Breaking Stuff!

But first...

Steph has an incredible espresso machine. I don't usually drink lattes, but for some reason homemade lattes are a novelty.

Today I didn't do that much work on the kitchen; I had to stay home to wait for the electrician, but I did demolish one of the cabinets. The electrician was pretty confused. I told him I was building the kitchen yesterday, but I don't think he really believed it until he saw me wielding a crowbar and a hammer. I broke the hammer.

Luckily, Steph has another one. The thing about old kitchens is that they are really well built. These cabinets are made out of solid pine and everything is nailed in, so it's bomb-proof. New kitchens, on the other hand, are really cheap. They are made of particle board and screws. They're still good enough, but just. I'm not ashamed of this. In fact, it turns into a fun sort of game. What corners can I cut? Where is the threshold between structurally sound and falling apart? I want to be there!

The nerdiest thing to do these days is overbuild. That's what old guys do. The electrician (who is more old than young) told me I wouldn't be able to hang doors on the base cabinets I built (I used 5/8" not the old standard 3/4" - living on the edge!). I was like "where the hell have you been?" I still have no idea what he's talking about. I told him I do this for a living (intermittently) and he still shook his head (invariably ignoring what I just told him) and laughed. As my good friend Mike said, if you couldn't hang doors on 5/8" melamine then why the hell would they make the stuff? What the hell else would you use it for?

Here's the beginning of the demo.

And after much prying...

That was fun. The walls are stripped to the bones now, so I think I have to drywall. I was going to try to go without (obviously, remember corner-cutting), but the space between the window and the (recently) existing cabinets is smaller than the space in the new plans. That means I have to tear out the pine siding and put up some proper walls.