Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Charmin

Our oldest dog, Charmin, relaxing in the midst of our kitchen renovation.


Kitchen Remodel Part 2

We are almost done with the first half of the kitchen. Due to my insistence that we remove the popcorn ceiling, our efforts were delayed by about two days because it took much longer. Trust me folks, you DON'T want to remove this stuff!!! Not only was it extremely difficult to take off, but I found out later that it probably contained asbestos, a known carcinogen. Anyway, here's a tour of the pictures below.... the first one is my husband, Mike relaxing at the dining room table with our dogs hanging out around him. As you can see, the refrigerator had been relocated in to the dining room. I got kind of used to sitting on my chair and just reaching in the fridge for something! This old fridge is one reason for the remodel. My good one has been housed in the basement because it didn't fit the opening in the kitchen. Mike nearly lost his legs trying to get the other one upstairs when they collapsed under the weight of the fridge. My brother luckily was able to support the weight from the bottom of the stairs until Mike caught his breath.



The soffit with recessed lighting and ceiling fan, both of which came down in the remodel.


The damaged ceiling after popcorn removal. The wires showing on the right side of the ceiling are the radiant heat. Love the clean warmth it provides!


The repaired soffitless ceiling. (gee spell-check doesn't like that word!)

My brother (in red) and future son-in-law trying to find the studs in the wall with my new Black and Decker stud finder. Seems as though it doesn't work, so they ended up doing it the old-fashioned way... knock, knock, knock, nail, nail, nail.

Future SIL, Matt, helping put a lower cabinet back in place.

YIPPEE!!!! Cabinets are back in place!!! We relocated this corner unit from the opposite corner of the kitchen so the refrigerator could go on the other end instead of sticking out half-way through the doorway. I love this corner unit because there's a huge three-tiered lazy susan in it. Great for all the canned goods and miscellaneous food items.


Upper cabinets, new Kenmore Elite microhood (microwave, convectionoven and range hood all in one), Kenmore stove and circa 1996 Kenmore side-by-side fridge.

Microhood and stove. I'm still reading the instructions for the microhood because I need to learn how to use the convection oven. It's time to go bake some shortcake for the strawberries and whipped cream we forgot about yesterday.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Kitchen Renovation Part 1

The story behind these pictures is below them because I haven't been able to figure out how to insert the pictures at the end of my story...

Before



During




After not being able to cook on my broken stove for over a year a decision was made to replace it. Since it was a circa 1969 Nutone 24-inch wide unit with matching wall oven there was not an economical way to replace both units, so we decided to rearrange the cabinets and buy a free-standing range. My dreams of finally owning a smooth glass top range came crashing down when the salesman at Sears told me I couldn't do any canning with my huge pressure cooker on it. So, back to the drawing board, but WAIT! Good news, I was able to get a fancier microhood than originally planned with the money saved by not getting the smooth top range. Now I'll have a convection/microwave combo with the exhaust fan underneath (built in to same unit). The new stove and microhood are bisque. Yeah, I don't go with the crowd and since the crowd likes stainless and I detest cleaning it, bisque it is! The dishwasher didn't come in bisque, go figure, so we got a black one. Last weekend my daughter and her fiance came over to help us pull out the stove/oven unit and rearrange the lower cabinets. I will post those pictures here. Tonight my husband and I removed the huge upper corner cabinet that has an awesome three-tiered lazy susan inside. It's going where the refrigerator used to be on the other end of the same wall. Man was it ever dirty! Since there's an open gridwork on the door rather than solid wood, all kinds of dust and grime got inside. Of course we couldn't see it because of all the cans stacked inside. Anyway, let me see if I can remember how to post pictures...