The kitchen is a pretty big project. I’m a confident DIY kind of person, but even so, this is a big project. So there’s a lot of planning happening at the moment. I’m sorting out what order everything will happen in, what I can do myself and what I need to hire out, talking to contractors, setting up the budget, and generally obsessing over details.

This is the current plan: I (and some friends – anyone feel like helping me be destructive for a weekend?) demo the entire kitchen. This means first packing the stuff that’s in the kitchen and moving it, plus moving the appliances out – the studio will be my temporary kitchen in the meantime, so that’s where the fridge will go, and the stove will have to be somewhere, though I can’t plug it in anywhere else. The countertop comes off, the cabinets come out, the paneling on the walls comes off, and the floor comes up.

We scrape everything off the floor – I’m hoping the hardwoods that are underneath 3 layers of linoleum are in good shape, and if not, I’m going to have to make some floor decisions. If they’re okay, they get sanded but not polyurethaned (yet).

The contractor takes the wall into the living room down to half-height, and moves the door opening a few inches left as well. While the walls are open, the electrician and plumber put all of the new electrical and plumbing in, and the contractor cuts the vent for the OTR microwave. I also mark where the studs are for future reference.

The contractor puts drywall up in the entire room. I put in the upper cabinets next, followed by the lower ones, then the toekick and and whatever upper molding I decide to do. Then the countertops can be templated, and the floor can be sealed, with touch-up sanding if necessary. I paint the walls around this time, too.

The countertop goes in, the sink and dishwasher are plumbed, and the appliances return. I unpack into my shiny new kitchen, and have a big party where I cook things because it will be awesome.

That’s the plan of attack… but as we all know, the map is not the territory…