garden girl: kitchen demolition

Well, today the fun began......It is time to fix our plumbing / subfloor problem. Larry took off work & we started the "demo" at 8 am.

The sink first had to be removed...which was firmly in place by clear silicone! Then, after painstakingly removing all the caulking, we were able to remove the sink (with the help of our neighbor Kenton).

Only one small casualty in the tile....easily fixable & in the back.

Then the sink cabinet had to be removed, which was a little tricky because it was screwed on to the tile countertops (or rather, the tile countertops were screwed into the cabinet) So, after using a hacksaw blade only, we (Larry ) sawed off the screws..

Step 3, was somehow remove the cabinet with the tile countertop intact without destroying the backsplash or wall. But the cabinet could not come out until we removed more floorboards.......

Well, wasn't meant to be. Backsplash is a gonner. Oh well, better than the whole countertop. Now I'll just need to figure out how to remove the backsplash from the wall & start over.....new sheetrock...yuck. I am not having fun!

OK...so the next step was more wet, smelly pressboard removal (which was under the cabinet)

Nasty, smelly stuff!!!

With the cabinet gone, the real fun can begin.....

Ever wonder what your house looks like underneath all the flooring??

Something we did not realize: subflooring is tongue & groove! So, it is not as simple as cutting out the old piece and putting in the new, nosirreeeee, it is going to be much more difficult than that! You had to know this right? Nothing goes as planned in this sort of thing. Haven't you seen all those home improvement shows on HGTV?? Expect delays...So that board was not going to come out easily, not without jumping on, cutting, and prying to get the "maggot" out. That is Larry's word. It has many useful applications, such as describing a stubborn subfloor board. OK, so when we finally got it all out, it was time to put the new one in. Shouldn't be a problem since it is the same size & all. Nosirreeeee, it had to be cut, recut, whittled, notched etc.... By this time it was 8:30pm and "someone"was starting to get a little bit cranky........The rugrats were hungry, we had no water, no counter, no kitchen floor.......why do they need to eat sooo often??? Geez, everytime you turn around they want breakfast, lunch or dinner.

AND WE WERE MISSING AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By 9:00 the new floor was laid down, not nailed, but laying down flat & flush with the rest. phew!!!