Kathy's Kitchen Makeover: Demo Drama

Posted by Kathy Worm on 5 June 2012

Kathy Worm is chronicling the full renovation of her Raleigh kitchen. Read her previous posts to see "before" pictures, designer blueprints, and decision time!

The plans are finalized. Contractors selected. We are ready to go. Well, after I clean everything out of the kitchen first. And who knew how emotional cleaning out a kitchen would be?

We moved into the house when my son was 5. He is now 17. I guess I really don’t need those Tupperware popsicle makers anymore. Or the yellowed baby spoons that are way back in the silverware drawer. I found some tiny plastic frogs that my son had "hidden" in the grilling drawer to scare me, giggling all the while. I saw the snowman sticker that my son had placed on one of the cabinets one snowy day. Ah stickers. I used to love to play stickers with him. I loved being a "Mommy." Sigh. Weep.

Keep on moving to the cookbooks. There are some old friends in the collection. Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The Silver Palate Cookbook. The Joy of Cooking. There are new favorites like my friend Sheri Castle's New Southern Garden Cookbook. There are also some cookbooks that have so much fat in the ingredients that I will never use them again. There is a basic grilling cookbook that was my bible when I was learning to cook. Now all of that info is in my head. There are some ethnic cookbooks that have so many unusual and hard-to-find ingredients that I have never used them. Out they go. That wasn't too bad. But how many cookbooks do I need now that everything is online? I will just pack these up and make other cuts when I unpack. 

Now for the less used items. All the vases from the florist? Recycle. Pier One plates from my post-law school days? Save for Thomas's first apartment. The whipped cream maker that was a gag gift from my now defunct but still loved supper club is a goner. But what about the Wedgewood china that was my Great Aunt’s? Or the mixing bowl that is falling apart that was my Mom’s? Or the roasting pan that is an antique that still works and we use only on Thanksgiving but looks like it has seen better days? Who would have thought that getting a new kitchen involved confronting the issues of family history and sentimentality in contrast with streamlined and uncluttered? Dishes and china meant a lot to my mother and her mother. Me—not so much. I appreciate thinking about how many weddings, funerals, bridal showers and holidays were made more festive by the use of my grandmother’s china. I really do. Every time I use it. Which is not very much. But I wonder why I don’t hold those dishes as sacred as my mother did? Maybe they were more of a sign of affluence to a new generation of Americans. Maybe they are just not my style. Maybe I don’t worry about being a domestic goddess as much as they did. But I do like things to be nice when I entertain, so who really knows. Stop thinking and get packing because the demolition guys are coming in a few hours.

The morning the demo crew came I got the first whack at the old countertops and cabinets. It felt exhilarating to take a crack at those ugly things that drove me crazy. Thomas and his friend, Sam, thought it was a blast too. They were almost late to school because they had so much fun taking hammers to the cabinets. Don't think that would have been an excused absence. So we left the fun for the demo crew. It is surprising how fast ripping things out goes. It takes a long time to build things and no time to tear it down. Kind of like raising your kids and letting them launch. In the blink of an eye.