Preparing Old Kitchen

We're in the process of renovating our kitchen. We've done most of the design work (although, there is a little bit more to be done), we've ordered some of the major appliances, and now I've started re-routing plumbing. 

Our current kitchen is old, worn, and a confused mix of mismatched cabinets. We have some cabinets which were gifted to us by a friend... we have some stock oak cabinets... and we have a few cabinets that I made to somehow match certain features of the previously mentioned cabinets. It is a functional kitchen but not at all organized, cohesive nor attractive.  

After years of searching for an affordable counter-depth refrigerator, we have a new counter-depth refrigerator arriving on Thursday so I've been making room for it in our old kitchen. Our current fridge is only 32 inches wide but this new fridge is 36 inches wide so I needed to remove some shelves between two wall cabinets and two base cabinets to make room for this wider fridge. I removed the shelving and then mounted the cabinets together in a corner. I managed to get that accomplished on Saturday. 

We've had our eyes open for a good appliance sale for years. We knew that we would need a refrigerator and a dishwasher more sooner than later so we were waiting for a great sale on products we desire. We found the refrigerator we had been searching for about two weeks ago and the price was finally in the acceptable range. 

I do have to say, however, that even with this new refrigerator that we are excited about, we had to 'settle' for it to some degree. This fridge has everything we want and need but we saw another fridge with a similar look... opened the doors... and were instantly wowed by a completely stainless steel interior and wood trimmed shelves! Unfortunately, that fridge was double the price of the one we chose! The one we chose does have some stainless steel on the interior though. It is a Samsung feature called "Metal Cooling". It is a sharp looking fridge but still pales in comparison to that all stainless and wood fridge.  

In preparation to our upcoming installation day, today I tackled getting a water supply over to the place where the new fridge will be situated for now. We have a significantly changed floor plan for the new kitchen so these appliances won't be in the same places in the new kitchen. In the meantime, I needed to get water over to this old fridge area so we can connect the new icemaker and to hold us over until the entire kitchen is renovated. That was today's project.  

We're not just swapping out cabinets and changing the arrangement a bit. We're actually gutting the kitchen completely... including the ceiling, walls, windows and flooring. I'll rewire as necessary... re-plumb as necessary... add new insulation... install new windows... then hang new drywall and followed by installing floor finishes, wall finishes and ceiling finishes... and then the beautiful new cabinets can be installed. 

The kitchen is open to the living room and both rooms share a long wall and a long, sagging ceiling so the shared wall and ceiling must be torn out and replaced in the living room as well. And again, electrical and insulation will be upgraded as necessary. 

This is a major undertaking for anyone nevermind for someone with extensive spinal injuries and Systemic Mastocytosis. I have no doubt that this renovation will take us right to the holidays. If I were healthy, I could have this project completed in a month or two. That won't be happening with my current health though!

The photo, above, shows the area where I had to make room for our new refrigerator. I removed shelves that were between the cabinets which opened up room for a larger refrigerator. 

This is just the beginning of a lot of changes and hard work!