The kitchen gets an extremely awesome makeover

As you may remember, we picked up this amazing vintage range a few months ago:



Yes, it does in fact have a "Grillevator".

If you have two strong friends and a hand truck, I highly suggest picking one up. Modern ranges that will perform at this level are going to set you back $5,000 or more and are likely to make your kitchen look like an operating room. There are a few great looking reproductions out there (Elmira, AGA, etc), but they also start around $5,000.

Anyhow, we decided to model our kitchen around the stove. We weren't going for a strict historic restoration (our house has been reworked too many times in the last 100 years to for that to matter), but we wanted keep bright, mid-century feel. We decided on white cabinets, white appliance, black countertops, and a vibrant wall color. We still haven't picked out floors.

First, we had to gut most of the kitchen. I left some old drywall in place, mostly where the new cabinets would cover it up.



I had to put up a serious plastic barrier around the work zone to keep Annie from being exposed to the dust while she's pregnant. We tested negative for lead paint or asbestos, but it's still best practice not to expose her to some of the fine lung irritants that can be created during major deconstruction.



Before I could take down the wall between the living room and kitchen, I put up a temporary post and beam to support the load from the kitchen ceiling.



After taking down that wall, I put a header up and built a 42" bar in it's place. Since the header ended in the middle of a hallway, it had to be supported on that end by a Simpson top-mount hanger. I had to call all around town and eventually found one at Parr Lumber in Northeast. Everyone else was out of stock or didn't carry them.



I was then able to build the half wall for the bar between the kitchen and living room.





By moving the entrance to the bathroom, and borrowing a few feet from it, we were able to create a cove for a pantry and the refrigerator. This made the kitchen feel twice as big and we are still able to keep the full bath.



We had to postpone cabinet installation for a week because of various hang ups on plumbing, electrical, etc. Once that was done, we could finally start putting our kitchen stuff back and get the counters on.



We hired Solid Craft to fab the Paperstone counters and they did an wonderful job. Installation was a breeze; Just a few passes with a random orbital and two coats of Osmo Top Oil, a natural, food safe finish.



That's all for now. We'll be done soon and I'll post before and after shots.