DEMO OF THE UGLY DUCKLING KITCHEN! AND BONES OF THE SWAN KITCHEN

  

  It took about 2 hours to demo my Ugly Kitchen and about two months for the kitchen to be put back together.

  When planning a kitchen demo in a small 600 square foot condo I recommend getting a small student fridge, budgeting for take out food and to plan on reducing your food in your fridge freezer to almost nothing before the renovation. I also recommend money, and lots of it!

   We were not planning to do the kitchen for another month but I was luckily already packing and I did not at the time realize how much crap and lack of space I had. On the day of the renovation we midnight shifters were awakened at 7:00 am and still had so much to clear out of the kitchen. We look like drunken college students scrambling in every direction. No longer being on "normal" people hours it was so painful to be awake at the time! We started just throwing things instead of organizing them onto the table and on the floor. We wanted to just get this kitchen done and to go back to bed! The two months renovations and midnight shifts were painful. To have to be up after a long shift or to have to make decisions without much sleep is not a good idea.

    I got to take down the first cabinet with a sledge hammer! That I have to say it is a liberating thing to destroy an inefficient kitchen cabinet. To totally rip the cabinet into shreds and to declare there is nothing in this kitchen that I want to keep and be able to budget to put it back together again.

  There were issues that came up just in the demo. It turns out that the gas was never capped correctly before the demo (not the contractors fault but it was before the demo). So there was a gas leak luckily I noticed and they were back in an instant. The lighting guy could not come for over a week so we had an empty kitchen for over a week. Then there were just so many delays like deciding on different doors, and things not in stock. Then the counters guys could not come at one point and then there was an extra space to accommodate for the counters. Then the sink that came with the counters was actually too big for where the plumbing was... and so we started in October and a couple of weeks before Christmas we were actually using non bathroom water. We had for that period only one source of running water! So you know we did not cook even when all we were waiting for as our kitchen sink. So for two weeks when the kitchen was mostly complete except for the kitchen sink! A lot of it had to do with getting condo board with us or scheduling time to shut off the water/etc because our condo is all connected with all of the condos.

 This waiting resulted in us having to live like were trying to try out for A&E's show "Hoarders" for such a long time. We just wished it was already over since we had to eat out until we got the fridge back (two or three weeks later). It was just us and a cooler and we never seemed to have cool drinks. It was worth it two months later when we got ice maker in the fridge we have now. But all I wanted was iced drinks and we could not get it.

  Jonathan and I who just wanted to be in our kitchen especially as the winter holidays were upon us. We flipped through cookbooks saying-- oh that looks so good! We would drool and wish and wish.

  Enjoy the pictures below and I will update with final pictures in another post.

Don't you love the Martha Stewart paint samples?

This was above the fridge and you could never get anything in or out of it!
I hate above the fridge store unless it goes out as much the fridge and has
storage like I planned for my platters/etc.

The upper cabinets that were so low that you could not wash dishes in the sink without
 hitting your hands on them. Yet there was so much room ABOVE the cabinets too.

 

Normally if I walked into this situation I would be upset, but not today!

The fridge turns out was leaking majorly and when
we took it out it had huge puddle. If it was not for the
three layers of laminate the people downstairs would
have been in a squalor's Venice!

Well Rome was not built in a day nor a week
more like 2 months...



Penny is confused but yet happy there are so many people
in the Condo.



More of the wreckage...

Reminds me of the cover of the Rolling Stone's Album
Beggars Banquet

Penny in the living room aka storage for our Kitchen
materials. She is probably flirting with one of the workers.

Ikea: Stamford, CT location

Our Audition tape for A&E's Hoarders...

More Materials and photos of dogs taken by Me.

You would never know there was a table under there!
Ikea Stamford mix with Sur la Table.

The Floor gets floored! by Ikea I like the flooring design
because it is very Mid Century Modern. I think it looks like
Zebra wood.

Starting to assemble the cabinets!

Penny in the mess that was our living room turn stock room

Base cabinets!

upper cabinets!

Stuff is coming together!



Beginning of the below cabinet drawers by the stove.



The Tools to do the job right!

The penny inspection of the kitchen



Penny is inspecting the cabinets or seeing if there are any treats in there.



