Day 139
Total Spent So Far: $49,349
30 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 3
Best Tool For This Job:
What a weekend.
Our fiend David Earhart came down to help us tear out the old kitchen which was upstairs in our main house. I wanted some help for this one as it involved tearing out concrete plastered walls as well to open up the space. I also wasn’t sure which walls may have been load bearing. Dave has been a great friend and resource to have on hand as he’s got years of experience behind him.
We haven’t been using the kitchen because it was infested with rats when we moved in. We got rid of the infestation but there was no way we were ever going to be able to clean or repair them enough for use. Completely disgusting. Besides, we wanted to remodel it anyways. Tearing them out was such a win for us. We found two carcases that had probably been there for over a year or two. Mostly just bones, no smell. One rat had actually stolen a dollar from the previous owner, and was using it in his nest. He also had a thing for Juicy Fruit. Talk about a sneaky rat.
We’ve got a huge open space now between the dining and living room. Our view is wide open and seen now when you walk in the front door. We’re going to have to box in another beam in the kitchen ceiling, and we already have plans for the layout of the new kitchen and island in our heads. (Exact measurements TBD). For the next few months we’ll actually be using a 6 foot folding table as a counter, next to our stove and sink which we temporarily reinstalled on some rudimentary wood framing we built. We’ve also got some temporary shelves setup for our dishes.
Before we put in the new kitchen I have to focus on getting our downstairs apartment, The Mermaid, complete. The timeline for that is November now because my partner Sebastian is moving down to help focus on our software company PromoJuice. Shaleece’s superior at FEMA’s wife, Terry, is coming to help us paint to speed things up starting today, and Dave will be flying back down at the end of the month. We should have no problems finishing it in time.
I’ve got to level out some areas of the floor upstairs since the demo took out some of the flooring where wall footers and cabinets were installed. The holes in the floor would currently make installing new tile uneven. Self-leveling concrete will work well for this to fill in the gaps and level it out again. Afterwards we’ll be installing new travertine upstairs before putting in the new kitchen, right over top of the old floors.
We’re getting all the travertine from Home Depot on island. If you didn’t know, you can custom order items from any Home Depot supplier direct to Home Depot, even if they don’t normally carry it in the store. For example, if they have one type of travertine, you can find the company that supplies it and order anything else that supplier has available. Our travertine was ordered from MSI Stone and we do have some custom pieces coming in (pebble travertine for bathroom shower floors, for example) which Home Depot didn’t carry. This is great considering the cost of shipping into the islands. It allows you to take advantage of Home Depot’s logistics already in place. There is also a great selection of Travertine you can have delivered to your home from Amazon that is peel and stick – no thin-set required!
Our new windows and doors should be coming in within the next month or so… Dave is going to be helping me with those installs as well.
Here’s a few more photos from the weekend!
Looks like a fun job! WishI was a lot younger!