As some of you may know, I am tackling my kitchen renovation, well as least the demolition part, myself. I am in the beginning stage of demolition and I wanted to share with you my experience and insights I have learned from my hours in the kitchen so far…

1) Wet bed walls, they are a mess! They take a lot of time to remove and clean – first, you have to remove the tile, then the cement, and finally the plaster. It is a three-step process to remove wet bed walls.

2) Seal off the house, or at least the room if possible. Inevitably, dust and cement will be everywhere. When I say that, I mean the whole house. Whether it is from your clothes or from traveling through vents or from you tracking it into different rooms.

3) Be prepared to break a sweat. It’s not easy work. Wear protective glasses and a dust mask.

4) I know everyone thinks that they are in demolition. They are not. This process takes time…a lot of time, more time than you would think. You also have to be careful about what you are destroying. There is no need to rebuild if you can avoid it. So before taking the sledgehammer to a wall, do your due diligence, do a little research and what to save and what to destroy.

5) Clean up. UGH. It’s heavy. A lot heavier than you would think. Using small 5 gallon buckets help to spread out the weight. And protect yourself from an injury trying to lift too much.

6) Be patient. If you are doing this yourself, you will need to schedule more time than you think. You may think it can happen in one day, but you will always run into a road block or unexpected problem.