Rebuilding - Drywall and DIY Cabinets

The demo/partial destruction of our kitchen only took two days but the rebuilding has been a lengthy process.  It's been very satisfying and so far we've been able to do everything ourselves - with my dad's help.  But it definitely has been time-consuming too.  We're working with the existing cabinets - it's somehow more work than starting from scratch but there is nothing wrong with them and we were ready for the challenge.  Where the wall once was, we're building lower cabinets to create a peninsula:

On their way to becoming cabinets...

 

The opening on the left is for the new full-sized dishwasher.  In the middle, a microwave will sit on a shelf and we're building a big pull-out drawer below.  We'll trim that old cabinet door down and use it for the drawer face.  The skinny cabinet will make a great home for cutting boards and baking sheets.

 

 

We're also facing the challenge of patching the walls.  Our old plaster walls aren't of a uniform thickness and also aren't comparable to modern drywall.  It's taken a lot of shimming and layering of different thickness of drywall and repeated checking with a 6-foot level and a lot of drywall mud... and a whole lot of sanding.



But it's really starting to come together!  You can hardly tell  where old meets new.  I've already given everything in that corner one good coat of primer too.  The opening has also been framed properly and trim will be going up soon.  Oh, and that mystery pipe going into the ceiling?  The vent for the basement power room toilet.  Consider it the only real surprise encountered in this entire process!