Remodelling the Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of any home, and this one needed a transplant desperately. The obtrusive peninsula had to go and the electric range, though new, will be replaced with a new gas one.
We gave away the stove and most of the cabinets to our friend Darlene, whose dad is installing a second kitchen in his garage. The refrigerator will be replaced and re-situated and the cabinets on the back wall will be replaced with a pantry.

Since the new stove will require electricity for the microwave hood and ignitors on the gas stove, and will be located on the opposite side of the kitchen, we made the necessary electrical additions and added a gas line. The kitchen will prove to be a major challenge for wiring skills, because we wanted so many "extras" in our new kitchen. Even scaled back to budget, there is a lot to do in the kitchen, and when sometimes the switches did not work properly, we had to re-think and try again.

We plan on an island as the centerpiece for the kitchen that will require more electricity for appropriate lighting. The fluorescent fixture was removed and replaced with a temporary incandescent bulb while Paul wired for the new recessed lighting and installed 3way switches and dimmer switches on both sides of the for the new kitchen.

In place of the rear wall cabinets, we framed out a 7 foot pantry that we know we will never regret. Once the pantry was enclosed, we had no problem filling it with stuff that needed a home.

Some of the work we had to do for the kitchen may not be the most entertaining views on a blog, but it needed to be done and there was lots of it. Because we are entirely remodelling the kitchen the heat registers needed to be moved. In the pictures above, notice there was one near the door that we took out and put near the new pantry, and the one near the sliders had to come out to make room for the refrigerator. Some of the work, like the extension cord that was hardwired for an outdoor spot light, needed attention but really not worth photographing.
Then we found this contraption hanging from the ceiling in the basement that we removed. That may have been to heat the sliders or the basement, but whatever, we took it out.
As we began planning putting in the cabinets, we discovered that the kitchen window jammed in the humid weather and it was ugly and drafty, so we removed the old window and dropped a few hundred on a new casement window.
Unfortunately, our measurements were too small so we exchanged it for a double hung, which was bigger than the previous window but we opened the wall a little and got the larger window in.

The new window really brightens up the kitchen. and does not look so dated. Here's the kitchen almost completely gutted with a working sink. The electrical outlets on either side need updating and we still need a switch for a light over the sink.
Click on this picture to enlarge.

Believe it or not, this was not the worst of what we found under the cabinets, only what was left before we remembered the camera. We found decades of mouse shit in the kitchen.
Finally, we began installing the upper cabinets and the kitchen is beginning to take form. The upper cabinet enclosure will house the microwave hood over the new stove, an additional overhead cabinet will be installed on the right and will hover over the refrigerator.