Kitchen Reno Part 1 DEMO!

I don't know if I would really call it demo.  There were no walls being torn down but there was a lot of nasty dirt.  100 years worth of dirt.

First here's what the kitchen looked like before:

The lady who lived here before left this cabinet.  I actually love it.  It has so much storage room.  And yes everything pink will be repainted.

Here is a look at my backsplash behind the stove and light fixture.  Both do not go in a 1910 house.  I generally like slate it just doesn't go with this kitchen.

And here is the lovely backsplash above the counters.  Hideous.  Enough said.

I saved the worst for last.  The ceiling.  I hated it from the moment we saw the house. I hated it even more when the lady told me she was pretty sure bead board was underneath.  WHAT?!  Someone at some point CHOSE to put this up?!

There it is!  So then I'm thinking focus Shelley, get the tile done first.  So I start and what do I find:

There's holes!  The holes to nowhere as I have now called them.  I'm going to patch it.  Hopefully it'll turn out.

There's also a hole under the light switch.

Not too many surprises after taking down the backsplash above the counters.

Except this.  It's not rotted just there's a few holes here too.

Oh yeah and this.  Completely disgusting.  This was behind the sink.  So gross!!

I thought this would be somewhat liberating.  Getting this awful ceiling down that I have stared at for a year.  It was actually very hard.  Nails every couple of inches.  This weird dirt that was so fine and probably filled with all kinds of toxins.  This picture is not blurry.  That is the dirt flying everywhere.

Before I could begin I had to take the quarter round down that covered the seam at the ceiling and the wall.  I knew this wasn't going to be pretty on the outside wall.  I could always feel a little bit of a draft.  So, what we have here is a hundred years worth of dirt, hay (common to use hay for insulation back in the day), leaves, old wasps nests, old shims (not sure why) and some rather large pieces of wood about 6 inches.

I then cleaned it all out.  It was odd because you could see insulation at the bottom and top.  It was about a 5 inch gap of nothing but this nasty stuff.  After cleaning it out I filled it with two cans of Great Stuff.  Which really is great stuff.  Evidently some got on the floor and poor Sprite got it stuck to her fur.

 My arm.  Wish that was dry skin.  That is dust.

Not gonna lie.  I kinda wanted to cry a few times.

Picture says it all.

I had to cut around the light fixtures until we paint and replace them.  We need light!

But in the end I have the most amazing ceiling.  The original 1910 ceiling.  I'm so proud of it.  I do have to give credit to whoever put the plywood ceiling over it that 1. they did a great job!  Ha  and 2.  they didn't tear the bead board out!