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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Under Construction: Day One

So far, so good.  The duct work that will eventually carry my hood exhaust outside.
 You know me.  I love a good construction project.

As you know, I have replaced all the appliances in my kitchen.  The final step is installing a hood over the new stove.  Sounds simple?  Not so much.

My house is over 100 years old and is built like a fortress.  No shoddy construction for those early Pittsburghers.  I hear nothing that goes on outside of my front door.  The house is built out of sandstone and the walls are plaster directly onto that.  Let's just say that termites aren't a problem around here.

The net result of all this is that it's no small task to put in a new ventilation system.  There's a reason it's never been done before.   For eight years I have been tempting fate without a functioning venting system but when I got my new cooktop with more BTU's the time had come to breakdown some plaster and get this fixed.


Cutting the hole in the ceiling for the duct work.

The hole.
So, this morning my contractor Vince arrived at 7:00 a.m. with his crew and by 8:00 they had the kitchen dismantled and the sledgehammers at the ready.  Solid plaster walls and a stone house do not make for an easy engineering job.

Needless to say, there's not going to be a lot of cooking going on around here for the next couple of days.  But bear with me because I promise to keep you laughing (if I can keep laughing) through this latest home improvement project.

3 comments:

  1. Oh dear! I am sure you will be glad when it is done, but in the meantime . . . (Of course, I would often have been glad of an excuse not to cook!) hmr

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  2. I used to live in a 100 year old Victorian house. I know all about the plaster walls. Your new kitchen vent will be great to have and I'm sure worth every inconvenience that you and your kitchen are going through right now. Hang in there :)

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  3. Hehe, I guess Pittsburgh sandstone is no match for the power drill. Congratulations so far! Most people would trust the experts when it comes to this type of job, but yours seems to have gone well.

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