  The loft had hardwoods surrounding a carpet inlay, so this was not a massive amount of wood to remove.  However, the previous owners had it installed like tile.  They had used trowels to literally swipe 1/4 inch layers of glue across the subflooring.  This means, the hardwoods came up inches and tiny pieces at a time.  In addition, the beating the subflooring took from chisels, crowbars, and hammers during the demo today was unrepairable.  The floor was completely splintered and there were huge holes that left the floor compromised.

All work was stopped until they could fix the subflooring.  So, because of this....

...our house now looks like this....

So, we are now waiting for the subflooring to be pulled up and reinstalled with new, before the carpet can go in.  Part of me is just happy that nasty carpet is gone, even if we are delayed now.  I am trying to be patient as it feels like we are living in the middle of a construction zone out of boxes.  In addition to the carpet install being on hold, the kitchen and bathroom remodels are in a stalemate until the plans can be finalized.  It feels like the house keeps getting worse and worse, yet there has been no lack of time, effort, or resources put into it!  I know one day it will all fall together and actually feel like we are moving forwards instead of backwards!

Today was not all bad... the foyer console I bought in West Hollywood earlier in the week was delivered!  So, now it is sitting in the foyer crowded with the upstairs boxes and furniture, covered in a nice layer of sawdust from todays demo.  On top of it sit the wall plaques I purchased and cannot hang until painting is done, and next to those will be sconces to cover the lovely exposed wires.  However, they cannot be installed because the mount kit that came with them is too big for the electrical support on the wall.  I wish just one thing could look put together and stay clean for a bit!  As you can see, this is all so exciting and we feel so blessed to be able to do these things to such a gorgeous home.  However, I think living in a hotel prior to this, and now unexpectedly living in this chaos just feels like too much!  I'm counting down the days to doing dishes in the laundry room wash basin! Ha!

Demo!!

We had a horrible wall that divided our huge 12' by 10' master closet awkwardly into his and hers sides.  So much so, that Todd was unable to walk down his side of the closet, it was so narrow.  We knew we wanted to put in a true closet organization system, and that we would really like to open up the closet and incorporate an island or ottoman in the center.  I was feeling super-confident after the 3 months of DIY and HGTV channel surfing I had done in the hotel, and was ready to take on a project that did not include a paint brush! 

After ensuring the wall was not load bearing, and that there was no wiring going through it, we decided to do a little demo project last Saturday!  Armed with sunglasses (eye protection, of course!), hammers and crow-bars we went to work removing the glass before taking our worst-home-purchase-experience-ever wrath out on the wall!  While it was fun for the first few minutes, my romanticized thoughts of how fun this would be very quickly fizzled!  Here's how it went:



Hers - Before



His - Before

We condensed our clothes to the far walls in the closet,
covered them with plastic and taped them off

We then put sticky-back contractor's plastic
over the mirror in case it broke

Then, we were ready to take this down!

The shelving was removed.....

Then the mirror (in one piece even!)....

...and finally, the wall! 

I am in the process of purchasing a closet organization system.  I'm hoping to have that ordered by the end of the week for arrival soon after the new carpet is installed in the closet.  I will post the "true" after pictures of the closet then!