DIY Kitchen Renovation: Day One – Demolition

My New York City apartment is getting a badly needed kitchen renovation. I’ll be tearing out the old cabinets and appliances and replacing them with cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea along with a new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears. We also have an electrician coming in to replace the fuse panel and completely rewire the kitchen space.

This wave of the project is focused on the basics and the electrical work. Later I want to dress things up with a tile backsplash, a new floor, and some under-cabinet task lighting.

This is the before shot of the kitchen. The new fridge is already there, but the rest is heading to the dumpster. I’ve got to box up and clear out all of the contents of the shelves and cupboards.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-REDkqoWAU[/youtube]

I spent a few hours boxing up and moving all of the contents of the kitchen into the girls’ room where I’ll leave it until the kitchen is finished. As small as the kitchen is and with as few cupboards as we have, I was a bit surprised at how much we had crammed in there.

Once the contents of the room were safely stored away, I took the doors off of the cabinets and took the wall cabinet and vent hood down.

Here is my progress for the day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5XP0tVgKj8[/youtube]

So far I’m on schedule for my expectations on this project. I’ll have all of the demolition work completed tomorrow and be ready to open up the walls a bit to get ready for the electrician. I also want to see if I can pull a water line across the room to connect up the ice maker on the fridge.

Now it’s time for a little rest.

The Go-To Guy!