Week 1: What’s Cooking in Our Kitchen

You might remember from my very first blog post that the kitchen in our new house needed a lot of work.  Well, let me get you up to speed with what’s been done so far.

The week that we closed on the house (last week of November/first week of December), we didn’t do anything on the house.  I guess we were just basking in the glow of owning our first home J

The week after our closing consisted of a lot of filming and packing.  We thought our contractor was still in the process of obtaining permits, but boy were we wrong.  Let’s just say that it’s still “Week One” of the renovation.  We arrived at the house and the kitchen looked like…but wait…just so you get an idea of what happened, let me show you a before pic taken at our faux housewarming party  (pay extra attention to the window).

Isn’t it funny that no matter how small or crappy the kitchen is, people still congregate in the kitchen?



And after…the “surprise” demo! See the window now amidst the pile of trash?

The pictures were taken in the exact same place—in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.  Wow, I knew our old kitchen was small, but taken apart from the walls with a pile of crap in the middle, it looks even smaller!  Here's another before picture.

The kitchen from another angle...with Justin pointing at the faucet for some reason...

The reason it was a surprise was because we didn’t think that our contractor was going to started on the demolition as fast as he did.  I mean, he just got the permits not too long ago, and we didn’t think he would start the next day.  We couldn’t get mad at him for being ahead of schedule.  With the impending winter weather and all, we should be glad that he got started…it just took us by surprise.

According to Justin, our contractor was on schedule to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room today, and install a load-bearing beam to take its place.  By doing this, it creates an open space between the kitchen and the dining room.  We definitely need more openness since our old house has a very, traditional closed floorplan layout. 

I’m excited for what the next stages of the renovation will bring.  I will continue to update you all and I promise to make posts on the changes as they occur (pending me getting pictures of course)!