Kitchen Remodel Begins

We begin our kitchen makeover with demolition today.  We scheduled a crew to come in and when I left this morning, there was still no crew. But that seems typical of my recent history with contractors, let’s hope it improves over the next few weeks.

The current kitchen cabinets and flooring were installed 10 or 12 years ago. At the time the cabinets with their crisp clean white really made the kitchen pop and the leaded glass gave the appearance of high end custom work.  However time tells the story of whether the work was well done or not.  The stainless European hinges and the solid brass hardware that were spec’d look as good today as when they were installed. The same cannot be said for the cabinet, the years have yellowed the white material used to face the cabinet doors and the painted areas of the cabinet are still crisply white as seen as in the photos.

The laminate strips used on the drawers began failing years ago.  The lesson learned from the last install, was that the weakest part of a cabinet job, in this case the cabinet finish, ruined what otherwise would have been a well done kitchen makeover.  The answer unfortunately is to rip out the cabinets, the flooring, the matching appliances and begin again using, a stained wood finish with quality hardware, stainless finish appliances and replace the engineered hardwood flooring with porcelain tiles. The old Corian countertops will be replaced by granite and the popcorn ceiling will be faced over with new drywall and refinished.