To start, the Joneses, and other family members including moi, started ripping down and tearing up. Oh, how I enjoy kitchen demolition! Even the kids got their share of demo, which BTW, shows you and I that if a 6 and 8 year old can do it…
You can do it too.
But for large-scale demolition projects, it is advised to hire professional Heavy Equipment Demolition services.
I’m gonna preach it till the cows come home. Too often we say, “I could never do that.” How about, “I could totally do that!”
April took off the scalloped hoop-de-do above the kitchen sink.
Now, hoop-de-doos aren’t necessarily bad, I recently painted a shelf with a couple of them for my mason jars and it turned out very nicely. It turned from boring to fab, but here it would only look old and outdated.
So off it came and amazingly enough, made a huge difference. Now if I can only talk them into painting the cupboards white…
What do you think? Should they paint them?
As April pulled down the kitchen paneling, I wanted to shout, “Rip it!” in Madea’s voice just like on the movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
Underneath we found plastered walls full of glue from formerly tiled walls. The tile went all the way down the hall at one time.
They will be drywalling since it would be too much work to try to clean off all the glue in order to paint.
The flooring was nasty, so we took off trim and then peeled off the floor only to find another floor underneath with a bazillion staples.
The boys spent a whole day nailing them flat into the floor so Adam can put on a sub floor for the new floor tile.
Mark, April and I used a pry bar to get the paneling off the wall. Those bad boys are useful! I think I just may buy myself one of those little ones to have around the house.
I think I’m turning into a female Tim the Tool-man…
If 6 and 8 year olds can do it, you can too! I never thought I could use the word “fun” and “demo” in the same sentence.
I used to tease Mark that he loved the tearing apart, but the finishing, not so much. Now I get it.
Tomorrow, I’m going over for the whole day to paint the bathroom vanity and hopefully paint some walls.
I’d never painted before I bought our own foreclosed house a year and a half ago. Usually, DH did all the painting, but he was busy re-doing the roof, so the inside painting fell on my rollers. But if no one was available to do the roof, professionals like the local roofing contractors are here to save the day.
I found out I enjoyed it! Go figure. The thing I’d avoided all these years turned out to be fun.
So since I’ve crossed that bridge climbed that mountain and swam that river, I got this!
That’s what happened with gardening too. I’ll show you how we used torn up deck parts to make two planters for outside our garage. But more on that later…
Thanks for joining us!
Check out the others in this series:
Keeping Up With the Joneses – The Kitchen Before
Keeping Up With the Joneses – Kitchen Demolition (you are here)
Keeping Up With the Joneses – Preparing the Walls
Keeping Up With the Joneses – From Polluted to Pleasing
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I have cabinets similar to those…..it's a lot more work than painting, but I took the doors off, stripped and sanded them, restained them and polyurethaned them. They look so gorgeous now, not that orangey greasy 1970s look. I also couldn't afford to buy new hardware for them, so I took off the old and spray painted them with Rustoleum spray paint for metal (it's been a year, and they are still looking good, no chips or flaking, and we are talking heavy usage). Good luck!
Beth,
I’d like to see a picture of your cabinets redone. We have talked about using the spray paint for her hardware as well, but since the’ve decided to paint the cabinets, we’ll just fill in the holes and buy use some knobs we got at an auction. It’s amazing how you can change the look of a room with a little bit of work (or a lot!). But it’s totally worth it to get a great space! Thanks for stopping by.
I had to chuckle at your comment about paint and how you'd been avoiding it until now… that was me, until yesterday!! 😉 Mike's parents are professional painters so Mike knows a LOT about painting! Both from them and his observations from his professonal career in construction. When it came time to paint in our home, I never felt "up for the task" in that I knew how particular Mike was so I thought I should just let him handle the job! (Along with every other fix er up job we have done!) 😉 I will also add that I wasn't really ever asked to help either… because he too knew how particular he was, and that was just fine by me!! 🙂 Until yesterday… I offered to help him work on our master bathroom. I have NO idea what possesed me to offer, but there I was rolling the walls while he did the cutting in. IT WORKED!! 😉 I CAN PAINT!! 😉 haha! And I actually enjoyed it! Granted, the job wasn't ALL mine, and the room isn't super big, but it was enjoyable! Working together is fun! And seeing the job accomplished, knowing YOU did that, is pretty fun too! 🙂 Second coat went on today! We have before pics, we'll definitely take after pics too! Mike is a huge DIY person, he pretty much does it all around our home! I'll have to be sure and share with you after this project, since I helped too! 😀 LOL I haven't been able to ready many of your posts on the Joneses house, but I am catching up some now and really look forward to seeing the upcoming after pics!! 🙂
No kidding about the sense of accomplishment after a project, Jessica. I’m glad you got to experience the DIY of painting. I had no idea how much I would enjoy painting and now I’m hooked! The Joneses have trim and a little bit of wiring to finish before I can do the reveal. I’m anxious to share! I just saw their finished cabinets last night – they turned out so nice!
Your decision to move from saying you could not do something to you totally could do it must have been a freeing one. Some would say having your 6 and 8 year old participate was also a bold move. Congrats on the fun time.
It was fun to see the boys being such a great help!
Your joy is understandable. Getting involved in your own kitchen demolition can be a great stress reliever.
I can't understand why anyone would suggest painting wood cabinets. And I believe you're with the majority of DIYers. Beautiful wood should not be painted over IMO. Why not sand it down and restain them? Sure it is probably more time consuming, but in the end I think they would be beautiful. To be an expert DIYer, painting seems to be the easier way out.
Now let me say your skills certainly outweigh mine, or you could say I don't have any. LOL I guess I just know what I like. It's all in the eye of the beholder!
Tricia, these cabinets were nasty dirty with damage and were old and not attractive. They have painted them and they are clean and beautiful. It’s amazing how new they look – such a huge change. We had these type of cupboard doors in our old kitchen in MI and they were not attractive in any way. BUT, it’s ok to have differing opinions. Thanks for visiting!