Remodel. Day 21. Demolition, Man!

Heh. I have that song going through my head now.

"I"m a walk-ing dis-as-ter, a Demolition Ma-a-a-a-an"

So, Monday.

D-Day.

Demolition Day.

Fortunately, it was also a Jazz Band day for Skip, so he and I were up at the crack of Still Dark, and while he ate his breakfast, I cleared up the last few things from the kitchen counters. (And could someone please explain the 'I leave JUNK on my counters until the Very Last Minute when I move/remodel" phenomenon? I swear, it happens EVERY time we move, too! We come to the end of the packing, and the things that are left on the counters are things like "Very Important Stuff that We Must NOT Lose!" and "Useless Crap That Should Have Been Packed Ages Ago". Case in point: Here is a list of what was left on the counters in the moments before the crew arrived for demolition. Let's play "One of these things is not like the others"! Here goes: a pack of Cat Themed playing cards, never opened. A set of glow-in-the-dark vampire fangs. A box of price tags from my knit-wear boutique (from TWO YEARS AGO!). A piece of rutilated quartz, an onyx specimen, a chunk of silicon slag, and a petrified dinosaur bone. The Property Tax Bill, due April 10th.

Did you find the outlier?

Whew. At least I know where it is this year.

So, Seven o'clock rolls around, and the guys arrive. They're READY TO GO! And I'm ready to take photos. (like there was any surprise there?)

Look! The Littles are still in their jammies. This is our "temporary kitchen". We've even decorated it with a Chinese brush painted mural of horses, salvaged from the 'we're going to throw all this stuff away' pile by a friend at a nearby rec. center.

The kids have front row seats for the show!

Maurice just kicked apart the little 'desk' at the end of the cabinets, but the tile-topped cabinets needed a bit more work.

And see how easy it is for the guys to demolish stuff, since Nate and I took off all the doors AND pulled out all the drawers? Yes, we all can do our part. *preen preen*

Bye bye, ugly poo-coloured tile countertop. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

See you later, overhead cupboards. Uh oh. Looks like Andrew got trapped between the fridge and sink.

Mighty Maurice with the reciprocating saw. It might take more than that to tear apart the peninsula.

But then again...

That counter top was plywood, CEMENT, chicken wire, and mortared tile. Heck, it's sturdier than the outside walls! (but more of that later...)

Hmmm. I guess there's no turning back now...

The dishwasher and the stove moved down to rest beside our 'temporary kitchen', where they'll just have a little siesta until the new cabinets are installed.

But that microwave-vent-hood thing was a bit of a bear.

Grrrr. Very grrrrrrr.

And then... uh oh... the sink pretty much just FELL out into Maurice's hands.

And that wall behind the sink? I wonder if the guys need danger pay for having to deal with that.

Quick. Everyone! Out into the sunshine, to breathe fresh air and think happy thoughts.

And now, let's get rid of that dropped ceiling. Did you know that Ken could touch the old ceiling with his ELBOW? Yeah. Kind of low.

But not any more!

(Hmm. I meant to ask the guys if they found any more treasures hiding in the faux ceiling...)

Work stopped in the afternoon, when they discovered that every time they tried to work near the window, the wall shimmied.

I guess there was more rot and termite damage than I initially thought. It's a miracle that the sink DIDN'T fall out of the counter, and the window DIDN'T fall out of the wall...

Yes. Before any more work happens, they'll have to brace the second storey. Wouldn't want the computer room falling through into the kitchen...

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a metric ton of dust to sweep up. It's true, it DOES settle on everything.