Interior framing is done

Since the kitchen was ripped apart, the crew has been working on finishing all of the electrical and plumbing work, and the final inspection was completed this morning.

They rebuilt the back wall of the kitchen, which now separates the kitchen and new bathroom:

The majority of our kitchen cabinets will eventually go along this wall.

The fridge will move to the left a smidge, so it won't be quite as close to the opening to the new mudroom. I love the light that filters in to the kitchen from the new patio doors. Ignore our dryer over there on the right, which is currently waiting in this doorway until it gets hooked up in the new bathroom. (Isn't that where all dryers belong, in the kitchen, inconveniently blocking pathways?? Thought so.)

The rest of the interior framing was done as well, which has been great since we've been able to actually see how the new rooms are divided.

Here is a view from the new mudroom, looking into the bathroom:

Our new, super-wide shower was installed as well. Here you can see the shower in place on the left, and the new mudroom straight ahead:

The vanity we picked out for the bathroom is in that box there.

In the living room addition, the fireplace was framed out between the windows in the back of the house:

The wall between the existing living room and new space hasn't come down yet. That should be down in the next week or so.

Now that all of the electrical and plumbing is completely finished, our contractor plans on insulating and starting to hang drywall next week. We'll also have the old window in the kitchen replaced with a brand new one. It's been getting really cold and drafty downstairs at night, so I can't wait for the addition to be insulated!

I never thought I'd see the day, but we actually have to start picking out paint colors soon. It feels like we're never going to be finished with this construction, so the thought of actually nearing some kind of end is tought to fathom. Hopefully by Christmas I'll be able to hang stockings over my new fireplace!!

Kiss the kitchen goodbye!

So I got home after work today to find that our entire kitchen has finally been demolished!

You'll remember that back when I explained our plans for renovating the kitchen (which later turned into a much larger renovation with construction of a new addition), the kitchen looked like this:

Welp, the kitchen is now stripped to bare bones and looking like this:

All of the cabinets were ripped out today, as well as the majority of the countertops. The big opening on the right is the new 3/4 bathroom in the addition. There will be a wall built there between the kitchen and bathroom, and the new kitchen cabinets will eventually continue across that wall.

The drywall was removed, revealing more of the solid wood beadboard that we encountered in the rest of the downstairs when we renovated last summer. The crew dropped the ceiling and pulled up most of the laminate floors. Underneath was a layer of white linoleum, and underneath that is hardwood flooring (which you can see in the corner above). Unfortunately the wood flooring in the downstairs doesn't look to be in good enough shape to refinish, so we'll likely still be sticking with our plan to put down tile in the kitchen, new mudroom, and new bathroom (plus also installing new hardwood floors in the living room addition, current living room, and dining room).

The wall behind the fridge (where there is currently a sheet of plywood) will be an opening into the mudroom (you can see the new patio doors in the background there). This corner used to have a window and door:

Much like the newspaper pages we found inside the walls in the rest of the downstairs when we demolished last year, the kitchen had some interesting artifacts beneath the drywall, like this old roofing material label:

Here is another view of the newly opened up kitchen:

Such a disaster!

I do feel like this is a step towards some major progress, though, so I'm excited! Hopefully we'll have the back wall in the living room taken down soon too, so we can really get an idea of how the new addition will blend with the rest of the house. In the meantime, we certainly won't be cooking any meals in here...

Upside-down!

*So, this post was supposed to go up last night, but just as I was finishing it, we lost our internet connection and the power soon followed! We still don’t have power today (though many others fared worse in Irene) but luckily our construction crew arrived with a generator this morning so they can work!*

The crew arrived early this morning, ready to go. They’re starting with demolishing the mudroom and plan on having the addition framed and sided by the end of the day. Depending on how quickly the work goes, they may be able to bring down the wall between the mudroom and kitchen today as well!

The rest of the house has been turned pretty much upside-down in preparation for this huge project.

The kitchen cabinets were completely emptied.

Bins and bins of dishes, baking pans, pots, glasses, food, spices, etc. were stacked in the dining room.

The dining room table was moved into the corner of the room, with the microwave plunked onto it. This surface is being used as a makeshift kitchen counter for the time being.

A 30-foot long dumpster was dropped off in the driveway.

The dryer, which once sat in the mudroom, was pushed out into the kitchen and will soon be hauled down the basement stairs. The dryer will hang out for several weeks before a hookup is installed in the basement next to the washer. The mudroom was also completely emptied out.

We’ve done as much prep as we can do, so now we leave the next phase to the professionals. After being here for a year, I had just begun to feel like our house had finally gotten to a place where things were settled. Everything was put away and situated in a way that worked. And now we’ve gone and completely thrown it all up into chaos again. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that this renovation goes smoothly and painlessly!!

With so much happening, I’m going to try to get back into the habit of updating frequently. I should have another update on where we’re at later today!

