Demolishing existing structures is a necessary step in remodeling. It can be kind of fun and cathartic but after a couple of days, you begin to feel as if you’re living in ruins – and not lovely and romantic ruins like the old Holyrood Castle Abbey in Edinburgh, shown above. The only way the SoMoToHo is going to get a new kitchen is for the old one to be torn out. So it was past time for things like this to go:
Here’s a reminder of where we started:
The first step is to empty the cabinets – I kept thinking of the first line of the old Guy Clark song, L.A. Freeway, “Pack up all your dishes.” (You know the rest of the first verse – “Make note of all good wishes; Say goodbye to the landlord for me; Son of a bitch has always bored me,” etc. Great song. And if you’re only familiar with Jerry Jeff Walker’s lovely cover version, do yourself a favor and check out the original sometime.)
And, just in case packing up all those dishes doesn’t bring home to you that major changes are about to take place, having one of these land in your driveway probably will do the trick:
Appliances come out first – dishwasher, Jenn Air cooktop, microwave, ovens – all gone …
and moved to the garage along with boxes of dishes, cookware, and seldom-used gadgets. 
As I’ve mentioned, these appliances are almost new and in very good shape. We’ll be keeping them for a future flip.
The next step was removing the L-extension that housed the sink and dishwasher and cut the room in two. Getting rid of it seemed to exponentially increase the size of the room. 
Now it’s time for the cabinets to come tumbling down and the dumpster to begin earning its keep. 
Once all the cabinets were out, the tile floor had to come up. With everything cleared out, it’s apparent that the space is large enough to accommodate the (continually-being-tweaked) new design nicely. 
The wall section missing its sheet rock above is where the new sink will go with a new window above it. You can see the pipes coming out of the concrete where the old sink was. Obviously, there will have to be some jack-hammering to re-route the water lines.
I had hoped against hope that, despite the then-oh-so-modern electric Jenn Air cooktop, the builder had stubbed out for gas in the kitchen. No such luck. Our plumber says that the gas line coming into the house that feeds the two furnaces and fireplaces won’t have sufficient capacity to supply the new cooktop, as well. So, if we want to be cooking with gas, as the saying goes, we’re going to have to run a new line from the meter to the kitchen. That means trenching. Oh, joy.
Remember the post from the Mid-Century Modern where Debra talked about using one of the bathrooms as the temporary kitchen? Here in the SoMoToHo, we have it a little easier; we have a coffee bar that will serve that purpose for the next couple of months. 
Coffee maker, Nespresso machine, teeny-tiny sink, microwave, and a hot plate. (The fridge is around the corner in the dining room.) And a grill outside. It’s not so bad, really. Beats washing dishes in the bathtub.
Til next time – thanks for reading.