What it takes to fully demo a kitchen! Our DIY kitchen reno progress
Other posts on this DIY kitchen reno:
- Read about our design/plans here
- See all the house before photos here
- See how we built our cabinets here.
- Read about our kitchen demo day here.
- See how we installed our cabinets here.
- Learn about our budget-friendly marble-look quartz countertops here.
- See our handmade-look tile backsplash/mosaic tile pros/cons here.
- Read how to lay sheet vinyl flooring in a complex, larger space here.
- Read about our kitchen sink and faucet (and why we didn't choose a farm sink and bridge faucet)
- Learn how to choose cabinet hardware and see the beautiful, affordable modern traditional options I considered
- See our chunky wood floating-look easy, budget-friendly DIY open shelf tutorial
- Read how we saved $4k on higher-end looking appliances
- Get the DIY built-in range hood tutorial here
- See my comparison of budget-friendly cabinet options (beyond IKEA!) here
- See my video about our cabinets, start to finish.
- See the full BUDGET breakdown here
- See the full reveal HERE!
Demo Day(s)
Day 1 - Saturday
First I removed the quarter round molding and baseboards while Jason took down the upper cabinets. Then I removed the top layer of flooring, an adhesive plank wood-look vinyl tile that the previous owners had put on as a quick fix over the worn-out old yellow vinyl from the 70's or 80's (which was laid on top of the original speckled linoleum). Luckily the flooring tiles weren't stuck to the yellow stuff at all, just to each other. (We aren't removing the yellow vinyl, since we had it tested and the glue underneath it contains asbestos. We're laying our new flooring on top--more on that later!)
Then Jason and his brother removed the base cabinets, which involved turning off the power to disconnect appliances, plus of course disconnecting the sink/plumbing. (Long day.)
That was a good stopping point, and we had someone from Facebook Marketplace picking up all the cabinets so had to be done by 4pm Saturday for that! We were beat after that and went to my mother-in-law's for dinner rather than cook (we brought Thai takeout, we deserved it).
Day 2 - Sunday
Then Sunday Jason demoed the small soffits that were above the range hood and upper cabinets (in the corners). One of them covered up an electrical box, and the other must have been for symmetry. Our cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling so we needed them gone!
Jason also scraped off as much as possible of the old glue from the laminate "backsplash" that was there before (we still will have to figure out how to make that even enough for tiling) and undercut the door frames for the new vinyl flooring to go under. Finally, he cleaned up all the dust, etc. REALLY WELL. (We also taped off the doors that go from the kitchen to the rest of the house, to keep little bits of dust and old paint contained.)
Sunday night my parents invited us over for dinner. After a long day it is so nice to not have to cook or do dishes!
By the way, our temporary kitchen has been getting some use, thought I'd share it in its cluttered-but-mostly-fully-functional state. Microwave, hot plate, dishes... we also have a plastic tub to carry dirty dishes to the bathtub to wash! We do have some paper plates but are also using real utensils, bowls, etc.
Next Steps
We also started our flooring installation process Sunday--I am excited we are using a slate-look vinyl which I will share a lot more about soon! We made our template and got the floors ready Sunday night.
We have most of the next week off to work on the kitchen, so let's hope things keep moving along relatively smoothly!!
We have most of the next week off to work on the kitchen, so let's hope things keep moving along relatively smoothly!!
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