Kitchenette and Laundry Area Renovation

And so the big renovations have begun…we have taken our entire kitchenette and laundry area down to the studs. We got smart this time and hung visqueen at the two entry ways to the kitchenette so that we minimize the dust and mess.

Next we started the fun stuff – demolition! Turns out I’m pretty good at this! Especially prying nails out of walls, oh I’m so talented. Brett is good at all of it including hauling it all out side (that’s usually the point I lose interest). Overall, we took out the accordion doors to the laundry area, the laundry area walls, the peg board in the laundry area, and the wood paneling for 2 more walls. It’s so much more impressive if you see the pictures so here goes:

Yep, that's brick inspired linoleum under the tile

We’ve uncovered so many other problems too. Word to the wise – if you’re doing home improvements and you ever think it’s a good idea to cut through a stud and not reinforce it, put down the tools and go call a contractor – a licensed one! And if your solution to fixing a water leak is painters tape and electrical tape – call a contractor! Literally both of those problems exist in our house, on the same wall no less. Oh did I mention that there was no insulation in the walls, yeah that was interesting too.

We figured out some other weird things too. Based on the framing of the wall between the kitchenette and den, the kitchenette was built long before the den was. It looks like at one point there was a window that overlooked the area that is now the den. Since we think this den was added on much later the doorway between the kitchenette and den was obviously added later too, this would explain why we are missing two studs above the doorway.   

Despite the weird stuff we have a game plan! We found so awesome old rustic wood at an architectural salvage store. We are going to use the wood to transition from the kitchen (9 ft ceilings) to the kitchenette (8 ft ceiling). We are going to insulate the room and sheet rock but leave the exposed beam ceiling. In the laundry area we are building a small panty/storage space for mops, brooms, Swiffer, etc., build counter tops over the washer and dryer and install cabinets above the countertops.  We are also toying with the idea of installing a nice big bay window to overlook the back yard. But before we get to that fun stuff we have a ton of repairs to make. We need to relocate the electrical box on the outside of the house, reroute the electrical inside the house, repairs a few spots of rotted wood, reframe the doorway to the den, remove and reframe the door in the kitchenette, and last but not least reinforce the studs that were cut.


Before we started tearing things down, I asked Brett for a timeline for this little project. You know a guesstimate as to how long this would take. He looked at me, laughed and said, “Seriously?” At the time I was slightly offended, but now I get why he didn’t want to commit to a deadline…needless to say this little project is going to take a while! It's also going to take a lot of energy!

Shelby and I resting up!