We’ve had a busy month getting prepped for our kitchen renovation and hopefully it goes smoothly.  This week Ryan took the week off and he and his dad are go-go-going with all the prep work.  First a recap of progress.

Dad came out and taped/spackled my office -the large room.  In the mean time Ryan spackled the playroom.  Last week we got the office sanded and Ryan and his dad primed it on Saturday so when I got home sunday I could clean it and set it up as my office, craft  room, music room, temporary diningroom and kids craft area.  It’s a large room luckily because it is packed to the max!  The table isn’t even moved in yet but will be.

Already packed but the office is primed!

Also over the weekend they got the old flooring up in the hallway and diningroom and new plywood down in both of those rooms.

Hallway floor – when the hallway is empty it’s so large!

Diningroom floor replaced

Yesterday was a big day – we did a little re-wiring in the basement and Ryan and Mark put in some new supports (2x10s) under where one of the kitchen posts would rest to firm it up.  Then they built and installed the beam in the diningroom which will be our replacement for the current wall that is there – we’ll have a nice open wall hopefully by the end of today!

New beam

This morning the guys brought all the cabinets in and stored them safely in the playroom.  They’ve been inspected and luckily all of them are in good shape!  No delay on the kitchen reno due to waiting for replacements or missing cabinets!

Cabinets! The blue ones are the island ones, the Dove white are around the rest of the kitchen

So prep work is all done – the last thing to do is finish emptying the kitchen.  We’re moving the kitchen out to the hallway for now (a long galley style) and i’m packing up any non-essentials.  The hardest thing will be having no sink or dishwasher – we have the bathroom sink right there but it’s quite small.  We’ll be able to use the stove and fridge/freezer just fine and even have cabinet/counter room as we’re moving that out to the hallway.

I think the plan is between today and tomorrow to demo the kitchen and the floor and get the new plywood down.  Thursday they’ll be starting to build it back up – put in the vent for the range hood, run electrical in both kitchen and diningroom.  On friday i’m taking the day off to finish any electrical and they’ll be building the knee wall and doing any sheet rock prep thursday and friday.

The hope (optimistic maybe) is to be sheetrocking this weekend!  Once sheetrock is up there’s the process of taping/spackling/sanding/priming before we can install cabinets so the sooner we can start that the better.

The other delay will be after cabinets are in, waiting for counters.  At this point we’re ahead of our ‘worst case’ schedule to get counters in before xmas so i”m hopeful we’re going to be able to get our kitchen finished and used (minus flooring which is going to be a later on project) before xmas!  Crossing fingers.