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It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... recessed lighting!

Getting creative with lighting.  A good way to pre-plan is to have mock lights to ensure the placement and style is what you want.  In this case, I stapled up cardboard cutouts for a live visual.  This is also a useful guide to your electrician, should you choose to hire it out.  Highly recommended if you don't want to electrocute yourself or have electrical issues in the future.

Look into getting the necessary permits as well - some cities can and will make you re-open your new walls to inspect electrical.

Plan ahead!  As long as the walls and ceiling are open, now is the time to wire all for future needs.  Thing exterior lighting, oven venting, lights for the above rooms, etc.  In this case, I had 2 separate switches that shared wall space.

I wanted this to be uniform so the after knocking out the ceiling, the electrician was able to wire the kitchen, basement, and new exterior light all in the same box.  It's was a bit more work, but it's going to create a finished look rather than 3 separate switches.  

Cutout for future exterior light - safety first!  Always a good idea to have your entry door lit when you come home and it's dark out.

Ready for the next step: reinforcing the ceiling and (gasp!) drywall! 

It's Electric

The kitchen is one of the only remaining rooms with the outdated electrical original to the house.  The main light doesn't have a switch when you enter the room.  Instead, it has a pull cord dangling from the light fixture.  At night, you walk blindly into the room, one hand outreached, waiting to grasp the pull cord, moving one foot in front of the other, hoping that you remembered to close the oven so you don't smash your shins into the door.  These will be fond memories once the rockstar kitchen is complete.  

This is the view from above the door space.  Since the house was built in 1922, pre-electric and super handy drills, they had to cut
Check out the wood shavings that fell.  History at it's finest!

Good thing the ceiling came out because it revealed a burn mark in beam.  So long, old knob and tube electric!

Example of what the potential recessed cans will look like.  This is more for placement 

Next step:  install the powerhouse!  AKA, a lot of awesome lighting.  

Preparing Cabinetry

Getting the cabinetry ready can be tedious, but it makes a world of difference in how they look!  Just remember:  you're going to be looking at your cabinets for a long time.  Take the time, do the steps, and you'll have good results!

Take off hardware and doors before using any product.  You need to spread product on all of the wood surfaces, whether you pre-condition, stain, polyurethane, etc.  Since the cabinets I bought were raw wood, I used a pre-conditioner first then a stain and polyurethane in one.  It's an easy 2-in-1 product that saves time and another step.  Make sure you're in a well-ventilated area, no hallucinating or passing out please.

The pre-conditioner already makes the wood look softer.

Once you've used the stain and  poly, sand with a fine grade sand paper and repeat the poly.  The cabinets are well on their way to being ready to install. 

Ticky Tacky

"The pipe must get out"... kind of like "the show must go on".  Remember that cruddy pipe?  This old pipe was slightly more of a hassel than anticipated.  It was the former vent of the original oven and went from basement floor, through the first floor, second floor attic, and out the roof.  We're talking a very very long pipe.  First, the skinny lower part got sawed through.  The fun part began with the 4" in diameter width that went from head high in the kitchen to past the roof line.  

Safety first!  The foil backing is to protect the lath from any flying sparks.  The sparks launch around the room.  See for yourself.  

Once the pipe was cut through it was resting on a wood block nailed into the joists.  Keep in mind this pipe now goes from the first floor kitchen through the second floor and out the roof:  about 10 feet of steel pipe 4 inches in diameter.  Account for measurements when considering floor to ceiling height and the object you are trying to remove!  This counted as my arm workout for the day! 

Then what was left was a totally blank slate.  Ready for the next step: move the kitchen sink and install a dishwasher and disposal.  

Fun Fact

An interesting tidbit about this kitchen business: my house lost weight.  When you figure the weight per square foot of plaster and lath multiplied by the square footage of the room and ceiling, there was some serious lb's removed.  All in all 2 tons of weight has been taken out of the kitchen!

Bringing Down the House

Demo Days continued...

The remainder of the to-be-sink and dishwasher wall is down.  The plumbing pipes are exposed so the plumber can move & adjust as necessary.  This also involves moving the piping in the basement and reaffixing where the pipes attach.  Good thing the basement is unfinished!
This wall will house my new cabinets, sink, dishwasher, and new countertop.  I'm all about reusing what I already have, so the bank of cabinets you can see at the edge of this photo will be included on the adjacent (torn down) wall.

See the old nasty pipe toward the top?  That was once used as a vent for the oven.  Now it's a rusty eyesore that needs to go.  Opening up the wall will make this easier to be cut off and removed.

No, really, did you see that gross pipe?  I can honestly say I won't miss seeing this every time I walk in the kitchen.

The other kitchen walls were a piece of cake to take down.  If you can get an opening through the dry wall (in my case plaster) you can pry the board out from the inside which creates a very nice crack in the wall to follow.  Taking fewer swings with the hammer equals less dust.  

Onto total demo phase: the ceiling! Considering that the only part of the kitchen ceiling that was insulated was a 4' by 14' chunk near the door to the living room, it was a pretty easy process.  I didn't say it wasn't a huge mess, but it came down pretty quickly.  A new conversation starter for those visiting: what's the fluff falling from your ceiling?  Oh, that's just the original insulation falling from when the house was built!  Now add that to your cereal in the morning.  I digress.... you can buy plastic film to staple up to cover the ceiling and block anything from floating down, but since I know that drywall will be up in the near future, I didn't bother with it.  

I am AMAZED at how much darker the kitchen lighting is now.  It feels like a cave with all the lath (wood boards) exposed.  This is the fun stage where planning and visualizing the final product really starts to take shape.  A demo bonus: you can write/draw/leave a note on your walls with a permanent marker & it doesn't matter!  This is the time to be absolutely sure that you still like the original plan: placement of sink, cabinets, windows, where the refrigerator and oven will go, etc.  Take the time to really think through the details-- then you will get the result you wanted.  

Next step:  cut out the crusty old pipe near the sink, move the sink and plumbing to the neighboring wall, wire for new electrical outlets and lighting.

Get your hardhat ready for more Demo Days.