Island Demolition: Part 1 (the one with all the pictures)

Some establishing shots of the kitchen as it was right before the change:

The solitary Taco Cabana cup of iced tea is symbolic of nothing except my laziness.

Here are the new cabinets, in their raw, unfinished form.

Step one: pull off that off-center, tilted tile top.

Step one, part 2: Destroy!!!!!

Here's what remains inside:

One thing that came up late in the afternoon was the placement of the wire for the outlet. The electrical wire comes out of the ground at the corner nearest the oven. This is not ideal - in order to hide the wire, we'll have to move the cabinet forward about 3.5", which will actually balance out the new island better, but means we'll have to do more cutting away of linoleum than we wanted. There seems to be no logic in this placement of the electrical, but it does explain the ugliness of the original island. I wish someone would explain to us why the builder installed drywall on the inside of the island, between the stud grounded to the slab, and the backs of the cabinets. Considering what we plan to do to the island in the next 72 hours, perhaps I'm not one to judge.

Wire coming up, looking very ugly.

Drywall?!

This is where we leave the island on Day 1. The cabinets are out - we have assessed the electrical situation, and adjusted our plan accordingly, and we have mapped out priorities for tomorrow.