Stage 2: Floor demolition and cement board

So... floor removal. "This is the floor that never ends- yes it goes on and on my friends." There was ugly taco bell colored tile and my incredible husband chipped it all out with a crow bar, mallet, and this funny shovel looking thing. On of our wonderful lunch ladies at school kept sneaking me cardboard boxes for weeks and my job was to keep piling the broken tile into boxes and then carry the boxes to the garage.

This was the one stage I was most nervous about because I thought it would be really tough and take forever. Thankfully aaron did most of it because I was still in school and didn't have energy on week nights to do much kitchen help- also I do more of the finishing details, painting, and patching- so we make a good team.

Looking back it was too too bad, but definitely not too, too fun either. In future kitchens in may be something we pay someone to do- like pay someone to do the demolition work and then we put in the cabinets and countertops and everything else.

We have been blessed so much to have help from people in our community. We thank Steve for letting us borrow his truck and trailer for a week to haul stuff to the recycling center. 

Then there were TWO layers of laminate flooring under the tile. So we peeled both up and it left this sticky adhesive that needed to be cleaned off by scraping. I was proud of my genius way to soak it with water and scrape it up. At first we were using a hand held squirt bottle to wet the adhesive, let it soak for a few minutes, and then scrape it up with a putty knife. I thought it would take an entire Saturday... but that Saturday morning as I lay in bed I remembered hearing about someone filling once using one of those big spray containers for the garden (that usually contain poison) to spray water on large areas. We had one so Aaron cleaned it out really well, I filled it with water, and sprayed huge sections at a time of about 3x5' square. SO EASY! Then I let it sit for at least 15 minutes and it came up in huge chunks after with the putty knife. It only took about 3 hours! Woo hoo!

Meanwhile- Will and Aaron were patching drywall and filling nail holes! Thanks Will!!

We did pay for an electrician to come and move some outlets and then split out single light above the sink to make space for 2 pendant lamps. We also paid a plumber to update water fixtures and remove an old gas pipe- there were 2 for some reason?? Everything else we have done ourselves. We are out f of our minds... but I've decided only great things happen when people are out of their minds in the good kind of way.

All the while we were starting to assemble cabinets in the mornings or evenings on weekdays. Here's me learning how to use the drill for the first time. I will maybe graduate onto other power tools on day :)

Note: We have LOVED Ikea assembly. Pure genius construction and very sturdy. We are very pleased so far.

The following weekend we put in the cement board. I am not putting in a step by step anywhere here because tons exist out there, but it took an entire day. We dry laid the cement and made all the cuts.

Clark was our helper that day!

Then we mixed up the thin set.

Then me and my overalls went to town spreading that thin set. Look at this work of art below... too bad we covered it up with the cement boards.

What was fun during this step was to pray for all the feet that will walk across this floor! It is a neat thing to work on your house and pray over all the materials and dream about the beautiful things that will on day happen in that space.

And the finished product...!