Saturday Chris and Ed helped me a ton and we were able to complete the rough carpentry. We built the ceiling, the east wall, and the west wall was “furred” up to accept drywall. I also fixed the floor and leveled it up a bit with some 3/4in particle board. I installed more recessed lighting and will begin all the wiring this week. I am hoping to get the drywall up for the ceiling by the weekend. I am hiring someone to help me on that since I very little experience with it.

Here are some shots of the completed carpentry.

Well I have to say that I am exhausted. I finally completed all my demolition work. I was able to remove the ceiling in 2 days and organize all the garbage for pick up. I still need to haul it all off to the dump on Saturday.

Wednesday night I blocked off the leaky joist channels with pressure treated lumber to keep the wasps out. This was the reason for tearing up the kitchen. It was remodeled incorrectly and there seemed to be many problems with up to 4″ holes to the outside. Not too much water damage, but the wood is really dark in many spots. Check out the recessed lighting I installed.

Its weird. I wake up every day; make my way down to my kitchen and get some form of beverage and look out my window to see what the weather is going to be like for the day. I usually fix some small bite breakfast. Take my vitamins and blood pressure meds; and then I am off to get ready for the day.

Not now.

Friday we set up a temporary kitchen in the dining room. We have an extension cord which feeds a microwave, a coffee maker, a blender, and a toaster. Our refrigerator is blocking the doorway leading to the kitchen. Plastic is set up to catch any more dust. Our house is coated with dust on every surface. This is how we will live for the next month or so.

The interesting part of this last weekend was the removal of the cabinets, walls, and ceiling. What an experience. You think you know your home until you peel away the walls and ceiling and it’s at that point where your paradigm flips back to zero.

A patio, a door, a window and a hidden wall. All of these were uncovered behind the drywall that someone built back in 1971. How do I know this? Well I found a fully in tact TV guide from The Cleveland Press from August of 1971. My gramps was an editor for that paper back then, so I am sure he had something to with it. Pretty neat. I found some old wall paper, and tile hidden on a wall that was covered up to bump out the wall for cabinets. The paint, and plaster inspired me to pull out the camera and my lights to photograph some art. Really great suff. Below is samples of these images. Take note of the before and during shots. One of those shots was from the previous owners to show off the kitchen at its normal state. We never really decorated in there since we knew were going to do this remodel since we moved in.

Before

During

Some random images