Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Kitchen Construction





There's nothing quite like looking through your bedroom wall out the kitchen window...


When we first bought our house with only conscious plans to do a bathroom renovation we did notice that the wall in our bedroom backing up to the kitchen was covered in bead board. We also noticed that the bead board was bulging slightly in the middle. When we removed it we discovered that the previous owner was hiding a hole in the plaster that was left from some sort of old stove (coal or wood?) which had simply been covered over. We took the wall down and decided that it was the perfect opportunity to take the kitchen walls down as well and add more outlets (or any grounded outlets since our house had none). Dave actually ended up bracing the wall and replacing all of the studs between the bedroom and kitchen so that the wall would be straighter. Somewhere in the midst of the kitchen project we decided to systematically go through the house and rebuild the entire interior.

We discovered by going into our walk up attic (a lifesaver that held all of our stuff while we lived like nomads) that the wall between the kitchen and dining room was not load bearing. To make the space feel larger and more open we took out the wall between the two with the exception of a short wall on the right so that we could extend the lower cabinets and enough wall on the left to hide the refrigerator:


Dave took out the two small windows over the sink and replaced them with one large window. When I would wash dishes in the sink before we changed out the windows, my view was blocked by the wood between the two windows instead of having a nice view of the yard. The new larger window let in lots of light, gave us a great view of the yard, and made the kitchen feel even more open.


After Dave ran the new electrical and worked on any studs that needed repair, we hung the drywall. We had never done drywall before we worked on the bathroom so it was still a fairly new process. Dave bought a drywall lift online which helped us hoist the large sheets for the ceiling. After Dave installed the recessed lights, I started mudding the drywall:


When mudding drywall it's important to wear the right gear. Mainly you want to wear a respirator and it doesn't hurt to cover as much of yourself as you can stand. Sometimes it's tempting to just work on a "small section" to see how the process will go before you get suited up and completely prepared. Trust me, it's not a good idea:


When finishing drywall, I really like using sanding sponges because they help to give a really smooth finish and they are easy to use.

After testing several paint samples I decided to mix my own. I used different blues and white to find the perfect color, then painted a scrap piece of drywall. Then I took it to Lowe's and they matched the color for me. I find it really hard to pick out colors from paint swatches and I have had the most success when I matched either a piece of fabric or mixed my own color.



Dave had to replace one of the beams under the kitchen because the hot water heater had been leaking and rotted a large section of the beam. He also replaced about half the subfloor because it had water damage. Then, we laid down backer board for the floor tile and began tiling. Our cat especially enjoyed the tiling process and liked to help clean up the spacers.




After the tiling was done we moved the appliances into place and moved on to the bedroom to work on the drywall there. I think my parents had come to visit and were using the good bedroom so we were left sleeping in the dining room:


3 comments:

  1. Hi Low Country,
    You are doing a great job. Good luck and come visit me @daydreaminganddecorating.blogspot.com

    Merri

    ReplyDelete
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