Here's the progress so far on the kitchen. What turned into a "let's fix it up as best we can" project has turned into "rip it all out!" Well, everything but the top cupboards and the ceiling. We can thank Rob N's frankness for the turnaround. He called the present kitchen an abomination. Yep, that's about right.

I'm actually happy to keep the top cupboards. I like the retro 40's set up with the sink under the sunny window and the scrolly stuff up above. Besides, complimenting the retro-ness will help us make decisions about decor and it will fit into the rest of the house better.

We are now finished stage two--drywall. Let's summarize, shall we?

We went from knotty pine walls installed by an obviously drunk handyman in the 70's:




















To original painted plank walls. We might well be looking at the original 110 year old walls. It was very exciting to see. The middle shelf moulding is gone, but you can see that it used to be wainscotting with horizontal planks above. I could easily picture how this kitchen might have looked so long ago. I could also picture bats flying out of all of those holes... so we couldn't get on to stage 2 quick enough...




















Stage 2 included drywalling and taping. We left the old wood underneath. It went suprisingly well, considering nothing is straight and drunk handyman in the 70's did some majorly bone-headed door framing to cause us extra work.




















Oy, the sanding and the mess and the sanding...














The cats are so totally over it. They hide as soon as the tools come out.














If you just can't get enough of these photos-- you can find the rest of them here.

Next stage: Ripping out the bottom cabinets and then new flooring. The man came today to look at the floor and give us an estimate. He discovered some wonky problem that we have to fix before he can do anything (part of the sub floor is not attached to the joist blah blah blah). Of.Course. The joys of an old house that has been violated by a drunk handyman from the 70's.

Stay tuned...