!!!

I couldn't wait to post about this....WE HAVE A STOVE!! 

Also, here is a rough peek at the clean upper cabinets.

We Have Counters!

The countertops have been cut and attached to one another. Steps left to have a functional kitchen: attach counters to the cabinets, slide in the range, drill holes for the plumbing, and get all the plumbing connected and running.

Uppers

Just a quick update with a sneak peek of our progress today. The upper cabinets now have doors and handles. Hooray!

One Step Forward, Half Step Back

Back in October we told ourselves we would have a functioning kitchen in time for Thanksgiving. Well that deadline came and went with still no kitchen.

Most recently, Nate and his dad were able to install the upper cabinets and the new microwave. However, the microwave only worked for less than a day before it crapped out. We were afraid it was due to an issue with our electrical work. Luckily, it was just an issue with the microwave.

But this is where we are at: The lower cabinets are assembled and ready to be installed. Now if we could only find the time to do it...

Slow and Steady

We are finally gaining our living room back. Once we finished all the patching and painting we moved our dining table and bar back into the kitchen/dining room.

We have spent the last few days putting cabinets together. As we got to work on them today, we realized that our initial plan for the lower cabinets was wrong...after putting together the problem cabinet. Two trips to Ikea later, we managed to finish the cabinet assembly.

Words of advice:  Know where your plumbing and dishwasher outlet line up in relation to the cabinets...before buying them.

The Saga Continues..

Well I think we all know Nate is the writer in this family. But he is currently busy staining our kitchen floor. So here is my photo update of the work we have done:

This is where we left off in our last post. Upper cabinets were removed.

Next came the demolition of the soffits.

There was no ceiling behind them so it was a super messy job. Luckily our insulation did not contain fiberglass.

We had to patch up the ceiling...something that is still a work in progress.

We removed all of the remaining cabinets and countertops. This was my favorite day because I got to use a sledgehammer!

And this is what we have been living with for the past couple weeks.

Other things that we have done that are not shown are the electrical work for the new appliances (with the help of our friend's dad), painting of the walls, and the long and awful process of prepping the floor.

Obviously this was not done in one day, or even one weekend. It has been a slow process since we are only able to work on it on the weekends, between family get-togethers and ASU football games. We are slightly behind on the initial schedule we set for ourselves but that is mostly because we were being a bit ambitious.

It has been just a little over a month since we started this project. Overall it has been going well. No major issues encountered and Nate and I haven't killed each other yet (Phew!). We have had LOTS of help from Nate's dad. And my mom is our official "Clean-up Crew." We even called in my 13 year-old nephew for help this weekend (probably broke some child labor laws there). We are so grateful and lucky to have such amazing family members that are willing to give up their weekends to help us.




P.S. The floor is looking awesome!

Sneak Peek

We haven't updated in a while but we have been getting shit done! We will be sure to do a full update soon. But in the mean time here is a sneak peek:

This happened two weeks ago. I am so sick of not having a kitchen...I miss home cooked meals and my dishwasher.

Appetite for Destruction

Spirits up, sledgehammer down.

After years of dreaming, months of planning and weeks of waiting, The Avocado Kitchen is finally being torn out. With the help of Nate's dad, we dove straight into deconstruction over the holiday weekend, tearing out all the upper cabinets in the joint.

What we learned:

- Deconstruction is part-surgery, part-massacre. Assessing the details of how the cabinets are constructed, how they're affixed to the wall and what the potential pratfalls of tearing them out is certainly important, but in the end, there's no way to complete the process without a little brute strength.

- There is no ceiling concealed behind the soffits in our kitchen, so in order to tear the soffits out as planned, we'll need a few extra steps to build in a ceiling on our own. This shouldn't be a particularly costly process, but will push our reno. plans back by at least a week or two.

- Our new kitchen will be even more airy and open than we imagined. Tearing out the dated, quintessentially '70s hanging cabinets has already made such a difference to the look and feel of the room.

Next, we'll be scheduling a set of deadlines for each phase of this project, including the ceiling, walls, floors, electrical, plumbing and cabinets. No biggie.

Before

After

Special delivery!

 Our "kitchen" was delivered today. If only it came pre-assembled so we could just slide our cabinets and countertops into place. There weren't quite as many boxes as I expected, which helps to ease the anxiety.

Can't wait to get started!

Re-cap

In anticipation of our huge kitchen delivery tomorrow, I wanted to do a little recap of the work we have done.

As stated in the last post, we stained the floors, had the popcorn ceilings redone, and painted the walls. Here is the living room, as an example of the work we did:

 Living room in its original condition.

 Tearing out the carpet and getting a hint of the the concrete's condition.

The disgusting amount of dirt that was under the carpet.

 The pain in the ass process...scraping the paint from the floor and taking out all those nails. We debated filling in the holes left by the nails. We tested it out in the master bedroom and found that it didn't look any nicer with the holes patched up. After staining that test area it looks like old gum on the floor.

The messy staining process. Luckily we found a soy-based stain so we did not have to go about this in hazmat suits.

The finished product! Note: a smooth ceiling!

 Someday we will post a house tour with before and after pictures of each room. For now we just hope to keep up this blog during the kitchen renovation process.

The Return

It has been quite a while since our last post (over two years, yikes!). In that time we had the ceilings redone, painted walls, stained the floors and really moved in and started our lives here. Most of the work was done in the first couple months of moving in. But now we are going to put our patience and carpentry skills to the test...

It is official. We are renovating the Avocado Kitchen.

We have been wanting to do this project for a while but we were either too broke or too busy to even think about it. Now with some stability in our lives and money in the bank, we found the time was right. This past Saturday we went to Ikea, dropped some mad $$$, and purchased our kitchen. It seems surreal still but come Friday when they deliver our cabinets, counters, range, microwave, etc in a million boxes, it will set in...and maybe so will a bit of panic.

For now we are thrilled to finally upgrade our Avocado Kitchen, even if it means getting our hands a little dirty and eating out at Amado's a lot.