2024-03-29

Ah, destruction

We started to bash up the hideous, much-hated cabinets from our ex-kitchen (well, more of a “kitchen” really) in the back bedroom. YAY.

(Before - taken in 2002)
(Before - taken in 2002)

I haven’t flung any chunks out the window yet, but it will definitely happen. I really loathed trying to cook in there — it was a zero-bum kitchen, the kind in which you are doomed to get in your own way no matter what, and you’re forever juggling things on the fourteen inches of counter space. Ugh. Taking it apart will be the most fun we’ve ever had in that room by far.

I started by removing all the cabinet doors. D was making noises about keeping some of the horrid ugly grubby hardware — “They’re perfectly good hinges!” — so I had to get all stompy-footed and veto that plan. WE CAN AFFORD A FEW NON-GROSS HINGES, OK?

Next up was the really fun bit involving bashing things with a hammer.

Action shot of D smacking the cabinets into bits

Finally only the backboard was left:

Plywood cabinet backing

Of course, since it is our house, the previous owner had attached it with not one, not two but FOUR different kinds of hardware. From left: some sort of antique dock screw or lagbolt or something, slot screw, square screw, mysterious hex head bolt. All different lengths, all requiring different tools to remove.

We are not fond of our house’s previous owner.

Variety of hardware, as usual

Next up: taking out the sink so we can bash apart the lower cabinets. Then bashing apart the walls, which are kind of trashed anyway and (more relevantly) completely uninsulated. Since there’ll be a small child’s bed pushed up against the two outside walls, we feel insulation might be nice, hence the need for actual framed walls and not just plaster over brick. It’s likely the floor in there will also need to be pulled out and replaced.

But we may drag out the bashing-apart phase for a while, since it’s much more fun than framing, insulating, and drywalling. THAK SMASH!