THE DEXTER HOUSE If you've been following the Grit and Polish for long, you know that I hate demo. It's my least favorite phase of any renovation. And of course, we just so happen to be waist-deep in the middle of it at the Dexter House right now. Not only is demo beyond dusty, but it's a total bummer! We're taking what's essentially a perfectly good house (albeit a fixer)...

...and making it look a whole lot worse...

Depressing, right?! At least the puppies are cute ;)

But, as the saying goes, sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. So have faith (yes, I'm talking to myself) and soon we'll be onto the pretty stuff - like cabinets, paint, and tiles! In the meantime, let's take a look at what we've done to this house so far.

Living and Dining Rooms

The living and dining rooms aren't going to require demo but they have become our storage-space as you can see in the above picture. Unfortunately, we also found a leak in the roof above the living room. Like put a pot on the floor cause there's water dripping in the house any time it rains, kind of leak, and it rains a lot in Seattle! Garrett and his Pops put a patch on the roof, and then they tore out a section of the 100-year-old lath and plaster ceiling to see what we're dealing with. Once the framing dries out, we'll find out the extent of rot.

Kitchen

The majority of the demo is in the kitchen. We've pulled out the appliances (and stored them in the dining room), stripped three layers of flooring (tiles over 2 layers of lineoleum), removed a closet, tore out the majority of the original cabinets, and enlarged the opening between the kitchen and dining room. Have a look:

I wasn't kidding when I said demo was dusty! We wear pretty hardcore respirators during this phase.

The Grit and Polish - Dexter Demo Kitchen 2

The Grit and Polish - Dexter Demo Kitchen Opening 3

The Grit and Polish - Dexter Demo Kitchen 4

The Grit and Polish - kitchen demo complete

The Grit and Polish - Kitchen Demo Cabinets

It killed me to do so, but we also made the decision to remove most of the original lower cabinets in the kitchen. We need to install a dishwasher (non-negotiable in our family), and since the original lowers are shorter and shallower than modern appliances, it became an impossible task to mesh the old cabinets with our modern requirements. So out they came...

The Grit and Polish - Dexter Demo Kitchen 6

The Grit and Polish - Kitchen Cabinet demo 2

The Grit and Polish - kitchen cabinet demo

We're crossing our fingers that the floors are in good enough condition to refinish. They aren't looking too hot after pulling up 2 layers of linoleum and 1 layer of tile in the kitchen, but I'm having a professional floor refinisher out to have a look at them next week and hoping she'll give us good news.

The Grit and Polish - Kitchen Demo Floors

Here's a peak at our ever-expanding garbage pile in the backyard. It's absolutely crazy (and sad) how much waste comes out of demoing such a small part of an old house. I can't imagine how much garbage would be created from tearing down an entire house!