Well the cabinets arrived today! Tomorrow the installer will give them a look over for damage, if they are correct etc. They were a day early in getting here so that gives us plenty of time to tear out the old cabinets and prep. The electrician is coming Monday to move a few outlets around, add some new switches and such for the under cabinet lighting etc. A plumber is coming Wednesday to install a gas line for the new stove.

After they were unloaded, the installer came over the next day to check them out for damage. Everything is good to go, just one little minor thing to be replaced (a drawer front that screws on) that won’t hinder installation.

And so begins the tear out. These are old built-in cabinets, and the fellow who built them left a note scribed to one of the boards in the upper cabinet for posterity. It reads “Cabinets built by Sam Hollander, Sept 11 1962. Wages $4.00 per hour, My age is 35″…

These are “Before” shots”

The counter tops are glued down and nailed so my son and I are using a car jack from my Jeep to slowly “pry” up the tops. Normally you would just use a sledge hammer and not care, but I am practicing on these to eventually remove the bathroom counter top with out damaging the cabinets because in the bathroom we are keeping the 8ft. cabinet and just replacing the counter top.

First getting out the base cabinets seemed to be the right thing to do, and not having to bend over to get the top cabinets out. The base cabinet came out in one piece, the upper cabinets had to be dismantled to remove them. After all has been removed, I did some sanding and spackling. So much for day one.

My wife and I are currently planning a kitchen (and bathroom) remodel. We have been to Lowe’s for the cabinets and (believe it or not) got a pretty good deal. We are choosing the KraftMaid brand. They seem to be well built, stylish good selection of accessories.

I have been toiling over the idea of installing them myself. Our kitchen isn’t large just a 10×10 square with the cabinets running down the two sides.

Our existing layout has the stove right next to the refrigerator YUK! I have always hated that. Now there is a nice “Island” between the stove and refrigerator. We are also getting new appliances, refrigerator, over the stove microwave/hood, and I got to pick out a new stove/oven.

I have wanted a gas stove for a long time, after having one in my “first” apartment years ago (26 years), I liked the way the heat was instant on and better yet, instant off or down if something is scorching, and better control of the heat in general. We have been watching Food Network a lot lately and 98% of the chefs use gas stoves.

Cheryl “get’s” a new refrigerator. She hates my old “side-by-side”. We are getting one of those kind with the freezer on the bottom so you don’t have to bend over as much. We are also getting a newer microwave/hood as the old one has the handle duct taped to it.

The main feature of the new cabinets I have always wanted is slide out drawers for the food cupboard and a special heavy duty drawers for the pots and pans. No more climbing on the floor to reach a frying pan deep in the cupboard.