Day 1: Grossest Kitchen Ever

Yesterday (Wednesday) was our first real renovation day.  We’d already gotten a few things done, like Andy took a backhoe to the drive (which had a giant pothole), and he also weed eated the overgrown grass.  However, today we started getting down to business inside the house.

The first order of business was taking down all the cabinets in the kitchen.  Since we’re simply repainting them, we had to do this carefully and take them down without ruining any of them.  We really weren’t prepared for how nasty the kitchen would be.  The layout and cabinets aren’t that bad, but whoever lived here last really had some sanitary issues.  We found old candy in drawers that had obviously become a nest for our lovely mouse friends.  However, we overcame our gags and just pretended that we were on HGTV.  Although gross, it was really quite fun!

If you’re not getting rid of cabinets, or are hoping to sell them later, then you have to be careful how you take them down.  First, unscrew all of the doors and take them out.’

Next pull out all the drawers.  Once the doors and drawers are out, you can pull off the counter tops.  Usually, you will want to use some sort of crow bar to pry them up.  Or, if you’re lucky like us and find that the counter was never installed properly, you can simply pick them up!

Next, you will probably want to remove the oven and any appliances.  We are saving the oven in our kitchen, which is actually fairly new.  However, the range hood is so caked with nasty grease that we aren’t even going to try to clean it.  Not to mention it was basically hanging on the wall by a nail.  Talk about hanging by a thread!

For the record, there were so many mouse droppings and things that made you barf that I was pretty much pouring bleach on everything.  (Bleach is a safe way to remove mouse droppings).  I pulled up the contact paper in the drawers while bleaching them.  Then I took them outside and sprayed them with straight white vinegar, in order to get some of the grime off.

We discovered that somebody had mudded right over wall paper.  Weird.  There was also paint under some of the drywall we pulled off.  Avocado green.  Oh joy!

 

By the time we finished this, it was time to hit the sack.  It looks better already!