Before the kitchen was emptied, things were looking a little cluttered.

That changed Tuesday & Wednesday as things got emptied out.

Thursday & Friday were incredibly productive days, resulting in a kitchen that looked more like this –

That means the island, cabinets (all 4 of them), tile & wonderboard, back wall, useless broom closet, and soffit are all gone.

ALL.FREAKIN.GONE! Booyah bitches.

The thing with old houses (or maybe most houses but definitely with old houses), is you never really know what you’re going to find when everything comes down.

Unlike the joist discovery in the bathroom, most of the kitchen discoveries have been good. Or at least not bad.

1. Found the old pine floors under most of the kitchen. I had full expected the tile to be adhered directly to the wood floor or to have the underlayment mortored to the wood. Surprisingly, the tile was on WonderBoard which was just screwed to the wood. It’s not in perfect shape but neither are the rest of the floors. I’m sure you can guess what that means. I’m going to REFINISH THE FLOORS!

I had bought cork from Lumber Liquidators to use but it looks like that will be going back (minus a 20% restocking fee)(which is lame). Continuous flooring from the dining room and hallway into the kitchen will be worth the 20% though.

2. I’m not reinstalling a fixed island. This would be a bigger deal if I had already shared my kitchen layout with you but I haven’t. I was planning on doing that this week. But now everything is changing.

3. The brick wall behind the kitchen wall is BEAUTIFUL. While I appreciate plaster (it’s a pretty great sound-proofer and insulator), I’m a sucker for my old brick walls. I don’t want to go around scraping all the plaster off of all the brick but sometimes it just makes sense. The plaster in the bathroom, for example, was very badly damaged. In the kitchen, there was no plaster, so you better believe the brick is staying exposed wherever possible.

Before the studs, electric, & tile came out –

No more island

Here are some fun things we found along the way.

{Al, How high is the fridge?   (with an arrow) This is as high as it can go!}

The shelf in the blind space next to the sink upper cabinet.

Particle board & moisture don’t go especially well together. Packing tape & thumbtacks were supposed to fix it.

How many nails do you need to hold studs in? The answer, apparently, is 5. FIVE, people!

Also, I’ve been pondering soapstone counters & wall mounted faucets. Consider & discuss.