Here is what the kitchen looked like before we began. It received a "shave and a haircut" quick fix up in 1985 when we bought the house: (click on any photo to see a bigger picture, and use your browser's BACK key to reduce it.)
As you can see on the third photo, we had already began to strip the chimney of plaster and a layer of drywall to expose the bricks. Kathy enjoyed using a hammer and chisel to beat away the plaster. Made a big mess, but it was only the beginning of big messes. That's me stripping many coats of paint from the door trim with my trusty heat gun. We wanted to see if the wood was handsome enough to leave unpainted (it wasn't).
Since I wanted the old kitchen cabinets for my garage, we agreed to remove them, along with their false soffits before the contractor began. It provided a couple of days of entertainment. I roped Sean into coming down to help with the wall cabinets.
Things were really starting to get ugly now. Note that GREEN paint on the walls behind the cabinets. The entire house was painted that color when we bought it. We packed up the kitchen contents and took them to the garage to live for a few weeks. We set up a "camping out" kitchen in my office with the microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. We washed dishes, on our knees, in the downstairs claw-footed tub.
Sorry, but we forgot to take that picture washing dishes on our knees. Wouldn't you have liked to have seen Kathy doing that?
Contractor began work on 1 October. They began by tearing out the plumbing, radiator (no heat for the duration) and all the plaster and lath in the kitchen and on the wall to the dining room. They hauled off 3 dump truck loads of debris and generated massive plaster dust.
By "Day 6" of the construction, the kitchen was back to bare studs. With the small windows and no electricity, the room looked like a cave. Throughout the remaining photos, we indicate the construction time line by either me holding up fingers or by a number marked on a paper plate. It is hard to hold up more than 10 fingers . . .and we had lots of paper plates about.
Day 7, the dinky windows are removed and the hole made bigger. The house is solid brick and the sill plate was a 400 lb. piece of cast concrete. The Neanderthal masons used a huge gas powered saw to cut and the red mist lingered for days. They also removed the steel plate (lintel . . . I was learning Bubba speak!) supporting the "soldier course" of bricks across the top of the window. Day 7, while the electrician was fitting the range exhaust fan above the bricks, all of the brick wall above the windows fell. Big OOPS!
Windows, glass blocks, and drywall goes in next. Day 16 (these are working, not calendar days . . . Bubbas don't work on weekends), the drywall is done and Kathy and I have a few hours to prime and paint the wall before the floor finisher comes in the next day. Note the YELLOW paint (as best you can with my low resolution scans). Kathy hated it after it was on and we repainted with a much milder tone a few days later.
Next the cabinets were installed and the countertop people came in to make templates. Also the range hood got installed.
With the countertop in, on Day 27 the plumber came in and connected the sink (We have Water!) and reinstalled the radiator (so we had HEAT again!!!) Trim work was proceeding slowly, and I was priming and painting as sections got done. Kitchen got lots of trim since it was to match the rest of the house. All of it had to be hand made. Day 30, the electrician finished installing the appliances and we waited for a few days for the city to do the inspections.
Kathy moved her stuff into the kitchen and the new pantry (the seventh picture below) the Sunday before Thanksgiving and we had our first cooked meal using the kitchen that night. Kathy let me choose the menu. November 21 (day before Thanksgiving), and Day 33, the city made their "final" inspection and the contractor got his final payment.
These last photos were taken with a digital camera and yielded better results than scanning standard photos. However, as it turns outs, there was a fingerprint smudge on the lens and it can be clearly noticed on the last photo (upper left).
And of course, the kitchen is not really finished. Kathy still has to find that "perfect" chandelier and I'm sure a dozen other details. I can return to the rigors of retirement now.