Upper cabinets with some of the doors.



The area by the stove.



the beginning of a beautiful kitchen with better lighting!

Penny among the kitchen renovation

Penny once again inspecting the day's work

Oh my Cookbook nook! My favorite
thing that I wanted to be added. I love it!

Penny still inspecting the kitchen and awaiting her treats.

Cabinets by the stove area with the open
nook used for pasta. Yup, pasta I love those carbs!

We have pull out drawers but no handles yet..

inside of the pull out drawers

close up of the drawers





   Wait for the next post to see how this Ugly Duckling of a Kitchen transformed into a Swan!

DESIGNING MY DREAM KITCHEN

If the kitchen is broke you'll have to fix it (and you probably will go broke).

   




        Jonathan and I decided to go through Our House, LLC (CT LICENSE # 576078,163 Saddle Ridge RD. Southbury, CT 06488) the kitchen was designed with Rachel Stietzel. Jonathan had to give up on the idea of having a whole kitchen designed/installed for just $7,000.00 and in the end we invested in our condo. Yes the word "investment" is a euphemism for spending $24,000.00 for everything including take out meals. The Kitchen was actually not that hard to save for but we did have to take out $5,000.00 in a loan. The final price for the kitchen and everything that we bought for the kitchen was 5%-10% of the worth of the condo which is appropriate spending. Mostly the big chunk of the money was rewiring the kitchen to be updated per code and installation. The materials were not actually that expensive but we also did have absolute black granite instead of laminate counters. It was money well worth spending and it mostly was money we save from our tax refunds so we are using it to reinvest in our condo.

       Jonathan and I love our kitchen and now even he likes to cook! Oh and we have a working dishwasher so I no longer look like one of those ladies in "Hoarders." I like keeping my kitchen clean now and I love cooking in the kitchen. The kitchen sink is also big enough to hold a lot of pots that we need to clean! But no longer do we have our chinet and now we are using our everyday china instead! The Earth rejoices now since we waste less water and there is less dumping of plastic/paper.







Stove wall design by Our House, LLC Rachel Stietzel (all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)

 


Sink wall design by Our House, LLC Rachel Stietzel (all rights are owned by Our House, LLC)

          We went with white RAMSJÖ kitchen cabinets from Ikea that are made out of wood. I wanted to double stack our cabinets to use every inch of space and I hate seeing huge spaces between cabinets and the ceiling. We saved a lot of money by going through IKEA because they have options that would cost much more in other cabinet makers. When I close the drawers on my cabinets they go in quietly and I do not mind that the back of the cabinets are not made 100% out of wood. Would I love to have 100% wood frames but I rather be able to stay in the condo with the new kitchen instead. It is more to have the pull out drawers/pantry but it is only a couple dollars with Ikea instead of a couple hundred per cabinet with Thomasville! Also the glass door options were much cheaper than Thomasville and the glass doors came with beautiful glass shelves.


          Jonathan and I went to look at Home Depot. We were looking for cheap options to update our kitchen.  We could not afford any of the wood options and for white laminate non custom cabinets it was going to be $16,000 without counter tops, a contractor or installation. It was not going to be custom and the builders were not going to move pipes or the location of my stove or even add in the dishwasher. They were not efficient like Rachel who found space in every since inch of our kitchen. Ikea and Our House, LLC was the best choice for our condo. The contractor Our House, LLC also works with Ikea and does design layouts for the New Haven Store. So I was working with people that were well versed in the Ikea collections and that were helping me get the biggest bang and space for my bucks!

          Ikea is perfect for small condos because it is cost effective and it also comes in a variety of sizes so that you can fit it in little crevices. Also it has a variety of door fronts to mix and match.I purchase a lot of things through Ikea besides the cabinets: Tundra laminate wood flooring in dark brown (it looks amazing in person sort of mid-century modern/MOD), Grundtal container, Grundtal Rail,  HJUVIK kitchen faucet, Framtid slide- in gas oven, Energisk B18 S refridgerator, Nutid dishwasher and Framtid microwave.

