Kitchenless Panorama
June 28th, 2008
The old kitchen is gone. Most of the studs you see in this picture are temporary, they’ve merely holding up the second floor, waiting for the steel beam to arrive.
Bye Bye Old Kitchen
June 23rd, 2008
The kitchen came out in 1 day. Gary did this almost single handedly, with some help from two of his kids and Katie.
Before:
After:
One Month Panorama
June 15th, 2008
It’s been a month since the remodel started, and we’re still sane, married and having fun. Mostly.
The concrete has been poured for the new footings under the house, and the inspector has signed off on that. The windows and doors are here, and mostly installed. Next step (after Gary returns from a 1 week vacation) is to demolish the existing kitchen, remove the wall, and put in the steel beam that is to hold up the second floor. This step is, depending upon your point of view, either the great disaster of 2008, or the penultimate step towards a glorious new kitchen. I’m not letting on which of these is my point of view, am I?
Freaky Light
June 13th, 2008
A forest fire in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains filled the sky with smoke today. At sunset the light in our neighborhood was very freaky. An orange/yellow-living-in-the-netherworld kind of light.
Concrete Comes Today
June 11th, 2008
Today the concrete arrived at about 8am. Katie and Amelia got to crawl under the house with Gary to get things ready. Even the dead rat did not phase them.
Three’s a Crowd
June 1st, 2008
The remodel is three weeks old now. Framing is continuing at a good clip, and Gary and Adrian have been digging the space for the footing under the house. I have yet to see what that looks like because Gary closes it up every night before he leaves. Also the back step and sidewalk has been removed where the entertainment center is going in.
The first dumpster full of demolition debris has been carted away, and our driveway is now occupied by a smaller dumpster full of dirt and rocks from under the house.
All in all the process is still very exciting for us. However the house is really, really dusty. With the digging going on we’re getting random bits of dirt and mud appearing in the house. And the closeness of living in essentially 2 rooms on the first floor is starting to get, well, close.