I bought my house about two years ago and got to work renovating it in the same week. The house was over 80 years old and has some areas that needed immediate attention. Because it was a townhouse style, I knew that things would be tight in the house. I usually prefer large and expansive homes as opposed to thin homes. But I knew that I could fix this house up and probably sell it for a huge benefit when the time was right.
The first thing I did when it came to the kitchen was decide that I would redo the whole thing. There was this gross and very used linoleum flooring that needed to go as fast as possible. The cabinets had no design and no order to them and barely even fit within the small galley kitchen. The people before me didn’t even leave any appliances, except for a stove that probably didn’t even work anymore. I was almost in tears when I thought about the amount of work that would be unto cleaning up the kitchen, but I had just bought the house and was hopeful that I would have it all finished soon.
I started by removing the cabinets. I brought my brother into the home and together we knocked out every single last remaining cabinet. I found dust, old bugs and a host of unspeakable items behind that cabinets, but at least they were out.
Next, we knocked out the ceiling. This home had been built with a ceiling that was lower than it needed to be, so we got rid of it and raised the ceiling by a good foot. On the way day, we started ripping up the floor. The floor took forever to get rid of because there were so many layers of dirt and other harsh glues.
Once the kitchen was virtually gutted, I decided that the kitchen did not have nearly enough space. It was too small, dark and confined. I decided then to switch directions and change my kitchen from a galley kitchen into an open kitchen that looked right into the living room.
I started by knocking the dry wall and paneling out of the kitchen and living room at the same time. I got through layers of cement glue and drywall boards until I started to see the other side. Luckily, I avoid all of the electrical wires and water pipes.
Once the wall was entirely out of the house and I had a huge hole in the house. I installed drywall on the sides, to make the house appear to have two columns in the kitchen. In reality, I needed these columns because they housed all of the piping and electrical wires. I couldn’t do anything upstairs without the electrical wires!
Next, I hired a kitchen designer and contractor to come out and design some cabinets for me. They came back with a design that included a new kitchen sink, stove area and a really well-planned counter space. They got started in two weeks and were done in two months. My new kitchen is fun, open and very bright. It was worth all of the effort that I put into it!