You remember the built in cabinets from a post ago? This is where they were!




















What a project! (And yes, that's a major understatement.)

This photo is taken from the living room towards the kitchen. The cabinets filled the entire floor to ceiling wall where it's all white in the photo.

When the contractor came to assess the house, he said that because the cabinets were custom built IN the house and FOR the house, it was unlikely that we'd get them removed without totally demolishing them. Our goal for the cabinets was to move them to the basement and use them in the storage room -- remaking the storage room into a media room.

Long story short, Jon is a "surgeon" when it comes to demolition, and not only are they not demolished, they're still in perfect condition. YAY! Not easy, not quick, but we did it!

We began the evening with me giving the kids a bath. As I was doing this, I heard banging and sawing and all sorts of racket in the living room. I knew he had decided to attack something, but wasn't sure what. I had a long day work, and I really wasn't intending to do any demo that night. However, he reminded me that the contractors would be there in the morning, and if THEY had to move the cabinets, they wouldn't be done without damage.

So once the kids were snug in their beds, I went out to help them. And no, I'm not sure how they sleep through banging and sawing and all the racket we were making -- a mere 20 feet or so away from their rooms. But they did. And I'm glad!

So Jon's brainstorm to detatch the cabinets -- which were nailed through the drywall and into the studs -- was to simply use the reciprocal saw and cut through every single nail. Of course, that meant we had to first get to the nails. That required one of us (Jon) to use the crowbar (or prybar?) to pull the cabinets and drywall (easily 500 pounds) away from the studs to allow access to the nail. Then I had to get the reciprocal saw into that tiny little opening and cut through the nails. Not easy -- for either one of us. Especially when there were cross bars and/or wires in the way. Each stud had a minimum of 10 nails in it -- most had closer to 15. And there were at least 10 studs (not sure exactly the number). It was probably 10pm when we finally made it through all the nails.

Due to the necessity of moving the cabinets, however, we couldn't go to bed. So Jon reached up to the ceiling (yes literally) and started rocking the cabinets down. We discovered a few nails that we had missed. We discovered places where the cabinets were glued to the walls. I'm thankful for both his height and his weight, because there was no way I could budge that thing! He finally pried the top part loose and we were able to lift it off to the side of the room. Rather, he was able to lift it, I had to simply support it. I couldn't move it at all -- it had no hand grip areas, my hands were sweating, it was nearly as tall as me laying on it's side, and it was very likely 200-300 pounds. So I talked Jon into balancing my end on a little auto mechanics type scooter chair and I scootered my end into place while he heaved his end into place. Of course, the goal of saving the hard wood floor meant we couldn't simply scoot it.

So the top part of the cabinet was off and in one piece with no damage. We knew the base would be much easier. Just as heavy, but easier to move. We discovered several more nails that didn't go all the way through they dryway, therefore hadn't been cut. That made prying it away from the wall slightly more difficult (until we realized it was attached and pulled the nails out). But from there we were able to get the bottom set of cabinets also up and out of the way. Yippee! While I was (barely) able to help move the bottom set of cabinets (they were every bit as heavy, they just had hand-hold areas) -- I'm NOT volunteering to carry them to the basement. There's absolutely no way I'll be able to do that. We may have to recruit a few men for that chore!

So here's what the cabinets and family room look like right now. The cabinet removed and nails cut means the dry wall should come down easily. YAY! I think (hope) that was the most challenging bit of the demo work. It was definitely the heaviest part of it!
















- Whew Moments: no more. I suppose "Whew" that I didn't break my back!
- Blown Fuses: 1 -- guess I didn't fully learn the lesson last time (when Jon did it) -- because I repeated the exact same thing last night. So that tally is now up to 2.
- Fights: 0! To renovate without a fight is an accomplishment. I did pray for that, and ask my bible study ladies to pray for that as well. When Jon and I go at tasks from the complete opposite angle, disagreements often come along. But none so far -- yay!