Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Part 1: Tear Down That Wall

I instagrammed a picture over the weekend of day 1 of the Rivermont kitchen renovation. Since I’ve had several people ask about it since, I thought I’d share some more pictures.

Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Phase 1: Demo | Hannah & Husband

Last Friday, a huge dumpster was delivered to our house. And in all our infinite wisdom, we thought, “Surely the kitchen alone won’t fill this up.”

We were wrong.

I snapped the pic above after day 1 of demolition. Saturday, I left Husband and his #squad* (if Taylor has one, we all should) at the house for 3 hours and went to teach a sketchbook workshop at our local art supply store. When I got back, they’d gotten everything out–cabinets, countertops, appliances–and were proceeding to knock down walls.

*It is definitely worth mentioning that if we didn’t have the amazing circle of friends that we do, we would not have been able to take on a project of this magnitude. Our kitchen is way too big to demolish alone–especially when I am no help! 

Anyway, one Saturday with the boys and several late nights since, the dumpster is now so full we’re wondering if we’ll go over the allotted 5 tons. What I’m trying to tell you is this: My husband is really good at tearing things down, and there is A LOT to tear out of a kitchen. 

Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Phase 1: Demo | Hannah & Husband

If you look closely, you can see a piece of the 1950s pink border with little diamonds that used to line the first ceiling.

Did I mention that there were two ceilings?

The ceiling you would recognize from previous pictures was actually two feet lower than the ceilings in the rest of the house.

Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Phase 1: Demo | Hannah & Husband

Once Husband got all the plaster down, the room was just covered in this wood lathe. You see that couple of bright spots near the floor? That would be OUTSIDE.

“Where in the world is that draft coming from?” The holes in the wall.

One cool detail: You can see how the plaster grabbed on to the wood in the picture below.

Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Phase 1: Demo | Hannah & Husband

Rivermont Kitchen Renovation Phase 1: Demo | Hannah & Husband

And this is what it looks like now. Most of the lathe is down, and it’s time to move on to getting rid of that old insulation. I am so excited about these next steps because the kitchen will really start to take the shape we have in mind. I’ll update you when it does. In the meantime, here are a couple links that may be of interest…

Rivermont when we first saw her.

The kitchen remodel in our 1st home.

Random Links Because It’s the Day Before Thanksgiving, and You Aren’t Paying Attention to Work Anyway

The Christmas cactus I got from a clipping of WooWoo's has bloomed for the first time in it's 7 years here! Rivermont is magic.

The Christmas cactus I got from a clipping of WooWoo’s has bloomed for the first time in it’s 7 years here! Rivermont is magic.

Happy Wednesday! At this time tomorrow you’ll be snuggled up on the couch watching Al kick off the parade at 77th & Central Park West. But today? Today you’re stuck in your cubicle counting down the minutes until you can make a run to the grocery store for (insert random item here). So I thought it would be fun to share few random links I found as well as a few pictures from Rivermont.

Husband got to work when he came home! #newoldhouse #rivermont #kitchen #reno #diy

A photo posted by Hannah B. (@hb_belle) on

I posted this instagram the other night so I thought I’d share a few more pictures. Basically, we’ve decided that the kitchen is going to be a long process, but we’re determined to go ahead and start redoing it little by little. First up, we’ll be switching out the old appliances for some used ones that we bought. Then, we’ll be moving the laundry from a small room in the kitchen to the second level. Since we plan on taking down the walls anyway, I came home to this set up the other night.

Kitchen demo begins | Hannah & Husband

Why yes, that is my husband in a sweatshirt. Demo is one of the few household activities with such a loose dress code.

Cooking dinner during some kitchen demo. | Hannah & Husband

The ladder made cooking dinner a little hilarious. But demo has begun, and I’m so excited! There’s a plumber here this morning running a gas line to the kitchen. Huzzah! So here’s the view from today’s workspace. That dog always manages to find the sunshine.

Dexter sunning in the parlor at Rivermont | Hannah & Husband

And now the links…

Words of Wisdom from Julia Child | Hannah & Husband

I didn’t think it was possible to love Julia Child more after reading My Life in France, but this article by Julia Moskin in the New York Times did just that. It recalls how the Childs’ phone would ring incessantly on Thanksgiving with strangers that had questions about their turkey.

“But Mrs. Child refused to unlist her number or turn off the phone; instead, she embraced the role of national Thanksgiving commander in chief.”

The Times also tweeted out this 1971 snippet…

Finally, we are watching West Wing again. (YES, AGAIN! Don’t judge me!) So here’s a little Thanksgiving clip to remind you that while Julia is no longer with us, someone is still waiting by the phone to assist with your Thanksgiving questions and concerns.

Happy day before Thanksgiving!

TGIF!

rivermont-hill-hannahandhusband

Hello and Happy Friday from the old house on the hill! (She looks pretty up there, doesn’t she?) Before we kick this weekend off, I thought I’d show you a little bit of what went down last Saturday. Ladies and Gentlemen, project #1 is officially underway.

rivermont-shed-ceiling-demo-2-hannahandhusband

What is that weird pattern-y thing, you ask?

