Small Fixer Upper | Complete Kitchen Demo on a Historic Home
Our small fixer upper kitchen demo was quite an adventure! There were cabinets to demo as well as ripping out layers and layers of flooring. We are not experts and this was our first demo, so it was adventurous to say the least!
Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
Alright, well now it’s time for some kitchen demo!
Right after we purchased this home, my husband took some time off from work to start renovating the house full time. About a month after, we were all sent home anyway because of the pandemic! We were so thankful that we were able to buy a house right before lockdown.
You can also watch a video about this here.
Small fixer upper kitchen – flooring
Back to the kitchen demo.. After Nate removed the peel and stick floating floors in the kitchen he had to remove the plywood that was underneath it next. And just when you think the layers ended there.. nope! We’ll get to that part soon.
He removed the plywood in the kitchen entryway first. But, here’s the thing, there were TWO layers of it to pull up. It ended up being a lot of work! Then before he could pull up the plywood in the actual kitchen area, he had to remove the cabinets and kitchen sink.
Equipped with ear protection, safety glasses, and a sledge hammer (which was the first one he ever bought for this project!), it was time to go to town on everything in the kitchen including the countertops, cabinets, and sink area. My husband removed all of the appliances like stove and fridge beforehand.
small fixer upper kitchen – cabinet demo
Here he is getting ready to start the kitchen demo process. This was actually his first time doing something like this before. Neither of us have experience renovating homes, and as a reminder, this was the first home we’ve ever bought.
Boom. Crash. Bang. What a thrilling experience to break up pieces of the very house you purchased! It’s crazy, but at the same time exciting to think of the possibilities of a fresh and clean slate. I really wasn’t sure what to expect personally and just trusted that my husband knew what he was doing. Thankfully he’s delivered beyond my expectations!
For some reason, I have a feeling he actually had a really great time busting up our whole kitchen! 😉
I mean, I knew he grew up with some sort of construction background, but dang.. he did good! I’m so proud of him and thankful we (he) was able to tackle this on his own to save money and learn new skills. And we certainly have been learning a lot through this whole process.
Ok, I just have to jump in here real quick and say WOW. Impressive! I didn’t realize how strong my hubby really was.. Incredible! You go honey and get this kitchen demo done!
small fixer upper kitchen – flooring demo
After the kitchen demo was completed, he went back to the floors and that awful double layer of plywood! Here we go again – pulling up more flooring! Are you ready for the layers underneath? We discovered what appeared to be the original linoleum under the plywood and beneath that was the original hardwood floors. In fact, there were several layers of linoleum (or maybe it was vinyl?) representing possible different eras in a sort of time capsule kind of way and preserved!
Since our house was built in 1934, it seems like the original floors in the kitchen would have been the hardwood flooring at the very bottom. Then maybe as the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s rolled around, the solid green vinyl and then yellow vinyl, and then some possible 90’s or early 2000’s flooring that appeared similar to the floating floors or like squares of tile. I cannot verify any of this and just making up my best guess as we are not housing experts and really just learning as we go.
It’s crazy to think that if we didn’t actually pull up all the flooring, we’d be living on top of layers and layers of history. Or just nastiness!
It’s really amazing to see how the previous owners attempted to preserve this old little gem. Since it was a rental house for over 60 years, it was no surprise that it would need a little more TLC to bring her back to life!
There was a large wood board under the sink area and it had a leak for possibly many years and was all rotted. My husband pulled up that board to see what was underneath and I was so grossed out by it! I was seriously convinced that there could have been animals living under there!
Check out our video to see more visual details of the process!
The damage was so bad and we knew that everything would obviously need to come up. We had our work cut out for us that’s for sure!
I think we both at times wondered what we were doing. Again, with no experience renovating homes let alone DIY demolitions, it was quite overwhelming! We battled thoughts of whether we made the right decision or not and at the same time were very thankful to even find such a small home that we could afford in our area.
It was quite the leap of faith to purchase this home and we are grateful that it all worked out. We still have a long way to go and from time to time second guess ourselves! However, the benefits of owning a small shelter that fits within our means, makes it more than worth it!
In addition, we are learning a lot of new skills we never thought we’d ever have to tap into. Not only how to demo and remove old things, but how to put things back together, which we are SLOWLY working on right now. More to come on that so stay tuned for our upcoming adventures!
check out our videos!
If you want to see our initial walkthrough of this tiny fixer upper and a video we made about our small historic home, click on the links below.
Wow! What a big job! Very exiting to remodel such a cool place.
It certainly is a big job, but also very rewarding. We are excited to turn this place around! 🥰