Day 5 #kitchenrenovation

Plumbing and electrical rough in day!  Who knew I would become so excited about electricity and plumbing???  Below is the new plumbing for the sink and the garbage disposal.  Buh-bye slow and crude infested elbows...hello shiny, new, straight shot pipe (see...told you I was crazy about plumbing!)  There was a minor crisis created by a certain someone who will remain nameless (coughjimcough) thinking that we would not be able to have a garbage disposal due to the deepness of the farmhouse sink.  Basically, the risk that you run when having a farmhouse sink is that due to how deep it is (10"+ vs. a standard sink of about 6") the piping may be too high to have a garbage disposal connected to it.  Luckily, they sell shorter garbage disposals that can accommodate a farmhouse sink and our piping is low enough.  Phew!  Crisis averted!  Now we just have to buy a garbage disposal that we weren't planning on buying....death by a thousand cuts.

Here you can see all the new brightly colored wire that will become plugs and outlets.  No more cloth covered wires and gas light fixtures!  Woohoo! Hello 21st century electrical!

The two new recessed (or pot as some refer to them as) lights in the old hallway.  I have to say I wasn't really prepared to do the lighting design and didn't really think about it...again another reason I'm glad we got a general contractor who was able to help us out in this area.  The old fixture that was here is going at the top of the basement stairs and will replace the boob light (real term) that is there now.

This is being shot from the inside of the pantry.  You can see the new plywood wall that is going up where the old doorway used to be.  We moved the pantry doorway for two reasons.  One being so we could fit in a peninsula and the second is now we can actually have normal depth cabinets in the pantry as opposed to the pretty useless 9" depth cabinets that were there.  Let me tell you not a lot of food boxes fit in a 9" depth cabinet. 

The fireplace hole was bricked in!  The new bricks match the old ones pretty well.  I love it and can't wait to slap some white paint on it.  The other hole will be bricked up as well.

The Laundry nook!!!!  It's really starting to take shape...so exciting!  The plumbing for the laundry sink and the washer and dryer were installed.  We still aren't sure of the set up in this area yet...are we going to stack the washer/dryer?  Put them side by side with a counter over them?  Real life problems we have to deal with here people.  Stress!

Better shot of the plumbing.  I will do a post on the laundry sink cabinet at a later date.

This a semi-random picture but Jim and I both were like what the heck is this random wire hanging from the basement ceiling but we think it is the electricity for the dishwasher.  You can see the old cloth wire here as well.

That wraps up day 5.  Not as exciting as tear walls down kinda excitement but still fun nonetheless.

Day 4 #kitchenrenovation

Yesterday, the pantry was demoed as seen in the picture below.  The black and white tiled floors, the cabinets and and the counter were removed.  We're going to try and craig's list the cabinets, oven and microwave/vent and refrigerator.  If you know of anyone who is interested inany of these things, please let me know.

Here's a good shot of the new pantry doorway.

This is the water shut off and valves for the old washer/dryer.  Mike will likely cap these pipes and drywall over them.  This is will be a big open wall...not sure how we'll fill it up...art work?  hang things like broom, etc?  Hang our pots here?  Leave blank?  Ahhh the possibilities!

Another interesting thing Mike discovered during the demo was the live electrical wires that were just hanging out behind our walls...kinda scary that things like this were lurking behind walls while we were none the wiser. It makes me very grateful we have someone like Mike who is making sure things are done correctly. The live wire that was just duck taped is the green wire directly to the left of the window with the black tape on the end.  There were a couple others just like this throughout the kitchen.

The old/new closet is really starting to take shape.  I love how tall it is.  It would be cool if we use that box on the top of the closet as an open shelf with a basket in it....hmmmm I wonder if that's possible......my wheels are turning...and Jim is shuddering....

 Until tomorrow!