Demo Day is FINALLY here!!
Hubby and I have been talking about renovating our kitchen since we moved into our tiny Boston condo two years ago. We’ve gone through tons of ideas, 3 kitchen designers, and interviewed multiple contractors.
Finally, we can actually talk about real work getting done on our kitchen. We came up with a design that wouldn’t break the bank too bad and ordered the cabinets and counter tops two weeks ago.
Today our contractor came to start the job. We knew they’d be able to make great progress on the demolition today since it’s such a small space (~150 sq-ft), but we had no idea they’d get as far as they did.
Just a bit of background about our kitchen. It’s small and a very unique space. The kitchen is actually two rooms, a dining room and a kitchen in one. Kind of “L” shaped. The building is very old, so the pipes are old. As is the electrical system. We have a fuse box above the door in the kitchen. The kicker is that only one of the 5 corners is 90 degrees…
This is my main working space. About 30 inches of countertop next to the stove. Before we emptied the kitchen out, my KitchenAid mixer was on the right near the window. And yes, we decided to stop cleaning the stove a few months ago since we knew we were getting rid of it soon.
This is the other set of cabinets. Looking into the kitchen from the back hallway.
A shot showing some of the obstacles – a radiator under the windows, and a fridge in front of the window. I guess you make do when you have such a small place.
Here’s another angle looking from the hallway door. The room to the back is the dining room portion of the kitchen. You can’t really tell from the picture, but the floor back by that picture from slopes down a couple inches. It’s definitely not level.
Another view from the hallway. We got a little ambitious last year and decided to start ripping up the floor in the dining room. It was enlightening to learn how many layers of floor there were!
As many obstacles as there are in our kitchen, the charming thing is the original subway tiling around the entire room. We knew we wanted to keep that in tact.
Here’s a sketch of the kitchen floorplan to give you an idea about how it looks. We currently have very little counter-space and cabinet space. There is basically 30 inches of working counter-space next to the stove. The space above the dishwasher was used primarily for drying clean dishes.
In preparation for this renovation, I’ve been making freezer meals. We have a small freezer in our living room packed to the gills and a microwave in the bedroom. We’re hoping to not have to eat out every meal during this process, and I think all this hard work will pay off. I made some turkey chili, crockpot pulled pork, turkey burgers, and some butternut squash lasagna.
Stay tuned later for some pictures of what the kitchen looked like when we got home.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
So exciting!!! We are in the middle of a kitchen redo too! Our faucet just went in yesterday! Along with the new dishwasher(we didn’t have one before) is now hooked up!! That may be my favorite new part 🙂 no more washing dishes by hand!!
We’ve been looking around for backsplash. The area behind the sink, stove, and counters is just so bare… we can’t seem to make up our minds about which tiles we like… or if we prefer small bricks. It’s going to be a long process!
And p.s. my boyfriend is obsessed with the faucet you got. We don’t need a new one, but if we did, that’s the one we’d get!
Steph – Oh I can’t imagine not having a dishwasher!
Megan – I love the look of the glass mosiac subway tiling for a backsplash. We had an interesting obstacle in that we have REAL subway tiling on the wall to about 4 feet and the previous owners used liquid nails to attach a laminate backsplash. So we needed something that could be glued back on.
Oh how exciting for the change! I love the redo!
Wicked jealous, I love it. My wife and I talk about our kitchen re-do all the time, even though we don’t have a dime put away for it. But when we do, it will be so fun. The kitchen is by far my favorite room in the house.
Jen: The sink and faucet look beautiful. What I can see of the blacksplash and spice rack, it looks fantastic too. I love, love, love the Vulga Blue granite in our kitchen and I think the glass tile backsplash, although very pricey, really gave the kitchen the splash of color and uniqueness we were looking for! Ok, I really love the chandeliers….they are a real conversation piece and also unique (not for everyone, especially if you are in to simple, clean lines).
Jennifer – Thanks!
Joe – The kitchen is our fav room too. A renovation is a fun/exciting/stressful time. Good luck if you ever get around to it.
Nancy – Thanks – I need to write up posts about the backsplash and spice rack/shelf. We just painted today so it’s all coming together!
It’s so funny – after reading your post on your kitchen and fancy new faucet, I saw the same faucet while at an open house and was showing off all its features to Andrew. Very cool!
I have that exact same faucets and I love it! I also have a deep stainless steel sink. So awesome!
I see that your faucet is on the right. Are you right-handed? I have seen it both ways and need to make a decision. Thanks.
Yes we are both right handed. I actually never thought about putting it on the left.
Yes the green patina looks cool on roofs and awnings. Although we’ll only be at the apartment occasionally and I admit if we arrived after being gone for many months and found the sink had turned into green patina, I might freak out!