Almost there!
11/10/11
I've been slacking on posts, but the kitchen is almost totally "destructinated". Ripped out all the ceramic tile Tues, which was a total loud, tedious mess (you can see the remnants of where it was all across the walls). Fortunately, garbage was the next day, so I filled two heavy garabage cans full of ugly pale pink ceramic tile. I also completely destroyed an innocent metal paint scraper in the process with a hammer. I suspect you're supposed to use a more stout chisel-type tool, but I didn't have one handy. The drywall obviously took a beating, so much of that will get replaced.
Next thing was disconnecting plumbing and removing the garbage disposal. This was far easier than I expected, but stiiiiinky. Couldn't figure out how the disposal was attached to the bottom of the sink, then I saw some kind of slidey looking mount that apparently twisted somehow. "Gee, let me try tapping that with a big screwdriver and hammer..." KA-KLUNK! Hmmm, hope I didn't break it. Kinda wanted to recycle it in the the new sink :)
With everything detached from the sink and all caulking severed, I realized the double sink weighed a zillion pounds (I'd guess in the 70-90 lb range) and there was no way me and my puny muscles (and currently irritated back) were getting it out. Fortunately my good friend John came by and heaved it out last night. Today I brute forced the countertops off, which is a good and violent process- you pry 'em up, then jostle them free, followed by pulling the whole mess onto the floor, and breaking it up a bit with shiny new 4 lb sledge. Laminated countertops are super heavy too, in case you were wondering. Got those out to the side of the house where hopefully they'll... evaporate. I suspect I'm gonna have to get one of those super driveway dumpster things sooner or later, or the garbage men are probably going to Molotov cocktail my house.
Just pulled out the dishwasher, which was easy. Standard 110v plug into the wall, turn off water supply from wall and unscrew, then pull out the drain hose... and splatter water from the hose all over the room and side of your head. Crap! I guess that's a relatively benign casualty given the scope of this mess. Rest of the cabs should be pretty easy to remove. I'm getting pretty good at it!
That's more like it. All gone. I'm currently getting a little drip-drip leak out of the water valve for the dishwasher (the puddle is from when it splashed the contents of the line). I think the bowl will hold it for the night, but tomorrow I'm gonna need to go to Lowe's and get a cap to replace the valve. I don't even know where the water shuts off here! I hate doing plumbing, so hopefully it doesn't turn into a bad Three's Company/Honeymooners escapade.
Now I'm out of excuses- have to finalize my new cabinet plans and order them bitches up. Also need to figure out what the heck I'm gonna do with old cabinets. I made be able to donate them to the Vegas Habitat For Humanity, which would be good because they'll pick 'em up. Next major step is removing all the tile floors in prep for the polished concrete treatment, and that's going to be a little difficult with a kitchen's worth of cabinets all over the place. BTW, I'm having the concrete guy's assistant remove the tile. He offered to do it for a really fair price and he'll haul it away. I ain't proud!