Right now, my house is a wreck. It has been a wreck since April but, I’m not complaining! It’s a happy wreck and I’ll explain why shortly. When we moved in our home 10 years ago, we were leaving one that we loved very much. It was a 1920’s bungalow, cute as can be, and we had even updated the kitchen which made it even cuter. Unfortunately, we were in a situation that required us to move so we sold that home and moved into the one we’re in now. Even then, I wasn’t in love with this house. The kitchen was truly terrible. It had last been updated in 1978, if that gives you any indication and, we were not able to do anything about it and just moved in and made do. I confess that after a while, the kitchen grew on me and it had a certain charm that I came to admire. The range was an old Jenn-Aire and it was really nice when it was installed. It had a griddle and grill elements that you could change out for the electric cooking eyes. It was just old and starting to demonstrate its age. My mom upgraded her stove a couple of years ago and gave me her “old” one so I was able to use something that was not close to my own age. Also, I painted the cabinets white and we added a pretty backsplash and granite counters. It was a good band-aid to tide me over until we could really do something major. Finally, at the end of last year, we decided it was time to remodel our kitchen, so that’s what we’re doing!! It’s very exciting and I think we are about 4-6 weeks from being complete. It’s a bigger project than just redoing the kitchen though which is why it is taking so much time. Real life is not like an episode of Property Brothers, where they come in and finish the project in 4-8 weeks. Real life takes much longer than that.
So, here is our plan as drawn up by our architect. You see the column that is in the kitchen island? That is where my house ended.
My kitchen was 11×7, basically, with a ceiling that was only about 7 ft high. Maybe even 6.5′. Well, we opened up the whole back wall and bumped the house out 7.5′! It doesn’t sound like a lot but when you see it in person you can appreciate how much is gained even by such a short amount. Our house was already that depth in the Family Room so, with the “breakfast room” and the Kitchen, we were just lining them up. We have made some changes to this plan you see here. There is no column in the island. We were able to instead run substantial beams across key points in order to avoid that. It made me very happy because I wanted as much of a clear sightline in there as we could manage. Going into the Family Room, there is only one column, not two, for the same reason. I thought I wanted two but, once the space was opened up, it became clear that one column actually looked best. We have 3 large windows in the family room instead of 2 and it in incredible how much light is coming in the back of the house now! I love how airy the space feels and am anxious for things to progress so I can take some good pictures in there. We were planning to add on to the front and do a laundry room and casual entry point but, it just wasn’t in the budget so that part is on hold. Here is my IKEA kitchen floor plan:
Currently, all of these cabinets are in boxes in my family room and dining room. It is pretty crowded in here! My contractor said though that they should start putting them together this week. (EEEK!!) I can’t wait for that!! I chose the white Lidingo door style. We really debated about going with the gray version but in the end, I wanted as much flexibility and lightness as possible. I was worried that the gray would feel too heavy so, we went with the white instead. My island is going to be huge! 8′ long and 4′ wide. We should be able to seat 6 people there and that will be nice. I’m still struggling to select my counters though, debating between Carrara marble and Frosty Carrina Caesarstone. We have been well-informed on the cons of going with marble but, we are people who love things with imperfections so I think we would end up adoring marble counters. My problem has been finding the right slab but I’m hoping to finalize that this week.
Here is the mess I am living with right now:
That is my current “kitchen”, where our refrigerator is, where all of our food is, where our paper plates and plastic forks reside. It’s a cramped mess and stresses me out a little bit but, when it’s all said and done, this will be a distant memory and a funny story to look back on. Overall, our inconvenience has been minimal. We can still use the sink and stove, (well with the exception of the last 4 days) so it hasn’t been all bad. We are getting a bit tired of eating out though. Even with the sink and stove still being available it isn’t exactly easy to cook in the kitchen. At any rate, I’m not complaining in the least!! It is a huge project and I am excited to show you some before and after pics very soon!
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