(Post 184 of 263)

Fun fact, my kitchen is about 250 square feet, fully twice the size of the motorhome (not counting the sleeping loft).

Yesterday morning, the carpenter came by to take measurements and to clarify a few things. He thought he was going to have to redo his whole drawing, but once I confirmed that he would do the half with the microwave and counter at 50cm deep and the cupboard at 35cm deep, something that was not reflected on the drawing, I told him it was approved without modifications! We did fine-tune it a tad by deciding that I will have adjustable shelves and he also wants to put in lighting over the counter, but that’s not a design change.

I asked how much more it would cost to do the backsplashes in the grey polished concrete, if such a thing is possible, and I got a wink and a “We already quoted you for that” response! They did the quote high, adding in extras like the backsplashes and drawers in the cabinetry, to account for customer changes and also give an opportunity to scale back. So I’m very pleased with that. I did add in a full paint job and a change of the water heater, so I’ll definitely be over the 60K originally quoted.

I was mostly off work yesterday, so I emptied everything that I could out of the kitchen, leaving only the heavy items — the fridge, pantry, broom cupboard, microwave, and range — for the workers to pull out for me. They were shocked that there was so little to do before they could start on demolition!

Yes, I took apart the Great Wall of Storage as well, priced the shelving to sell, and had it gone within a couple of hours! I accepted a low-ball offer, but was able to sell it without taking it all apart, plus while the pricing for that shelving has nearly doubled in the last year (!), the low ball offer was very close to what I paid, so I really made out like a bandit with it.

Everything is now in the guest room. It just made the most sense to set that up as my kitchen as it has more space, updated outlets, and all that built-in shelving. The fridge is by the stairs, the pantry and range are in the living room and the broom cupboard is in the bonus room!

The kitchen looks enormous:

The wall behind the fridge is even worse than I remembered. It is certainly contributing to a lot of the dust. The fridge is actually pretty easy to move, so I was back there recently (in the last three months) cleaning! They will be pulling that AC for me and filling in the wall, so essentially prepping it for when I put in a minisplit in the future.

Just three months of dust from the wall, eep! This photo also shows how I sacrificed some space behind the broom closet to have it fit flush with the pantry.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to order in a ton during the next three weeks, so I did a grocery order today for salad and sandwich fixings. It won’t be delivered till late, though, so I ordered a salad for lunch from FreshSpot (which is well named). After, I had a cup of coffee and some leftover extra yummy pan dulce from last night served oh-so-elegantly on a paper towel to limit the amount of dishes I have to do. So, yeah, this whole no kitchen thing isn’t starting out great, but, hey, the coffeemaker is set up, so I have my priorities straight. 🙂 And, yes, that is Dr. Strange’s mug from Spider-Man: No Way Home, a client gift this past Christmas! 🙂

We are nearing the first day of demo. As expected, the flooring is not coming up easily. It’s veeeery loud and I’m glad Ms. B is pretty much deaf now and is able to sleep through it.

First reno surprise that wasn’t a huge surprise is that the sink counter was falling apart and I can thank the rebar for it holding on as long as it has. So this really was the time to do this reno as I might have had to do it as an emergency in the not-so-distant future.

I keep questioning my decision to go with the dark grey for the counters, backsplash, and floor, but I couldn’t find tile I liked anyway, no grotty grout lines is my idea of heaven right now, and I can get colour with paint and furniture. If I were to sell the house before I do my dream kitchen, future buyers will be happy with a neutral space. So I think it’ll all work out well, plus I can see from my bedroom just how warm and saturated a neutral dark grey is.