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What a mess, Where do I start?
When we first moved in the kitchen was not a place you wanted to eat in. The cabinet where the fridge went was cut up to make additional space yet it was still too small for our fridge. The cabinets at one time must have been wonderful. Now all the doors were wobbly and held together with tape, bent over nails and plywood scabs.
The Fire Engine red walls we quite "in your face" and after several months we painted them white even though they were going to be torn out eventually. The wood used in the
wainscoting
was nice but so soaked with oils, grease and dirt, it just wasn't worth salvaging.
This chimney was strange. At some time in the past a stove stack pushed into it. When we started to tear it out we discovered that it was real brick covered with drywall then covered with fake brick. This shot also shows the back door in it's original position. We moved it around the corner after tearing out the laundry room wall.
This is the laundry room door. It seems strange to have a door ten feet to the right of the back door. From what I understand the house was a boarding house at one time and the laundry room was a bedroom. Prior to that the laundry room was a chicken coupe. I have met an older gentleman that used to walk up to the back door with his mother to buy fresh eggs. The people who lived here would step into the chicken coupe from the kitchen to get the eggs while the people stood there.
Here is the small closet in the laundry room that held the washer and dryer. We tore all this out as well. During the renovation my sister and wife sat in the kitchen planning out the cabinets and appliances with one of those Home Depot's kitchen kits and went down to get a price and have the Depots computers generate a drawing of the design. When they got back I said "You know, if I tear down this wall we could combine the kitchen and laundry room into one huge kitchen." I would then add on an additional laundry room off the back.
The ceiling was gross. It was sagging from water damage and stained everywhere. There were small holes drilled in it to let the water drain out. This ceiling was just painted hard board nailed up with a decorative strip nailed over the cracks. The kitchen was the only room with a 7 foot ceiling so the stains were up close & personal.
The first thing that had to happen before any energy was expended on the kitchen renovation was to raise the ceiling to the same level as the rest of the house. This started by ripping the outside wall off and a small amount of the roof. Remember one of the goals was to keep the kitchen functional. Any renovation is always easier in an empty house. Unfortunately we live in the middle of the construction zone.
Here you can see the progress. I stood up ten foot studs between the existing seven foot studs. I used more of my home made scaffolding. The new ceiling is made with 2x10 floor joists so in the future I can add a large master bath above the new kitchen. I will even install strong beams with steel columns that go straight down to the new footers so no additional weight is on the first floor.
Here is another view showing how I slid the new wall in place without ripping out the interior wall or the old ceiling rafters. At this point the kitchen envelope is still intact and bug & critter proof. Not so much for rain though.
This old wood was incredibly hard. I have stored most of it in my wood shed. At some point in time in the future I am going to mill down these boards and re-incorporate it into built-ins throughout the house.
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