Phase I - Katrina rennovation begins

It's early in the morning and I have been awake since even earlier. The coffee pot is gurgling and swishing from its perch on an old TV tray in the corner. Sunlight is softly pouring through the kitchen windows. I almost feel like I'm in an instant coffee commercial.... Except for the massive asthma-like attack that I'm having at the moment from all the stuff Dave and I stirred up and breathed last night.

Yesterday, Dean introduced me to the couple who will be sanding and painting our cabinets. They immediately got to work removing cabinet hardware and doors. They left late in the afternoon to order paint and promised to be here early to get started with the actual painting.

Of course this means we wanted to make sure that absolutely nothing would stand in their way this morning. Literally. So after a dinner of Wal-mart deli fried chicken served up on paper plates - Dave and I set out to remove our microwave, dishwasher, and oven. Well, okay - the microwave was easy since it's just a countertop model... but it's heavy and we moved it.

For the dishwasher I found an article at ThisOldHouse.com that is a pretty decent walk-through for removing a dishwasher -- and, aside from struggling with tight spaces and the wrong tools, things went relatively well. However, it is the dishwasher that's responsible for my asthma attack this morning for sure. You see -- dishwashers are wrapped in foam and fiber insulation. When we pulled our dishwasher out of its little space in the cabinets it was completed covered with sheetrock and mortar dust from all of our previous projects.

Dave vs. the dishwasher

The wall oven was a lot harder. It took forever to figure out how to remove the oven door... and then I struggled with the trim a bit... But we almost gave up when our clouded brains couldn't figure out where the circuit breaker was. It was already after 10pm when Dave and his flashlight went out to the breaker box on the side of the house. With the power disconnected - Dave had to work for a very long time to remove the miles and miles of electrical tape at the connections while I kept the oven from falling off the step stool where we had it perched. Then we had to actually lift the thing.

But we did it and the kitchen area is now completely clear for painting.


Sometime within the next couple of weeks we will have to conquer removing a sink and a cooktop... but not today... not today.

Oh - and for the curious: We have absolutely no intention of actually trying to reinstall these appliances. It's one thing to take all the pretty and colorful wires off and a whole new ballgame when it comes to hooking stuff up without frying things or killing yourself or starting a house fire. We will have to schedule a service call for a technician to come out and properly reinstall everything because we want to live.

hurricane katrina
home repair
pascagoula ms