We’ve already made progress on our kitchen remodel, like building cabinets and buying sinks, stoves, and flooring. All of which are easily stored until we’re ready to use. But, on Sunday, we made some changes, and there’s no turning back. You remember what our kitchen looked like when we last saw it.
Ben built drawers on Saturday, then climbed in the attic to reinforce the load bearing wall. I thought we’d prime everything on Sunday. After breakfast Sunday morning, Ben informed me of his plan.
Ben: “Yeah, I want to take down the cabinets and tear down the soffit.”
Amanda: “Umm, why right now? I thought we were going to wait until we had the cabinets ready to install.”
Ben: “Because I don’t want to work over the new cabinets and damage them. Do you think you can take everything out so we can get started?”
Amanda: “O-friggin-kay. Let’s start moving stuff.”
We moved everything in the upper cabinets either into the guest bedroom closet, the pantry, or elsewhere in the kitchen. Then Ben the builder and Handy Sammy unscrewed the cabinets, occasionally cursing stripped Phillips head screws.
After unscrewing the cabinets, Ben pulled them all down.
Vincent and Everett loved the cabinets. I actually looked at the old microwave cabinet and thought it would make a cute play kitchen if painted.
Then, the real demo work started. Ben happily knocked a hole in the soffit.
Then, he used a utility knife to score the sheet rock. We want to keep the ceiling as nice as possible to decrease repairs.
Roughly an hour later, the boys had removed the built-to-withstand-an-earthquake soffit above the stove.
Now onto the wall, door frame, and soffit along the dining side. Again, he scored along the ceiling to pull out the crown molding.
The dining wall had two 2 by 12s as a beam, as well as soffit boxing. Apparently, that was more difficult to tear down.
Then the soffit above the sink. Ben cut a few pieces of sheet rock to fill the open areas and called it a day. But not before we considered tearing out the wall between the kitchen and living room. Go big or go home, right? I hoped we could get the majority of the demo done in one day. But I guess Ben still had some electrical work to do before that wall could go. Since Sunday afternoon, we’ve been living with a half torn apart kitchen.
Taking the cabinets down made a huge difference, but I think the biggest change was removing the wall along the dining room.
We also have a hole in the floor where the wall used to be.
Hopefully we’ll tear down the rest of the wall soon. Oh, and Ben picked up our range yesterday afternoon. It’s still in the box, so we don’t know exactly what it looks like.
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
Any worries that the large beam on the ceiling separating the kitchen from the dining room is a support beam?
Hi Wendy and Jennifer,
Yep, it is a load bearing wall, but Ben talked to his architect friend and he has already added the necessary support in the attic. So, we’ll still have a beam across the top, much like a typical door frame. However, that beam is more for hiding the range hood than structural support. And we’ll also have a post on either side of this stove.
Stephanie, I’m so excited to see the after, too! It’s going to be fantastic if it lives up to my mental image. Let’s hope it at least meets my expectations. 🙂
Kathy, You know, that’s what I thought! At first I was shocked that Ben wanted to do that, but now I’m happy. Bring on the new kitchen!
Ash and Ands, V is adorable in his overalls. And, that was the color of the green board way back then, not paint.
Jen, It’s totally different now! our ceilings feel 10 feel tall now.
Thanks!!
Amanda
Amanda, you’re torturing me. I’m so ready to see the after! I know you are, too, but I might just be more excited than you about this reno.
Already looks so much better. V looks so frickin’ cute, I can’t stand it! Btw, love the swoon worthy mid-century aqua paint color under those cabinets.
Looks great! My first thought about the beam was the same reaction as Wendy above… it isn’t a support beam, is it?! Otherwise, I’m sure you are so excited just to see progress!
Whoa! that’s some major “spontaneous” demolition! But I love how open the kitchen is now!! Nice work!
Such a big difference already! This is going to look amazing wen it is completed. 🙂
Jen
Vincent is so flipping cute!
Wow! Amazing how much more “open” it feels after losing that 12(ish) inches of wall! Looking forward to more progress!
Now you’re getting me all excited to tackle our renovation and rip out our old cabinets and soffit. We’ve already removed the tile floor and our cabinets come in at the end of the month. Can’t wait to see more of your progress.
You can see the current state of our remodel here:
http://www.mysocalledhome.com/2011/10/one-step-closerand-announcement.html
Jamie, It really does open everything up. I love it right now, but it’s going to be even better when we cut a hole to the living room.
Hilary, Your kitchen is looking great. You know, in that torn apart you can tell it’s going to look better in the end kind of way. 🙂
It looks so much brighter and more open already. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
Looks amazing! I have to say that is the CLEANEST demo job I have ever seen! I am looking forward to following your kitchen re-do!
Wow! Those are definitely some big changes. I love it without the soffit and your kitchen looks SO much bigger now! I can’t wait to see how everything turns out!
And it begins!!! So excited to watch the whole process with you!
What will happen to the old cabinets? Do you plan to repurpose them in any way – maybe storage for Ben in the garage?
Thanks, everyone! We’re super excited, too. 🙂
Cecily, we tried to keep the kitchen clean, just because we didn’t want to tear apart the surrounding rooms. Haha.
Jenna, Ben’s dad actually took the cabinets for his garage shop. I think he plans to use the lower cabinets when we tear those out, too.
wow, what a difference it makes already!! So looking forward to seeing the rest of the reno/demo.
this is great! i had no idea how to get rid of our soffits (or even what a soffit was). i want to raise our currently soffited kitchen cabs so that we can knock out the wall between the upper and lower cabinets so that you can see from the kitchen into our living room.
Thanks for doing this to your house and posting it. Now my husband is going to take our our soffit and lift our cabinets and install a shelf under the cabinets. yay! You have inspired him (us). We are not going as far as taking out any walls. 😉
Hi Lau,
That’s great! It should be relatively easy. I’m so jealous that you’re installing shelves below. I would love to do that. 🙂 I’d love to see pictures when you’re finished.
Good luck!
Amanda