The Beginning of the (Kitchen) End

After Seattle, I headed back to Charlotte for my final few days with my team. We partied a little too hard on Wednesday night after kayaking at the U.S. Whitewater Center (so fun), so I was super ready to go home, relax, and start the kitchen demolition.

da.club.

We were up early Saturday morning to head to West Chester for Andrew's qualifying race for the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium. Andrew grew up watching the race in his home town and had always dreamed of doing it, so we were all super excited when both he and Dan qualified for the race. We spent the day with his parents and siblings before heading to the race.

The boys before the race

The boys did great in the race and it was such a cool experience to be a spectator. It was a fun night but we needed to head home early to get ready for the Sunday of kitchen demolition.

The start of a very fun race

A few weeks ago we had an electrician come over to give us an estimate for all the work we need to have done in preparation for the new kitchen. The quote was $1700, giving me a heart attack. Fortunately, we talked to my father in law, Jim, and he said he could do all the work himself! Yes! We asked for him to come do the work on Sunday, since the floors will be installed next weekend.

My new light for above the island!

Prepping for the electric work - the blue line is our new island!

Our new cabinets will have under cabinet lighting, so we started the day by ripping out the upper cabinets and stove and doing the hard wiring. Behind the stove was absolutely disgusting, lots of dead mice and poop.

Everyone helped rip out the cabinets

Gross dead mouse

Timmy being a huge help

I feel so bad for our poor cats through this entire process so we made sure to give them lots of extra attention. Timmy thinks the whole process is fun but poor Merrill needed lots of love throughout the day.

Mer mer was not happy 

We had originally thought that we would keep the kitchen together until later in the week but we decided, since we had the extra help, we would pack up the whole kitchen. My mother in law, Nancy, was a huge help and we had every cabinet emptied, ripped out, and ready to donate to Habitat for Humanity. 

Andrew ripping out the cabinets

Bye bye nasty kitchen!

Our kitchen being empty means the rest of our house is a mess. I feel bad because everyone in the house will be eating out of the toaster oven for the next few weeks while I am in Secaucus, NJ on my next project. We did our best to make it livable, but it will not be convenient.

Food prep station

The final electrician work Jim helped us with was moving the electric box about a foot so our new light will be centered over our new island. Jim was great because he let Andrew help out and learn how to do the electrical work.

The electric box is ready for the light, which we won't install until after the floors and cabinets are installed. When I get home on Thursday night, it will be my job to paint the ceiling (the worst!).

Andrew adding the final screws for the day

While I am gone this week, Andrew will rip out the floors and buy everything we need for installation next Saturday with my parents! It's going to be a stressful few weeks but we know it is going to be worth it!