I'm Baaaaaack! (Also Phase 1 of Project KR)

I know, I know, I've been MIA for quite a while. I have 2 words for you:

kitchen. remodel.

Also known as Project KR. Here are some before/phase 1 pictures for your viewing pleasure.

These are a couple of before pictures. We hated this half bar in the kitchen. The raised counter top was only about a foot wide, so you couldn't sit at it, not to mention the elevated height. All it did really well was collect clutter. And hide the messy dishes on the counter/in the sink. After thinking long and hard about what we wanted done in the kitchen, we decided that to really open up the area, the raised bar needed to go. 

Step one was to remove the tile backsplash on that half wall so we could remove the half wall and level it out with the countertop. I've become the queen of removing tile with a crowbar and a hammer.

Here's an action shot for ya. Remember safety glasses! Last thing you want is shards of tile getting in your eye.

Up next, we needed to remove the top portion of the raised bar. Enter reciprocating saw. This bad boy made the renovation possible. Most of the other tools we had on hand, but we needed this saw to get the remodel done. Probably best tool investment we made on this project. Basically you can take out the saw blade and turn it any direction you need to get the cut you want. Forwards, backwards and each side were all used on Project KR. Tyler marked a line where we wanted the cut to go and then went to town with the recip saw.

One thing you should know about recip saws, they are only as steady as you hold them, and they vibrate a lot so don't expect perfect cuts. The line that we marked was higher than we needed to allow for wiggle room. You can always go back and remove more later, but you can't add wall back (well, you can, but it's a huge pain to work with drywall, but that's another post).

Oh, and another word of caution, be careful with the electrical outlets/cords. We turned off the power to the kitchen and used an extension cord to power the saw just to be careful.

Also, the only cuts that really mattered were the studs because the saw slices through the drywall like butter. Take care to make your cuts on the studs with precision.

Look at how much more open the kitchen looks with that horrible half wall gone! Granted, no more hiding dirty dishes behind the wall anymore, but at least now we'll have to man up and wash/dry dishes ASAP.

See the awkward end cap on this counter? We also decided to open up the walkway into the kitchen and take that sucker out so we would have a nice square edge to the counter. So we took out all of our pent up aggression on that baby and whacked it with the biggest hammers we had around the house.

Demolition Phase 1 of KR, complete! Up next, removing the sink/base cabinets.