Day 2: More Demolition

Demolition of our kitchen continued today at quite a clip. Jim and his able bodied assistant Caleb resumed their work removing what remained of our old kitchen. The focus of their efforts today was removing the tile in the kitchen and the mud room. The tile int he kitchen was replaced by the previous owners at some point, and in 2001, we had the tile in the mud room replaced along with the door to the garage and the outside. At one point, Jim was so interested in how the tile was coming up that he called for Dee and said, "Deirdre, you gotta come see this. Bring your camera." Jim wanted Dee to see how the tile in the floor had "bubbled up" when he applied the force of a jack hammer to it.



Jim also noticed that when the kitchen was last remodeled, the flooring placed over the base flooring was installed improperly. The base floor boards were installed at a 45 degree angle to the floor joists, as is customary. However, usually any flooring installed on top of base floor boards is installed at a right angle to the base boards, which improves structural strength. The previous remodeler of the kitchen installed the new boards along the same line as the base flooring.

Persnickety Jim was none too happy about this, and he assured Deirdre that he would not repeat the mistake of the previous remodeler.

Tomorrow will most likely be a little more demolition involving the trim along the doors, and perhaps the installation of the new base flooring. What has been the most pleasant surprise is how well the plastic sheeting has contained much of the dust and dirt that positively invaded our home during our bathroom projects. There have been no structural surprises, the demolition has gone according to plan and in a few short weeks all disruption and dust will be but a memory and our kitchen will be ready to fill our lives with new memories.