Linoleum GONE

Brett and I removed the linoleum Sunday night. There were two layers of linoleum. It's interesting to see what previous owners did to their home to make it there own. In this case - nothing very inspiring.

Anyway, here was the trick. The linoleum was pasted to 3/8" particle board. Brett used the skill saw, put the setting to 1/4" (count for the linoleum) and cut out large squares. We used a crow bar and pried out the sections. It took us about 2-3 hours. Not too hard. Then pulled out any staples or nails left on the subfloor. DONE.

Electrical's In - Walls are Finished

I have to say, these guys move fast and do quality work. It's only been day 4 and the room is taking shape already. Just removing the sofit has made the room larger and the new lighting looks great. I'm not a big fan of textured walls but since we have them, we want to maintain the consistency and it really looks like these walls have been there since the beginning. (This is Isac and Demirel)

This weekend, I will be priming and painting the ceilings - Kelly Moore Swiss Coffee (Tia's "go-to" white, now mine).

Wall's GONE

The most dramatic change we are making is tearing down the wall between the kitchen and family room which we converted into our dining room. It's a completely different space. We can see into the garden from pretty much every corner of the main living area. It just looks bigger than I expected.

First Day DEMOLITION

They pretty much cleared out everything in one day with not a scrap left.

The Ceiling - GONE

The Ugly Tile - GONE

The Puke Brown Cabinets - GONE

After today, the wall between the Kitchen and Family room will be removed.

We are waiting for our window I ordered from friend of a friend and that will be gone as well. Lots of rain, so the window will have to get here before we put in the kitchen.

Brett and I are doing the floors ourselves to save some money, but luckily our contractors gave us a tip to take out the linoleum without breaking our back. We'll see how it goes.

Out with the old

We decided it's time to do our kitchen. This is the original kitchen built with the house in 1984. With typical square almond tile, dark oak cabinets, bay window and 6" dropped sofit for the fluorescent tube lighting.

We called around, got bids but the most interesting bid came from one company that came in with a TV show host which caught us by surprise.

Of course we wanted to keep the budget tight, keep all our appliances, same layout, etc. But these guys, Kitchen Experts, came in and wanted to knock down walls, move things around, AND put us on TV for a before and after. Was the price tag worth it?

YOU BET IT WAS!

And now you are going to see our renovation unfold with the end result a beautiful kitchen and be showcased on Malou Review.

Here are the before shots (many of you have already have been to our home and have had fabulous food and drinks from this very kitchen).