rebuilding the kitchen

This past weekend has been quite busy on the corner of Bensonhurst and Division. We've been nonstop since the cabinets were delivered on Friday and we're still not done, but here's a quick look into what the last few days have been for us (and why it really hurt to get out of bed this morning).

Thursday
So might as well start where I left off. Last week Ben and I literally demolished the kitchen to make way for new electrical and plumbing. It was easier for them to have full access and as you can tell by the picture below- we now have lots of new wiring for everything..
And the plumber disconnected the sink allowing us to remove the final base cabinet..

Friday
With the electrical in and no major problems along the way I was pretty sure the cabinets wouldn't arrive when they promised they would.. but I was wrong. Instead they arrived early and now our garage is packed with them!
Once they arrived I called Home Depot to set up the installation. I was told that the installer would call me, but I haven't heard from them yet. I'm dying to get them in.. so installers, if you're reading this call me!!! I'm crossing my fingers I'll be able to get them in this week because I've put off the appliance delivery yet again (about the 5th time) and hope that Friday's delivery won't have to be postponed.

And with the cabinets delivered we knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us. But before we started doing anything, we needed to figure out what to do about the ceiling. After a little research we decided to go with the wood paneling I posted about here, so I headed to Allerdice to pick out the wood before it got dark. Once I opted to use the 8" pine and got Ben's approval, we headed back to Allerdice and picked it up. Ben wanted to give it a couple days to acclimate before we started actually installing it..
hence the new obstacle on our living room floor. I apologize for the mess, but we might as well be honest- I consider our living quarters fairly "rough" these days. Not to mention our housekeeper (me) has been a little preoccupied and hasn't really had the time to maintain the household.. but at least I'm keeping everyone fed!

Saturday
We spent Saturday morning cleaning up the rest of the walls, including behind the sink base cabinet. When we first started removing the sheetrock we didn't do the cleanest of jobs- we were trying to get it done quickly, so we had to go back over some of the areas and I had to remove the nails along the studs.
Ben spent the afternoon insulating three out of four walls- we opted not to insulate the wall between the living room and kitchen.
And while he finished up that I got the fun job of removing all of the staples used to hold up the ceiling tiles.

Sunday
We were hoping to get to the sheetrock by Saturday afternoon, but as to be expected we were a little behind schedule. That and the electrician cut all of the electricity on that side of the house until the cabinets are in so we're limited to daylight hours meaning our workday ends at 4:30. So Sunday was our day of catch up. We decided we were going to do all of the sheetrock and start on the ceiling before we called it a day.

In the morning we picked up all of the sheetrock and then we got moving.
Ben cut the sheetrock panels with a knife and we (yes Ben and me) cut out the outlets with a dremel.
Once we were done with the sheetrock it was getting late, but we still wanted to get moving on the ceiling. Because we're not quite done yet I'll wait to post about the ceiling later this week. Also happening this week- sanding and painting the kitchen radiator, sanding the windows and prepping the rest of the kitchen for the installation..