old kitchen nostalgia

I suffered from nostalgia this past weekend as we packed up the last of our kitchen paraphernalia.  I thought of how:

• I measured K and N as they grew during infancy on the squares of the vinyl floor;
• they crashed their baby's strollers into the cupboard doors;
• the drawers were excellent for baby-proofing as they were so hard and heavy to manoeuvre.

These thoughts quickly passed as I recalled:

• the ongoing battle with sawdust in the drawers despite being over 60 years old;
• the fan that works but sounds like an airplane landing in the kitchen;

• the heating duct above the fridge* and water pipes located in the lower cabinet took up precious cupboard space;
• how difficult it is to access the original lazy susan.

So it is all gone.  The demolition started yesterday.  To our surprise, we have no drywall left on kitchen walls (as we were only expecting the exterior walls to be removed for re-insulation purposes).  Some structural issues have been discovered over the deck door; the kitchen (not surprising) was built on an angle which makes it tricky for installation of cabinetry.

Central heat for the house has been turned off to reduce circulation of demolition and drywall dust.  Thank goodness for a natural gas fireplace which we use as a furnace!  We expect to be camping in our basement for the next 5.5 weeks!

The contractor will start building the bulkheads tomorrow; the electrician is due sometime tomorrow too. I am so glad not to be general contracting this project!

(* Most of our heating ducts in the house are located above my head; they apparently didn't realize in 1949 that hot air rises!)