Kitchen Week 1

And we're of and running on the kitchen renovation! It's a race between the baby and this project - which will arrive first? The baby (due August 5th) or the kitchen (goal - 8 weeks = July 30th)?

I'm sure it'll be a photo finish.

Here are the 'before' pictures.

Can't wait to get rid of those ugly 1980's cabinets.

The blue tape on the floor will be the end of the new cabinets. We'll have a pantry next to the fridge, and a slightly smaller countertop.
The ugly generic fluorescent light will be replaced by four recessed lights. The mini-dishwasher will be replaced by a full-size one and re-located towards the right to a new home underneath the soon-to-be-removed window to nowhere.
They'll be a couple of cabinets where the window-to-nowhere now resides.
Shout-out to Micah, Jackson, Joejak and Pryor for coming over to help with the demolition. With their help, we were able to clear out the kitchen in 5 hours.

All the drawers and doors were removed and placed in queue to have their handles removed.
We moved the fridge to the dining room. Pryor removes the base cabinet that was next to the fridge, after un-screwing it from the wall.
Jackson and Micah work on removing the range hood.
Pryor bodyslams the cabinet into the dumpster. This is the fun part of demo!
Jackson and Micah still working on the range hood... should we turn off the breaker?
I launch a wall cabinet into the dumpster...
and in crumbles upon impact!
Bye-bye, ugly ceiling trim.
Jackson heaves a base cabinet.
Jackson unscrews a wall cabinet.
Micah, with a broken left hand, opts for a one-handed shot into the dumpster.
Pryor gives me a hand with the laminate countertop.
We decide to save the top and bottom window halves, but it was too much trouble to save the window frame. Jackson and Micah work on the removal.
Joejak and I start work on the flooring. It turns out we had two layers of underlayment with vinyl or linoleum flooring.
Jackson and Micah still working on the window...
On the wall underneath the window are the remnants of the yellow adhesive used to attach the laminate backsplash.
The walls used to be painted a hideous yellow color, as seen here.
The one-handed bandit pries off the first layer of underlayment/vinyl tile. These were held in place with 18 gauge crown staples, and come up pretty easily in sections.
The second original layer was much more difficult, as it was nailed in place. My experience removing all of the parquet flooring on the first floor came in handy, but this floor was much harder to remove.

Here Micah prepares to sweep a pile of dust into Jackson's face.
The next day I finish removing the remaining exposed nails and give the floor a good vacuuming. That's the old sink light fixture temporarily attached to the wall.

To bring the new flooring up to the elevation of the adjacent room's flooring, we used 5mm plywood underlayment. This is similar to what the previous flooring was attached to.
Here I use my Father's Day gift (a compressor and nailer!) to attach the flooring with 1 1/2" crown staples. This tool definitely helped save time, and will come in handy in the future.
All of the underlayment is attached. Nail guns are fun!

Next weekend will be devoted to building a level plywood base for the floor cabinets. The floating laminate floor is installed after the cabinets, therefore the base is needed to ensure the bottom of the cabinets is even with (or slightly higher) than the finished floor.