          I also invested in two Pottery Barn lighting spotlight track kits ( a 60 inch and a 24 inch) which were on sale and much cheaper than other track kits. The best thing about the track lighting was that it was inexpensive but this kit just looks expensive and provides so much more light. In the old kitchen we had this hideous office light above that required deadly office florescent light bulbs and also provided no light. I also purchased four magnetic modular chalkboards from pottery barn which were also on sale. I had thought about saving money and using the chalkboard paint but it would have required lots of layer of paint also magnetic paint. In the end it was cheaper to purchase the magnetic modular chalkboards and the plaster walls would make the best chalkboard. It is great! I write reminders, post upcoming events, and I clip important documents to the chalkboards. I also purchased great fun magnets from Fridgedoor.com  with a coupon! and also some from Ebay.

         I was obsessed with the stainless steel shelves from pottery barn but they were very expensive and only came with smaller depth and length than I needed. I was watching a Dear Genevieve and she was talking about how going to a restaurant supply store could help you save lots of money. I looked through a lot of restaurant supply companies but the price and size of the shelves were too much still. But Genevieve Gorder is correct you can save a lot by going to a restaurant supply store.

        So I went on Ebay and I got a great deal on the stainless steel shelves from jensrestaurantequipmentsupply. I bargained with the Ebayer and I ended up paying for two 14 inch deep X 48 inch long stainless steel shelves $92.00 dollars plus shipping! Then I had Our House LLC attach the grundtal rail into the bottom stainless steel shelf and saved a lot of money. I still need to get the Ikea S hooks so I can hang my soup bowls that have sturdy handles on them. If I bought the one from pottery barn it is $99.00 plus shipping for just 12X 36 inch shelves and it was the wrong size. I saved a lot of money also by not putting in cabinets but I also made my kitchen look a whole lot bigger!

        I really wanted to have a breakfast bar and a place to prepare meals. I bake a lot and I wanted to sit in my kitchen and make my really time consuming cookies. Now I have so much more space for cooling racks and cake stands! I love that little area and I never hit my head on those shelves. I also have shallow drawers under the granite for baking mats, onion goggles and icing spatulas. I just now need to find the stools/chairs because we do have an odd size since we installed the drawers. I have been looking at getting another or maybe another pair of the CB2 vapor chair and maybe putting on rolling wheels? That way I would add a couple of inches and also save the flooring. The one that I have in the living room I love!

        I saved a lot of money with my cabinet hardware choices by mixing high with low choices. I purchased for the upper cabinets glass pulls from Anthropologie called cocktail ring in clear. They were reasonably priced at $8.00 a piece and I bought 20 of them which was good because one of them broke and I still have one left. I paid including shipping $184.34 for them. I saved money by purchasing stain nickle pulls from overstock for about $3.00 a pull when normally they can be about $8 and up for a stainless steel pull. I saved money by going through ebates first before purchasing which gave me percentage of my purchase back. I always make sure to go through ebates first to see if the store participates with Ebates. It pays you to shop as you would do normally and they give you coupon codes.

         I saved money and provided more of an open space feel in the kitchen by having an open niche for cookbooks and also a framed white pegboard over the sink. I was really inspired by my love of baking and the desire to learn how to cook. I had grown up with Julia Child and when I saw Julie and Julia I really fell in love with Julia Child's set up for her kitchen. I loved her use of pegboards in her kitchen and how she used every space of her kitchen. Maybe that is just because I am homesick for Massachusetts although her kitchen is actually now in the Smithsonian Institute. I always hated hitting my hands when I washed the pots in our old small kitchen sink. I wanted more open space and place to put all my baking molds. I still need to get the pegs for my cake pans because I am not sure what to use but when I do my kitchen is going to be so efficient!

      A surprising way that I saved money was that I bought Aura Benjamin Moore paint in Jet Stream. The paint goes on well and did not need that many coats of paint. In fact there was just need for one coat of paint because it is high quality paint. It is an expensive paint but in the long run it will save us money because it will not chip and we did not need as much as cheap paint. Also the Aura paint is the best option for condos because it is low in VOCs and we were not breathing in all that toxic air. For trim we used a less expensive but high quality trim paint in white that also had low VOCs.

     More details on my Kitchenplasty to follow.