The Chimney

One of the early surprises was the chimney that used to hide in the wall of the pantry. The surprise was not that it was there--we knew that--but how difficult is was to deal with. I think the initial idea was that it could be removed in the kitchen and then supported--somehow, but I'm not sure how. Anyway, it didn't work out that way. Instead, the chimney had to be taken out from the top--above the roof--down.


Here's Doug starting the job at the top. He's got a fancy system set up to drop bricks into the dumpster.

Here's where all the bricks were supposed to be headed:

Unfortunately, the system broke down and the lads had to fill buckets with bricks and then dump them into the dumpster.

The real drag about taking the chimney out from the roof down is that they had to cut into the walls in the attic (finished suite, for those of you who haven't seen it) and through the office/playroom on the second floor. This was a real dust-generator and we're still cleaning up from it. Here's a picture of the wall cut-out on the second floor:

Temporary Kitchen

One of the things you have to do when remodeling a kitchen is set up a temporary kitchen. Some people put it in their basement, but we a have "Dark Shadows" type of basement, so that wasn't going to work for us. Instead, we put it in our dining room:




It's a bit cramped but we've gotten used to it. It actually reminds me of the sort of kitchen/eating spaces I lived with in college (though bigger).

First Demolition Stage

They've taken all the old stuff out and here's what we're left with. We still need to get the chimney out and knock through to the dining room. It's weird but the kitchen actually feels smaller without the cabinets and appliances.

The old kitchen

I thought I’d start with a few pics from the old kitchen. We remodeled (actually, just spruced up) the old kitchen when we bought the house, 15 years ago. We’ve essentially been living with this layout the entire time.