15_Plan Adjustment: Kitchen Remodeling

We took a break after finishing the first installment of hardwood flooring on July 3^rd. At this time, we were debating on how far should we install the hardwood flooring in the kitchen. If we installed until the border between eating area and kitchen cabinets, and left the tiles around the kitchen cabinets, that would make the whole kitchen looked weird. But if we installed in the whole kitchen, and later on we wanted to remodel the kitchen, we might have to rearrange the flooring with adding or cutting it.

In addition, we left some of the wood paneling wall around the kitchen cabinets, thinking that we didn’t want to remodel the kitchen now. The cabinets looked fine and functional and the appliances seemed new. But again, having a kitchen room with two different walls and floors would look weird. If we remodeled the kitchen later, we might encounter problems that we should have taken care earlier. So, after thinking it through, we decided to remodel the kitchen now. It would add to our expenses but it would be a good investment.

Tearing Down The Kitchen

So we went back to the house at 2PM and started to tear down the kitchen right away. We tore down the laminate flooring in the dining room, wood paneling wall in the kitchen, and the kitchen cabinets. My husband secured all the appliances before he tore down the cabinets. We moved the refrigerator to the living room because we used it daily, while other appliances such as the stove and dishwasher were stored in a separate room.

The refrigerator was moved to the living room.

Removing kitchen cabinets, step by step.

I personally tore down the laminate flooring. This wasn’t a difficult job; I finished it within an hour. However, we found that beneath the laminate flooring, there was linoleum flooring and it was not easy to take it out. Although linoleum itself is just a sheet, it takes strong glue to attach it. In this case, it was attached to wood flooring that was nailed to the subfloor; that was what made it difficult to be taken out. Well at least it was difficult for me; anyway, I didn’t continue.

Left: Laminate flooring in the dining room. Right: Me, removing the laminate flooring by using a crowbar.

Left: An insulation sheet underneath the laminate flooring. Right: Linoleum flooring lay beneath the laminate flooring.

We finished working at 6PM because we didn’t really have much energy. We finished with half of the kitchen cabinets being torn down.

From Above Left, Above Right to Below: Step by step in removing kicthen cabinets.

More Drywalls

After having a long resting time, my husband felt very energized on July 4^th. He even was ready to work from 6AM! So he went to the house alone and continued tearing down the kitchen cabinets for the next 3 hours. In the afternoon, he finished ripping off the remaining kitchen wall, included the one that divided the living room and the kitchen.

Above Left: The kitchen cabinets were completely removed. Below Right: The wall was also removed.

Since we had another open walls, we had to close them with more drywalls. So we spent the evening by installing drywalls in the kitchen. This time the challenge lay on maneuvering between the water pipes. We also found that there was a hole in the wall that went through the laundry room! That was like a freeway for cockroaches. So we covered the hole with an insulation sheet taken from the dining room, before we installed the drywall.

Installing new drywalls behind the water pipes.

Left: A hole between kitchen and laundry room. Right: The hole was covered with an insulation sheet from the dining room.

The hole was covered with drywalls.

 At 8PM, my husband felt that the tiredness had caught him up; so we stopped working. However, we ate out before going home to celebrate my first 4^th of July. This would be a good memory: celebrating American biggest holiday by doing construction work.

More Beams

Since we opened more space i.e. the wall between the kitchen and living room, we needed to install another beams. So, on July 5^th, during lunchtime, we bought another beams. This time, the beams were not as long as the previous, thus, it wasn’t so heavy. Later on in the evening, we installed the beams to create a new space. Like before, we built supporting studs first, knocked out the original studs, put the beams on the supporting studs and then put screws on them.

Buying another beams.

From Above Left, Below Left to Right: Step by step in installing beams.

Kitchen Design And Appliances

As we had an open kitchen space now, we took measure to draft a kitchen layout. We planned to build an L-shape kitchen plus an island for the stove. Since the stove wouldn’t be close to any wall, we decided to have a telescopic downdraft as its vent; rather than having a hanging vent in a middle of the kitchen.