It's happening!!!

Huge news!
The time has come for us to officially move forward with our huge kitchen renovation project!! Things are moving quickly, and our contractor begins work next Monday!

We decided to officially move forward with option number two, which I had discussed here, and are adding a half bathroom to a section of the current kitchen. We felt like this was the best move not only for convenience, but also because it will add big value back into the house. A one-bathroom, 3-bedroom house just doesn't cut it these days, after all!

So here's where we're at:
In the last couple of weeks, we got bids from three contractors and chose one to move forward with. We liked this contractor the most and his bid just happened to be about $10,000 lower than the others. Lucky! What will be a bit different about this job is that it will be two phases. The first phase will involve demolishing the mudroom off of the kitchen, building a new addition in its place, new windows, lighting, and building the half bathroom. The second phase will be installing the cabinets, countertops, hardwood floors (both in the kitchen and dining room), and finish details.

However, before any of that stuff can be done we need to demolish the entire kitchen.

Like, right off the bat. We had thought that we'd be able to keep at least some of the kitchen functioning (like our stove plugged in or some cabinets) while the addition was built, but nope. In order for the electrical to be brought up to code (with an outlet every 3 feet) every single thing in here must go from the very beginning. So, it looks like we'll be completely without a kitchen for a while. A long while.

Here is one half of the (horrible, unusable, hideous, blindingly yellow, etc.) kitchen as it stands:

I don't think I need to go into detail about why we're doing this renovation! The kitchen is completely unusable in its current configuration. On the opposite end of the kitchen is the fridge, and the stove sits between two doorways to the left of this photo.

To the right is a wall between the kitchen and mudroom. (For a visual reference, check out the current floor plan here.)

This entire wall is coming down. The mudroom is also being demolished (it leaks in places and was never properly insulated). An 11' x 8' addition is going up in its place so the kitchen will be expanded. We'll put in all new windows and an exterior door to the patio.

The corner to the right of the current mudroom door, where our fridge currently sits, will become the new half bathroom.

Oh, and those holes in the ceiling and window frame? Carpenter ants. We had an exterminator in and found that they had eaten away the whole window frame. Bastards! This whole window is coming out and a smaller one is going in its place to allow for some privacy in the loo.

The area where the stove currently is will essentially be a hallway to the living room. The bathroom door will be on the left, across from the existing basement door on the right.

I'm so excited to get rid of the last of these crazy paneled ceilings! I can't believe that these used to be throughout the entire house. Awful.

Lighting is also going to be a huge upgrade in the kitchen. Currently, the only light in the whole room is this one exposed bulb in the ceiling. It's kiiiind of like a crack den.

Here's an exterior view of the existing mudroom that will be taken completely down, with a slightly larger addition built in its place:

We plan on adding a glass door to let lots of light in.

So, that's where we're at. It's going to be an incredibly chaotic next couple of months! We picked up some storage bins so we can start packing all of our dishes, pots, pans, and pantry stuff in the next couple of days. We plan on plugging the fridge in the dining room, the stove will be shoved someplace collecting dust, and it will be general chaos. It's an enormous project, but it's going to be so worth it in the end!

Welcome to Lucy's House, where things get kinda crazy.

kitchen planning

As I mentioned earlier, we've started planning our kitchen renovation in earnest now. Before we start demolishing the current kitchen, we need to finish the laundry room in our basement and reroute the hookup for our dryer (which currently lives in the mudroom off of the kitchen). The laundry room is almost completely finished now--we just have to prime and paint one more wall and install some partition doors--and the electrician will be coming next week to set up the dryer. After that we'll be all set and ready to get moving on this new kitchen!

Here is the floorplan of the kitchen, as it currently stands:



It functions very poorly. The stove is situated between two doorways, with no countertop on either side. The fridge is on the other side of the room, again with no nearby countertop for setting things down.

Our plan is to knock down the wall between the kitchen and mudroom and expand the kitchen into that whole space.

We've come up with two options so far for the kitchen layout.

Option #1:



In this option, the area where the fridge currently is will become a breakfast nook. We'd love to have a built-in banquette here, which is what those benches represent in the floor plan.

Here are some more views of Option #1:







I would love to have a vintage farmhouse table that can also be used as extra prep space. Option #1 would be the most open and airy.

Option #2, however, would include adding a half bathroom. Our house only has one bathroom currently, and it's located upstairs. Adding a second bathroom, on the main floor, would be so much more convenient and would definitely add value.

Here's the floorplan for Option #2:



The half bathroom would be added in place of the breakfast nook in Option #1.

Some alternate views of Option #2:





This option would make the kitchen less open, but having a half bathroom on the main floor would be a huge improvement.

Both options have their benefits, so we have a tough choice ahead! I'll post some pictures of the finished laundry room soon!