Oh, that?

That’s the ceiling!

rivermont-shed-ceiling-demo-hannahandhusband

Rivermont When We Bought It | Hannah & Husband

If you recall, there are several little sheds out behind our house. This one, the one on the far left, was the *perfect* 1950s clubhouse–or so I’ve been told. In my head, the Kerr boys were basically the Little Rascals. (I wonder if there was a Darla?)

little-rascals-clubhouse

rivermont-shed-demo-sink-hannahandhusband

Years before that, it was the home of Lewdy, the groundskeeper. I was told you could smell him coming a mile away. (Perhaps he’d been in to the jello shots? See yesterday’s post.) I also heard he had a thing going on with the maid.

rivermont-shed-demo-window-weights-hannahandhusband

window weights

Well, for its next incarnation, it will be… */drumroll please/* my studio! Last Saturday, as I was working upstairs in the house, Husband and our faithful apprentice, who is currently occupying the guest room, were deconstructing parts of the shed.

rivermont-shed-demo-hannahandhusband

 

We are not tearing the building down, but parts are beyond repair. So we are going to save the parts we can and rebuild the others to suit our purposes. Windows were taken out (carefully) and saved for future use. While we are tearing out the ceiling, the roof was replaced recently so we shouldn’t have to touch it. I’m thrilled with how much they got done last weekend, and I’m excited to get my hands dirty tomorrow. Stay tuned!

My old studio space was one of several crafty spaces featured on DIYNetwork.com. Click here to see it!

Click here to get my tips for dressing up your cubicle!

 

The Kitchen Renovation: Evolution of a Home Pt. 5

Last week when Husband was traveling, I woke up early one morning to find the light was perfect in our kitchen. So I grabbed my camera to capture a few of the moments while I cooked breakfast. I decided it was the perfect excuse to finally share pics of our kitchen renovation.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

If you don’t know anything about our house, it was built in 1935. You can read about the history of the home here or see pictures from before we bought the house in this post. (Please note the strawberry contact paper as I spent hours getting that stuff off the walls!) When we moved in, we painted the house a classic palette using lots of blues with red accents. It wasn’t very ‘us,’ but it definitely did the trick.

(Before) The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

Then last year, we decided to move (we didn’t), so we thought we should redo the kitchen. While this may seem counter-intuitive, you should know that one of the only rooms in your house that you can actually invest money in and expect to get it back at selling is the kitchen. A nice kitchen is a must-have on virtually every home buyers list, but it’s such a big investment, not to mention a pain to have that room torn up, that most buyers will never want to do the work themselves.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

Homeowner Tip: If you can redo it yourself, update the kitchen before you put your house on the market. 

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

So we went about drawing up a simple plan. We were lucky for two reasons:

1. Husband was able to do the work himself because he was doing contract work from home at the time and could make his own schedule. This saved money but also insured that we wouldn’t have a group of strangers in our home that we had to nag about a timeline.

2. We bought new appliances in 2006, which majorly cut back on our costs. (Our biggest expense was the countertops.)

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

By far the scariest moment of this renovation was cutting the hole for the sink in that gorgeous piece of butcher block.

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

We ended up making a total of 6 updates to the kitchen:

  1. Butcher block countertops (We get a lot of questions about these, and I’ll talk about caring for them later this week.)
  2. A new undermount, single bowl sink
  3. Painting the walls and bottom cabinets (inside and out)
  4. Adding a tile backsplash
  5. Shelves with a small countertop on the other side of the range
  6. Under-cabinet lighting

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

The Kitchen Renovation | Hannah & Husband

 

Life Lately

Lightning Bugs | Hannah & Husband

Fireflies from a current project

I’m not gonna lie, life last week was a little cray. Now that I am (finally) over being sick there was a lot of work to catch up on at ye old HGTV. (I can’t wait to share some of the crazy-cool stuff going on there, but you’ll have to wait until later this fall.) Things at home have been pretty busy too despite how serene that sparkly and library book look…

Creativity Inc. | Hannah & Husband

By the way, this book? Loving it! Is anyone else reading it?

Multi-tasking | Hannah & Husband

This guy. So multi-talented. Some people complain about life being mundane or routine–we’ve never had that issue. In the picture above, he’s game-planning an epic response to the #RockyTopChallenge.

The idea is simple: Pride of the Southland alumni (like Husband) are challenged to sing/perform Rocky Top or give $25 to the Pride of the Southland scholarship fund. (Truth be told, I think everyone is doing both.)

Also on the list of mixing it up a little bit: redoing our entire kitchen. Y’all aren’t even going to believe the before & after photos. Butcher block countertops, penny round tile… I cooked dinner for the first time in the halfway-finished-space tonight, and I felt like I was hosting a show on Food Network.

Cutting countertops for the big kitchen reno. | Hannah & Husband

I can’t even tell you how thankful I am for these guys! They came over to help Husband install the countertops and watching them work together fascinated me.

Tile for the big kitchen reno. | Hannah & Husband

Hannah & Husband

So yeah, life is both hectic and awesome. A scene we’ve been quoting a lot lately…