Day 1 and 2

Our contractor and two of his crew members arrived early for the first day of work just as we were heading to the airport for a wedding. We were told that when we returned on Sunday the walls surrounding the kitchen between our living and dining room would be gone, as well as everything in the kitchen.

I should start with some "before" pictures. Eventually I will dig up some true "before" pictures with details on the ivy stenciling and peel and stick tile that were part of the kitchen when we purchased our 1950s split entry. We couldn't live with that kitchen for long and made some minor inexpensive improvements to make it livable for four years. This was the state of the kitchen when we left our house for the airport:

This picture really makes the kitchen look decent. I should explain that we have white cabinets with newer modern looking handles, and a newer faucet. Nothing fancy, but simple measures we took to make our kitchen livable when we first moved in. The peel and stick tiles that were cracking and breaking were replaced about a year ago with inexpensive vinyl "wood like" planks. The dishwasher has been barely usable as seals have broken leaving us with a mold problem inside of it. The cabinets were probably one day beautiful since they are solid wood, but although cabinet materials have gone downhill over time, the construction and use of space within a cabinet has greatly improved making these older cabinets a bit of a bummer. The configuration of the kitchen was the largest problem. It's not a small kitchen but all of the counter space and cabinets are shown in this picture because kitchens of the 50s were designed to have an open area for a large kitchen table. Unfortunately pantries, an area for trash and recyling as well as countertop space didn't seem to be a priority back then.

At the end of day 1, our contractor sent us this picture:

On day 1 and 2 all of the cabinets and appliances were removed along with the soffit and the two walls. Fortunately when we returned to our kitchen on Sunday night, it looked like this:

The walls to the right of the kitchen and at the forefront of this photo were entirely removed, and a temporary wall was created to keep the ceiling from falling in on us (who knew it just took a few strong sticks).

Oddly enough, we thought the space would feel larger but somehow without anything there to remind us of the scale of a kitchen, it felt smaller. I'm sure this will just be temporary perception!

Our old cabinets and our appliances are now stacked up in our dining room.