I put in an order for Ikea base cabinets and they are scheduled for delivery on June 25th. That gives us just about a month to get our existing cabinets out and get the space ready for the new kitchen! This project is by far the biggest one we have ever tackled, and the best way I’ve found to not feel overwhelmed by it is to break it down into a schedule.
In the first week, we tore out our upper cabinets, backsplash, and replaced all of the drywall. We need a clean slate for the new kitchen design, which doesn’t have any upper cabinets.
We carefully pried out the upper cabinets with a pry bar and a hammer. We were able to salvage them and give them to a friend to reuse in her home.
We used a Reciprocating Saw to cut around the tile to take it out as neatly as possible. In our experience, we have learned that trying to preserve the drywall under tile takes much more time and creates a larger mess, so we opted to take all of the drywall down from the beginning.
Once we got all of the tile and drywall down, we started building the wall back up. We taped, mudded, and sanded the drywall until we had a pretty smooth surface. The last step before priming and painting the drywall was adding texture. Our interior is all orange peel texture, so we wanted to replicate that.
We have never done a large amount of texture before and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it. Matching existing texture seemed like it would be really tough, but we played around with our paint sprayer until we found settings that worked. I’m still in disbelief that our method actually worked.
We ended the weekend looking like this. There’s a light coat of dust on everything in this house, but I’m so happy with what we got done! We started framing in the hood vent and will finish that when the vent arrives.
I noticed that some areas of the wall still need some work after we painted, so I’m going to mud those and get them smooth in the next couple of weeks. There’s no rush on this step because I know I’ll also have some drywall repairs to make when we remove the lower cabinets.
We are doing this entire projects in little phases because we can really only work on the weekends with our jobs, and are prioritizing keeping a functional kitchen for as long as possible. Our plan is loose at this point, but this is what we have on the agenda for the next couple of weeks!
M̶a̶y̶ ̶2̶3̶-̶2̶5̶ ̶-̶ ̶d̶e̶m̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶r̶y̶w̶a̶l̶l̶
May 30-31 – finish living room beams, start on the kitchen beams
June 6-7 – work on adding kitchen beams
June 13-14 – hood vent should arrive (install and cover with drywall)
June 20-21 – lower cabinet demo, repair drywall and add new texture
June 25 – Cabinet delivery
June 27-28 – Ikea cabinet assembly
July 3-4 – Countertop installation
My schedule falls apart after the countertop installation because I’m sure I’ll want a weekend away from the project at that point. I’m also certain there will be more things to do than I can anticipate, so we will re-evaluate when the time comes!
Something else that we have not officially scheduled is the work that we need done on our window. We need to get it replaced to accommodate lower cabinets. Worst case scenario that won’t happen before we get our cabinets delivered and we will only do one side of the kitchen to start.
I’m still in the process of figuring out finishes, but I’m already loving the kitchen so much more just with the removal of the upper cabinets! I’m planning on publishing an update every week, so make sure to check back to see what we’ve checked off the list next week!
M̶a̶y̶ ̶2̶3̶-̶2̶5̶ ̶-̶ ̶d̶e̶m̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶r̶y̶w̶a̶l̶l̶
May 30-31 – finish living room beams, start on the kitchen beams
June 6-7 – work on adding kitchen beams
June 13-14 – hood vent should arrive (install and cover with drywall)
June 20-21 – lower cabinet demo, repair drywall and add new texture
June 25 – Cabinet delivery
June 27-28 – Ikea cabinet assembly
July 3-4 – Countertop installation
My schedule falls apart after the countertop installation because I’m sure I’ll want a weekend away from the project at that point. I’m also certain there will be more things to do than I can anticipate, so we will re-evaluate when the time comes!
Something else that we have not officially scheduled is the work that we need done on our window. We need to get it replaced to accommodate lower cabinets. Worst case scenario that won’t happen before we get our cabinets delivered and we will only do one side of the kitchen to start.
I’m still in the process of figuring out finishes, but I’m already loving the kitchen so much more just with the removal of the upper cabinets! I’m planning on publishing an update every week, so make sure to check back to see what we’ve checked off the list next week!
