My Crowbar and Me

We know our kitchen renovation will be expensive, so we're trying to save money when we can. We decided to do the demolition of the existing kitchen ourselves. We figured, if we mess it up it's no big deal because we're throwing it all out anyway.

The house was built in 1930, and I don't think the kitchen has been upgraded since. Well, except for the layers of laminate floor and vinyl glued to the hardwood floors. The counters were built with 2 inches of poured cement and tile on a slope toward the sink, the cabinet doors don't shut, etc. This is how it looked:

Friday after work the demolition began. I'm fierce with a crowbar and a mallet. And to be honest, I enjoyed it. There is something primal about destruction. It's a good way to work out frustrations. It's also a good way to get tetanus. There were ancient, rusty nails everywhere. We were trying to be good about placing the old boards with the nails facing down, but I must've missed one. I stepped right on the nail - it went through the bottom of my tennis shoe and I felt it touch my foot, but luckily I had stepped lightly and was able to stop myself before the nail broke the skin. Still, a littley scary.

The demolition continued into Saturday afternoon. When we finished, we had quite a respectable pile of debris in the middle of our floor. Our cabinets looked more like this:

And our kitchen is looking a bit scary.

This morning, we took all the debris to the city dump. That was kind of fun, too - throwing the old stuff into the dumpsters. Hearing the satisfying crash of glass and tile breaking. I think it's satisfying because it's the sound of progress in this renovation project.

Now, I think it's time to call in the professionals. Lee will be talking to a couple of kitchen companies tomorrow, and hopefully we can turn this mess into a nice new kitchen soon.