Gutting the Galley

Remember the kitchen? You know, the one with no appliances and dated, warped moldy cabinets? Yes, THAT kitchen.

Well... the contractor said it had to go. As avid watchers of "Sweat Equity," we knew that with a screw driver, pry bar and a hammer, we could save ourselves some money so we decided to do all the kitchen demo ourselves.

We started by taking down all the cabinets. We tried to do this as neatly as possible, and were advised by everyone (especially my father, thanks Dad!) not to go crazy with sledge hammers. Apparently, despite how cool that looks on the home improvement shows, it makes a huge mess and usually leads to problems like inadvertently taking out plumbing and electical lines.

So, we played it safe and did it the not so flashy way and were surprised at how quickly the job went. It took a total of about 4 hours, split up over two days.

That's my big, strong husband. :) I *swear* I was helping too, but my job also included being the official photographer and historian.... and getting out of the way when Jerry was carrying heavy stuff like this.

Once the cabinets were gone, we felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

See all that icky mold? It's the result of a leak from the master bathroom above, which will also require a major overhaul that we'll chronical here. The leak probably went on for a year or more. The whole kitchen reaked of mold until we removed the drywall.

Proud of a job well done. That countertop was heavy. (Or so Jerry told me.)

Unfortunately, the action shots of us removing the drywall got lost in cyberspace, but insert cute photos of us wearing dust masks and goggles while lugging large chunks of moldy drywall off HERE. Below is a shot of the fruits of our labor.

The contractor has completed our cabinets, so now we just have to wait for him to come to the house to install them. In the meantime our appliances were delivered today and I'm dreaming of cooking with my new oven when it's all done...

And Jerry has BIG plans for this refrigerator. So spacious!

And a really impressive before and after:

Laundry room before...

Laudry room after! Mmmmm.... front loading washer and dryer.

Thanks for reading! The next post will show the fantastic transformation of our backyard.