Kitchen Renovation

The majority of the kitchen renovation was done about 2 and a half years ago. I did the demolition myself, which was a thrilling, frightening, fun, and most of all, loud experience. I had no idea if neighbors might blow my cover. Lucky I have uber-cool, tolerant neighbors. Here are some shots of the demo in progress:

The only tools I used to demo the kitchen. Crazy, eh?

This is the vent and where the upper corner cabinets used to be. All the black stuff on the ceiling and around the vent is dirt and grime built up over the years. It was disgusting.

Original sink and counter.

Original wall oven and counter top stove. With oil build-up on the wall behind the stove. Gross.

Floor and original lower cabinet footprint. A typical tiny NYC kitchen.

And the after shots. Cabinetry is from Ikea. Very budget friendly. Design concept, to use high gloss red cabinets, and slate floor tile, was suggested by a friend. The overall design was by me. I went with black granite counter tops for their durability and resale value. Ikea has preferred kitchen installers. I hired Basic Builders and they were terrific. Their contractor, Peter, answered all of my questions, reviewed my design ideas, made suggestions, advised on electrical wiring options, etc. He also had no problem busting a hole in the wall to create a pass-through window between the kitchen and dining area.

Slate floor tile, purchased from Craigslist. Doing this myself saved me about $2,000.

Pass-through from the dining area into the kitchen.

Pass-through from kitchen into the dining area. Where the wall oven, stove top and nasty oil wall used to be.


New sink, counter tops and horizontal cabinets. Also, new vent cover, unpainted, in the upper right corner.


New cabinet footprint. Still a tiny NYC kitchen. But much nicer.

Holy crap, the first post!

Hello and welcome to the first Square Foot Crunch post. This blog will serve primarily as an archive for various home design and project ideas for my one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York. I bought the apartment in May 2006, and it needed some TLC. But it has a great layout and a spectacular view, which completely sold me. The to-do list was nothing an eager DIY person couldn't handle.

Since then, the kitchen has been completely renovated, the bathroom partially renovated, and the floors refinished, all professionally (though I did tile the kitchen floor myself). My first solo project (besides painting the walls, replacing the base boards, replacing switches and outlets, and some light fixtures) was building 2 large shelves in the living room to house various electronics and books.

The only one of the above mentioned projects that had an upcycle/recycle component to them was the kitchen floor tiling (tiles were purchased from Craigslist). Going forward, all projects featured here will be environmentally friendly. Occasionally, practicality will win out over being green. Not every project will have zero environmental impact.

Here's a partial list of some other projects that will be documented here, broken down by room:

Kitchen
Vent Cover

Living Room
Valence/Curtains
Window sill

Bedroom
Wall sconces
Headboard
Window sill
Closets
Desk

Dining Room
Bar/Counter
Frame passthru
Shoji screen light fixtures

I'd be grateful to anyone reading this blog to leave comments about the work, especially other DIY and home improvement folks willing to impart words of wisdom, or offer some constructive criticism. I am a novice here, so could use all the advice I can get! Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy it!