Taking down the cabinets today, you can see from this photo that the uppers were just shelves with vertical wood strips that the doors hung from:

The soffits above the cabinets were constructed from 2X3's and plywood.  Materials that did not exist in the 1800's , so no tears were shed in destroying them.

The general consensus between Rob and I was that the sink was DAMN heavy!

Rob then stripped the walls down to the studs, and even removed 4 or 5 compromised studs.

Next week is Easter, so we will resume in two weeks with the rear wall reconstruct and then new floor joists.  Stay tuned.

Kitchen demo has begun.  I took a few "before" photos of the kitchen cabinets so as to be able to re-create them when we're done.

I seems that the upper cabinets are actually not cabinets at all, but rather shelving with glass doors covering them.  The 3/4" wood shelves run the full width of the wall from the corner to the doorway. Then there are vertical trim pieces attached to the shelves to which the glass doors are hinged.

There are no backs or internal partition walls, which leads me to think that the glass doors were added at a later date.

The lower cabinets are constructed of 1/4" plywood  with "beadboard" fastened to the faces of the doors. The countertop appears to be a thick tar or glue backed linoleum. The crystal pull knobs may be the only part of these lowers that will be re-used.

Most of  these materials are much too modern to be original to the 1800's kitcken.  I have no doubt that the sink is original, and it will certainly be re-used. 

On the topic of the sink. I also noticed that it was not centered under the kitchen window.  It is offset to the left quite a bit.  I think this was done later on to accommodate a refrigerator  on the right once fridges were invented.   I'll be putting it back to the correct centered position, as our fridge will be against the wall with the double glass doors.

It's still winter here in Pennsylvania, but I've already begun to plan for this spring and the work season.

The focus for 2019 will be on the kitchen.  Rob and I will need to finish the subfloor, rebuild the back wall, re-do the electric and plumbing, and repair & re-install the cabinets.

If time permits, we may install the hardwood floor in the otherwise completed dining room.

Stay tuned, as soon as the temperature rises, we will be at it!

Yesterday I rented a 50' boom/crane to scrape, prime, and paint the high sections of the house.

I got quite a bit done. There is only a little bit left on the south side and about half of the north side remaining.

Rob made door jambs for the doorway to the hall,  and he trimmed out all the doorways with moulding:

New romex wire,  outlets,  switches, and lamps got finished up yesterday.
 I now have lighting in the storage space and in the bathroom.  Although I'l miss peeing by candle light.

I put a final coat of paint in the dining room today and I remembered to photograph it.  There are still no trim or baseboard mouldings, but that takes no time at all.

It looks so much better now that all that mustard yellow is gone!