We also decided to buy a new smaller refrigerator. The available refrigerator was too big and not in-line with our design. Beside, we didn’t need big refrigerator, it would consumed too much energy; we didn’t think we would store much food for the two of us. Furthermore, during the renovation, we often bumped and made some dents to that big refrigerator.

Lastly, we decided to buy a microwave to complete our kitchen appliances. Microwave wasn’t included in the house purchase, so we needed one. We ordered all the appliances online as they were still on discounts for the 4^th of July holiday. 

With this plan adjustment, we would need longer time to renovate. This meant it would be better to have our furniture delivery being pushed back. So earlier that day, my husband requested for extending the storage time. He argued that his transfer date was being pushed back several times, which made us couldn’t plan our moving better. This was true, because at that time, we didn’t have any clue when my Green Card would be issued. That was why my husband’s transfer date was kept getting changed.

Drywalls, Drywalls, And Drywalls

On July 6^th, we continued installing drywalls in the kitchen and on the new installed beams. We also installed an additional small beam at the opening of the hallway to mark the edge of the renovation project. Hence, the drywall contractor would only work until that edge, and not through the entire hallway.

Installing drywalls to the remaining open walls.

Left: Installing small beam as an edge. Right: The small beam was covered with drywall.

We sped up the work because in the next day, the L & L Drywall contractor would come to finish the entire drywalls. We then took out all the lamps in the living room, kitchen, and dining room areas, which made the rooms become dark after sunset.

Above Left: The lamp in the dining room. Below Right: No more lamp in the dining room.

Above Left: The lamp in the kitchen. Right: The lamp was taken out from the kitchen.

Finishing drywalls took several steps of coating; with the first one is the longest. The time needed gradually decreasing over the next steps. So on July 7^th, we didn’t do anything as the drywall guys needed the whole day to do the first coating.

Drywall finishing works.

Dumping The Construction Debris

On July 8^th, Clayton from L & L Drywall said that he would need a half-day to work on the drywall. To make use of time, we decided to dump the construction debris that had been piled up in the garage. We browsed on the Internet and found out that there was a city landfill in the downtown area. The price for dumping private/household construction waste was $20/load.

So we filled up our van as much as we can. Not all the debris could fit in. Woods, that longer than our van’s length, couldn’t go in. So did broken kitchen cabinets. We went to the city landfill and found that there were many other cars dumping their household construction waste and old furniture like sofas or mattresses. We also found out that pickup trucks couldn’t have as much load as our van; so we had better use of the $20 dumping price.

Left: Our construction debris on the first dumping. Right: Our load for the second dumping.

We had to put the waste in the available big dumpsters in a place that looked like a parking lot. Once they are full, big trucks would come to take them to the landfill and put empty ones at the lot. When we unloaded the debris, I realized that I was the only female who did that. Other females were just there accompanying their spouses unloading the waste. Even if they helped, they only carried light stuff such as cardboards or small amount of wood. I felt like Wonder Woman.

After learning on dumping in the city landfill, we decided to dump the rest of our waste. We went back to the house, cut the remaining woods and broken cabinets into smaller pieces and loaded them to the van. We drove back to the landfill and dump them.

Kitchen Cabinets

We spent the day at the apartment; we took a rest and discussed about the new kitchen cabinets. My husband found a website about kitchen cabinetmakerin Pennsylvania (PA) that had very good reviews. Seriously, all the reviewers gave 5 out of 5 stars, nothing less. Of course, we were interested; but as once might assume, it was expensive. The cabinets were made from solid wood. Most cabinets in the hardware chain stores were made from mixed wood or engineered wood, where residuals of different woods are mixed and compressed with resin and wax to form dense wood.

We then went to Home Depot to see whether it had similar options; but it had not. As mentioned before, all of the kitchen cabinets available were made from engineered wood. We figure that Lowes would have the same, since they were both in the same type of business. So, we decided to order our kitchen cabinets from the one in PA as an investment.