Well, it’s been quite some time since I last (first) posted on here, but I have a some good excuses:)
We got married…
had a party…
got a puppy…
Annnd have had a few visitors since June. Which basically means we’ve been home for only a handful of weekends since we bought the place and those have been spent doing 1,000 loads of laundry and just relaxing a bit!
As it turns out, we also have a hard time doing minor changes. That being said, here starts the story of our “temporary” kitchen update…
Kitchen when we first moved in…
As you can see the kitchen is very dated, small, and has a strange configuration but the cabinets are solid wood and basic enough to keep for now. Our plan from the start has been to do a temporary “update” of the existing kitchen, and then a complete rehaul down the road. Eventually we want to reconfigure the whole thing, take down the wall into the dining room, have Jas build out all new cabinets, and add an island. Given our current financial state after buying the house, we thought we’d start with just painting the cabinets and removing the wallpaper. Not so bad right?
Fast forward two weeks and Home Depot is advertising some crazy 4th of July sales on appliances. So, while the prices were so low, why not buy a new fridge and dishwasher?
And so it begins…
The new fridge was much larger than the original one, so we decided to take out some cabinets to make it fit….which led to removing part of the counter to fit the stove next to it…and then we realized we hated the back splash…and may as well get a new sink while were at it…and on and on it went. Our quick “refresh” turned into a customized cabinetry around our new appliances, the installation of a dishwasher, a new back splash, possibly new sink.
Keep in mind all of this is happening while we’re living about 5 ft away in the dining room:) We also swapped the placement of the fridge and stove, so the stove was out of commission for about two months until we finally got somebody in to move the gas line. BUT, it’s back up and running, the new appliances are amazing, and Jas got some nice new grills for his birthday (and we had a camp stove) which meant we were still able to cook during those two months.
Here are a few mid-process pics:
Disclaimer- I had to wear that mask while I was spraying down the walls to remove the paper (also pictured above). The window was actually built in to the original exterior of the house so we had to cut it out which took quite a long time. Jas also had to replace the sheet rock next to the fridge, where we took down a wall of the tiled back splash.
To date we have:
- Removed the window above the stove- it looked out to a covered porch and made no sense.
- Removed a few upper cabinets
- Ripped down the gross wallpaper
- Ripped out the back splash
- Started building the new shelving around the fridge (complete with a wine rack)
- Replaced the pipes under the sink when they clogged and broke off in our hands while trying to repair them.
- Repaired the wall next to the fridge after we pulled down the tile.
Here’s the kitchen today (please don’t mind the mess- we have limited counter space!):
I’m loving our shiny new appliances, and can’t wait for the dishwasher to be installed- hence the dirty dishes in the sink:/
Still to do:
- Finish building out the cabinets and shelving.
- Install the dishwasher- most likely right in front of that pantry door
- Remove the pantry on the right hand side of the kitchen- strange placement and we have bigger plans for a new pantry *coming soon*
- Paint the cabinets
- Repair and paint the walls
- Possibly replace the floor
- Remove one of the lower cabinets to make more space for the stove
- Install new bead board back splash
- Mount new microwave/vent over the stove
- Remove decorative wood above the sink and possibly install a new light.
- Install new sink and counter tops
I’ll keep you posted as we progress! Hoping to be able to knock out a lot over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and I’ll also come back with a full house tour so you can see the big picture:)
We’ve also done a few smaller, less time consuming projects over the past few weeks that I’ll post about as well.
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