Kitchen Renovation

So…

When we were going through our carpenter ant problem (see log home restoration blog post), we took apart some of our cabinets to to check for ant activity in the walls and logs. Taking those cabinets down started a snowball effect which ultimately led to us updating our entire kitchen! Paul essentially made Suz’s dream kitchen come alive. The following photos document the kitchen transformation from demo day, to done!

December 2, 2023 - Kitchen demolition commences with removing cabinets.

Old cabinets and countertops gone. Next up, flooring.

Hardwood under the tile doesn’t look so hot. Uh oh!

One of the big questions was whether or not this wall was load bearing. The answer would determine which design we could easily do, without trying to redistribute weight to hold up the second floor. Lucky us, because it was not load bearing and we could just take it right out!

Paul had some head-scratchers with the gas line and plumbing for the upstairs washer and drier. He is self-described as half-genius/half-hammer, which seems about right after seeing how he’s able to make things work!

Keep in mind… this is the end of day one! Demo goes quick. The rest of the photos are spread out over the next couple months. A lot happened in between working on the kitchen - Christmas stuff, Paul in and out of the hospital with Giardia (that’s a whole other story, glad you’re ok Paul!), New Year’s, me and Suz went to Hawaii and left Paul to install the cabinets all by himself, and a couple other hiccups. But here’s the rest!

This was the floor under the tile where the fridge used to be.

So Paul tore it all up and laid down new sub floor.

Mom and Bear dog having some bonding time in the recliner.

I wanted to sand down the logs to treat them with pesticide/preservative to thwart any future ant infestations, because a false wall would need to be installed over them. Hate to hide those beautiful logs, but it made the most sense for the plumbing and electric for the new kitchen layout.

Once the false wall was up, Paul put up all the sheetrock by himself in less than 24 hours!

Half-genius/half-hammer indeed.

I helped when I could.

As I said earlier, me and Suz took a trip to Hawaii for a week and we came home to this!

Paul turned it from an empty room into a kitchen just like that. Flooring was up next.

“Hey Paul, say cheese!”

When Bear’s not in the recliner with mom he’s getting smooches from Paul.

After the countertops were put in, backsplash was the next thing that I could help with. Paul taught me how to use the wet saw and we made a million cuts on this complex marble tile. It was a ton of work but Suz picked a nice one - it’s beautiful.

February 14, 2024. A couple tiny thing still need finished but generally it’s all done.

We love you mom and Paul and we can not thank you enough!