Photos
Kitchen demo and electrical progress. Click to enlarge.
Blog / House
January 4, 2026
Made some big decisions today focused on long-term thinking. The kitchen and bathroom are the two most expensive rooms to remodel, so we've been hesitant to bite off more than we can chew. But we figured it's better to completely demo the kitchen rather than just demo half and resurface the walls. A blank slate will be a lot less mess to deal with when we eventually do the full remodel.
It feels like I've been stuck in demo world for the past 54 days because I keep deciding to demo more and more. But I think this will be a decision we're happy with once this project is finished.
My father Steve Earl came through today. Shout out to Steve. He handled a bunch of electrical which was awesome to see. He's finishing up tomorrow along with the bathroom electrical. We're putting in four cans in the bathroom and all the outlets and GFCIs are wired up now. Really nice to have that progress.
We demoed more of the kitchen today. Moved the fridge into the mudroom for now. The place looks quite a bit different.
Emma has been grinding on the kitchen design through IKEA's kitchen designer. She's got a meeting with them tomorrow. It's actually been super helpful for tracking costs, and surprisingly affordable for materials since we'll be doing the install ourselves.
We have some decisions to make and money to save this month before we commit to design and buying materials. There's also quite a bit of prep work to do first.
Work starts again tomorrow so things might slow down a bit. But we got a lot done over this break.
The trash is piling up in the backyard again so I'm debating getting dumpster number six. Might be able to haul some stuff off in my truck instead. Haven't decided yet.
Kitchen demo and electrical progress. Click to enlarge.
Feeling super grateful today for all the help and the people who've been supportive of this effort. It really makes it more of a fun challenge when you hear that people are proud of you for taking this kind of stuff on. It fills you with a sense of pride that can often get overlooked, but I think it's important to have that gratitude.
It also feels really good to hear people say they're proud of you. I don't know that I'm deserving of that, but it feels really nice. Thank you to those people.
Shout out to Emmitt Meyers, Hayden Earl, Emma, Emma's family, and everyone else who's helped out, whether mentally, with demo, or just coming to see the construction site. And shout out to Tom Bell for suggesting I put the Venmo link in these posts.
Want to help out? Materials and coffee always appreciated.