Linoleum Removal

We are so excited to be ripping out the ugly linoleum floor in the kitchen! We wanted to do it the first day we got keys to the house but were worried about asbestos. So after testing and getting the green light, we are moving along with figuring out how to get it out of the house. We are using the nook area as our test as we can make a mess and still use the kitchen. We started with a heat gun to soften it, but Andrew moved much faster without it and just started pulling it up. We also have wood floors underneath! Our plan is the remove everything, sand the floor down and re-finish it. 

After the bulk of the linoleum was off the floor, we were left with a lot of glue and paper backing. I spent an hour scraping a small 2' area and decided to do research for a more time efficient method of getting it up. I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI-8v5d3mqY but thought it was a little more than I wanted to get into, and then talked to a friend who suggested water and soap. Luckily it doesn't seem we have a tar based glue, and the water and soap worked really well. It softened the paper and after soaking for a few minutes was easy to scrape away. We will probably have to do it a few more times to get rid of the glue, but we are getting closer to the wood!

Living without at stove

So as we are taking our time with the kitchen design, we are also taking time to buy a stove. We are waiting until it has a home so we don't move it all around the house during construction. So in the meantime, we bought a great little hot plate and are making due with one-pot meals. One of our favorite recipes is from the local restaurant, Toro Bravo, and they make an amazing Harira (lentil soup). It's easy to make and delicious!

Thinking about the Kitchen

Before starting any work on the kitchen, we are trying to take our time and really think about everything we want to get out of the kitchen. It is a pretty generous size, but has a narrow nook area, 3 doorways into the kitchen and no one ever planned for a refrigerator to be in the space. The previous owners removed all the appliances before selling, but from a small photo, you could tell they had the refrigerator in front of the window next to the end of the cabinets. So this has caused us to rethink the layout of the kitchen and try to be creative with where we are placing the appliances. So far, we have decided the old stove area is the perfect spot for the refrigerator and will have enough space next to it for a narrow cabinet. Between the sink and the next set of windows, we are planning to put the stove and keep the sink where it is. This relatively small shift in layout will create a permanent place for the refrigerator without tearing down any walls and maintaining the old 4-square layout of the house.