Demolition Girl!

Hi everyone. Back from another hectic (but fun - and filled with people I love) weekend. I'd love to tell you all about it, but I really owe a post about the kitchen! So I'm sure you remember it in all its dingy black-and-white glory??? Well I'm proud to say that's totally gone. In its place? A large, cavernous dust cave. How appetizing! Now, if you're even 1/2 as obsessed as we are with HGTV (honestly Mike Holmes is like a god in our house), you will probably assume, as I did, that demolition is this fun little activity that never takes more than 20 sped up seconds to complete. You will then stand in the middle of your clean empty space and admire your work without a speck of dust on you. Biggest. Lie. Ever. So far our demo activities have been progressing for OVER A WEEK now! It doesn't help that the old owners were the kings of band-aid solutions. B spent a whole day just removing the disgusting paneling and cabinets, only to reveal multiple layers of "kitchen" themed wallpaper and plaster walls. He also discovered a "secret door" (i.e. a doorway that had been paneled over for convenience). So far we have removed:

• All cabinets, counter-tops, and appliances
• The entire ceiling - drop ceiling installed 15-18" below horse hair plaster with slats
• 3.5 of the four major walls (one wall is being completely removed and the living room side still has to come down, hence the half) - paneling, three layers of horse hair plaster with slats down to chair rail height, with hard wood wainscoting below.Oh, and there were even two layers of backsplash... total hack job!
• The entire floor - 4 layers of linoleum, and a layer of hard wood (and no, the hard wood is not salvageable *weeps*)

I don't have all my pictures with me, but here are a few. 

Did I fail to previously mention the incredible spaghetti pile of electrical wires? My bad. 

The doorway on the left edge is the secret doorway. The doorway on the right is the former kitchen entrance. Good view of what the inside of a horse-hair plaster wall looks like. Hopefully this wall (the final frontier) will be down tonight.

I will have to draft a second post with more pictures for you when I get home. Till then, put on a nice clean white t-shirt for me, and go dice some veggies in your nice clean kitchen. ;)