kpjoyce.com

The Kitchen's Gone

The last time that I discussed my home renovation project in this forum, I had just substantially finished work on the living room. A significant amount of work has happened since then. I enjoyed the improved cleanliness and livability of the new living room for about a week before I tore into the big project that is the core of the whole renovation: the total rework of the kitchen and breakfast room area. This killed any hint of cleanliness or livability.

This is going to involve the complete removal of the existing kitchen and restructuring of the back of the house to remove a room. I will have to repair significant water damage from past plumbing disasters and rot from irresponsible regrading in the back yard (causing wood framing to come in contact with the soil). I will add a half bath and laundry room, and replumb the house. I will take the opportunity to rewire a good portion of the house as well. And then, I will of course have to put in a new kitchen. Maybe I'll post pictures of the plans.

I'm a few weeks into this already. Precisely, I have just finished the demolition and am starting construction. Demo was a slippery slope. Every time you removed one area, you could justify taking the next area as well. I can be pretty confident that I'm done at this point, though. There is nothing more to remove.

I don't know why I have been so quiet about this here. Anyone who interacts with me on a daily basis will tell you that I think, talk, and worry about it incessantly. I'm really enjoying it, and it is a nice distraction from work. With work, my disposable keyboard time is pretty minimal which probably has a lot to do with the lack of discussion here. Still, I'm excited to share the story and share progress with anyone who is interested. To that end, I'm experimenting with putting my house on Twitter. This way, I get another outlet for incessant house project talk along with an excuse to play with my iPhone. So stick my house in your RSS readers, kids, and follow along at home.

Like Mike suggested, this can be your own private HGTV program. Only I don't lift weights as much as the contractors on that network. I swear that they recruit carpenters on the Golds Gym bulletin board.

I can also get pictures up faster and easier using Flickr. Here's one from early last weekend. Click the photo to see the whole photostream. And check back often to see updates.