Day 1

We spent the week before the start date cleaning out the cabinets. We found kitchen gadgets, cookware and dishes that we’d forgotten we owned. If we hadn’t seen or used it in the past 2 years, we boxed it up and passed along to the thrift shop. Great warm up for moving into “The Home” 10 years from now.

We couldn’t start this project without documentation. You can’t tell where you’re going without knowing where you’ve been. And when we’re finished I want to compare the “before” and “after” pics to convince myself that it was worth 6+ weeks of basement living, noise, dust and confusion.

The tags were added as each cabinet was emptied as a reminder that it had already been cleared out. Of course, we only came up with that plan after we’d opened and reopened them 10-15 times.

By the end of Day 1 the cabinets had been removed and the soffits cut out. The new cabinets will extend all the way to the ceiling – the “modern” look.

In 1997 we had a dishwasher failure. The hardwood floors in the kitchen were replaced. But when the cabinets came out the damage under the cabinets finally came to light. Fortunately, it was not as bad as it looked. Even though the sheetrock and the flooring was discolored, everything was dry.

Nonetheless, I had them cut away the blacked section of the sheetrock so that any mold spores were out of the house and so that we could repair any damage in the wall. The discolored floor boards will also be removed and replaced.