Remodeling the Kitchen - Part 2

This is a continuation of our kitchen renovation story. In Part 2 we will explore the ideas my wife and I came up with for our kitchen remodel and we'll start the demolition!

The Plan
We decided that the old floor had to be leveled and the green vinyl had to go. In its place we wanted something sturdy, easy to clean, and classic. It also had to be something we could install ourselves. With that set of prerequisites we settled on laying ceramic tile. Although we didn't know with certainty what exact tile we were going to use, we knew we wanted something light and natural looking. Having light colored floors, walls and ceiling help make a room feel more open and the natural look of the tile would compliment the traditional feel associated with the rest of the house.

The old cabinets also had to go. The base cabinets were simply unbearable and had to be replaced. After a lot of thought I decided I would take the challenge of making my own set of cabinets - even though I had no tools or wood working experience (more on this later).

We also wanted to enlarge the opening between the kitchen and breakfast nook. At one time the transition between the two rooms had been wider, but previous owners added to the wall to make room for the refrigerator. We didn't like how that extra length of wall and the placement of the refrigerator created a distinct separation of the two rooms.

The Demolition
The first phase of our kitchen remodel was ripping out the old sub floor. In order to accomplish this, the old base cabinets had to be removed, all the appliances moved out, and the old floor ripped out. Underneath the green vinyl were a couple of other layers of vinyl flooring, and under those was the original tongue and groove plank sub floor.

We decided to keep the sub floor boards that were still in good shape since they were original and could be used to patch or re-floor rooms in future remodeling projects.

Here you can see the old sub floor being removed and the floor joists underneath. Our house was built over a crawl space, but unfortunately, needed a little extra support. We had a new support beam installed over a poured concrete footer to add some more strength to the new floor.

Here is a pile comprised of the old vinyl flooring that covered the kitchen and breakfast nook. I shed no tears to see it piled up waiting for a trip to the dump.

In the next installment of our Kitchen Remodel blog, we'll cover laying the new subfloor!