After the demolition last week, it was obvious what needed to be done in order to get this kitchen ready for the new cabinets that are being installed on Friday.

Yesterday, we had the plumber out and he cut all the pipes below the floor and capped them in the basement. Where the old cabinets had been was partly on the original hardwood floor and partly just sub-floor. I needed to bring this up even to the existing floor in the rest of the kitchen. Where there was just sub-floor, I had to raise it up an inch and a half, so it took two layers of 3/4 inch plywood. Areas where the original floor was still in place needed to be raised an inch and an eighth, so I used a layer 3/4 inch plywood plus a layer of 3/8 inch plywood.

Given the price of plywood these days, I decided to use some scraps I had lying around from old projects. I had to bite the bullet and purchase some 3/8 plywood at the hardware store. I calculated that I needed about a half sheet and they sold me a piece 32″ x 46″ for just $15. My lucky day!

The above photo shows the area raised up using 3/4 inch plywood with 3/8 in plywood on top. I used 1 1/2in screws to fasten the 3/4 in ply and brad nails to fasten the 3/8 inch ply on top of it.

On the other side, I just needed a small piece of 3/8 in ply to cover an area about 15″ x 19″ where the original floor was intact. The rest of the opening was covered with a layer of 3/4 in plywood and screwed in place. Then the whole area was covered with another layer of 3/4 in plywood to bring it flush to the most recent laminate floor. This time I screwed everything down with the same 1 1/2 in screws.

With the floors levelled, the next job was to patch a number of ugly holes in the walls. There was one particularly big one shown in the upper left of above photo. Another trip to the hardware store for drywall compound and a couple of drywall patches. The patches were 7″x 7″ and one patch just barely covered the bigger hole. I was able to cut the other patch in half and use these pieces to cover the other two hole. While I had the drywall compound out, I decided to spruce up the numerous small holes and cracks in the walls.

There’s more work to do here, but I am confident this will be ready for Friday when the cabinets arrive. More updates to come.

We began the demo on the farmhouse kitchen today. We started by tearing out the old counter tops and lower cabinets. The upper cabinets are not being removed.

What was revealed was no big surprise. Plaster walls, damaged in spots, a bit of old water damage where the sink was and the cabinets had been sitting on the old original floor. There have been a number of floors over the years so we are going to have the raise up the old floor for the new cabinets.

Whoever built these cabinets sure didn’t plan to be around when they were removed. They were built solid and nailed into place with lots and lot of big nails, some as big as 4 inches.

The new cabinets are scheduled to be installed this month. I will post updates as the project progresses.