I realize that this blog should be titled “Dust, Dirt and Destruction,” but I’ve already used that one. Little did I know how much worse it could get. As I write this, not only do I have the sounds of hammers and saws inside my house, but I also hear and feel the rumble of big equipment repairing the street corner outside my door. (And my cat is purring away on my keyboard!) There is dust on every surface in my house.

Today, my kitchen and master bath are completely gone. The walls, ceilings, fixtures and cabinets were taken away in a huge dumpster. The dumpster was so full they had to pack it down with a back hoe twice!

I’m sure the crew that took my kitchen and bathroom apart wished that it could have happened magically, but actually, it took a great deal of work. First, our contractor, Darrin Myers, carefully took down the trim and other items that we want to keep for the restoration. Truthfully, I’m happy to get rid of most of it! The kitchen was probably updated in the 1940s/1950s. We want to restore the house back to its 1910 style but with modern conveniences. Here are some before photos. If you look closely, you can see the beautiful trim around the windows and doors.

The kitchen before destruction

Looking from the dining room

Butlers pantry before

And here is Darrin taking down the trim and the built-in cabinet that we plan to keep. He also re-opened the door that used to go into the butler’s pantry and closed the current door from the dining room.

The trim needed to be taken down carefully to be used again

The butler’s pantry minus the trim

The pieces of the built-in cabinet

A hundred years of cobwebs

The door trim is down

Kitchen cabinets had to be removed to get at this window

I stayed far away during the actual demolition. I didn’t think anyone would appreciate me walking through with a camera. But I have these before and after pictures for each day.

Early morning on the day of demolition:

Day 1 Morning of the demotion

Kitchen minus the trim

We discovered an old door behind the kitchen cabinets

After one long day of demolition:

After the first day, you can see the brick walls

View of the powder room and closed door

View of the kitchen and powder room

Day two: kitchen demolition is complete.

But wait. There’s more! We also demolished the master bathroom and main floor powder room at the same time.

The powder room shares a wall with the kitchen. We are going to move it to another location and use the space for our new kitchen. Here it is during demolition:

Powder room added in 1946

Powder room during trim removal

Some of the walls needed to be removed

The master bathroom is located directly above the main floor powder room so the crew dropped everything through the ceiling.

1910 Master bathroom

Master bathroom during demolition

The bathroom walls had metal lath and cement behind the tiles

These rafters (bathroom floor) were hand hewn to support the layer of cement laid on it

The powder room and the master bathroom above it are gone

When you look at the before photo above, you might be thinking, “Wait! This bathroom is beautiful! Why are you destroying it?” You’re right, it is beautiful. It was built in 1910 of all of the best–marble tile, clawfoot tub, cast iron sink–but these things were beyond repair. We couldn’t use the more modern toilet  at all because the pipe below was cracked. The sink leaked and the tub was full of toxic-looking green goop. No one wanted the tub, but I kept the sink. Meet my new bird bath!