When we started searching for our next home we knew the specific area we wanted to be in and knew that most of the homes were builder grade mid-90’s homes that had not been updated. Our options were to either choose a newer home that wasn’t in the right area or choose a home that would take a lot of work, time, money, and love. We decided that the reno route was the way to go and to be honest I’m not sure we really knew what we were getting ourselves into!
Most mid-90’s built homes come with three things: band-aid colored walls, gold fixtures, and closed in kitchens/no open concept spaces. When we finally found “THE” house that we knew was supposed to be ours it came with all of those challenges and more! Let me show you:
Pretty typical mid-90’s home am I right?! The first thing we did when we looked at this house is talk about the walls that would need to come down, the walls that needed to be built, and all the changes that we wanted to make. We left with a daunting list but beyond excited for what this house could turn into. So we made an offer and purchased it! The day we got the keys we started to tear walls down! And tear carpet out!! (I cannot describe to you how awful the smell in the carpet was!) Anyways, a lot had to go! We wanted an open concept kitchen with white cabinets, granite, a farmhouse sink, and subway tile. So the kitchen was the priority. I honestly have zero pictures of the kitchen reno process! The hubs was a bit to excited to Facebook live everything and pretend he was the next Chip Gaines so everything from the demo is in video form! (Hand palm to the face!) So I took a few screen shots to show you…. clearly these aren’t the best quality! But you get the idea!
We took out the existing pantry and decided to build a corner pantry in for more storage space. The fridge stayed where it was and the oven shifted a little to the right from where it originally was. We had planned to put the sink and dishwasher into the island and leave some extra space in front of the bay windows for a small dining table. When the concrete cutter came we discovered that our foundation is post tension and we weren’t able to cut for the plumbing to be moved. So plan #78 was put into place. (Planning the layout of a new kitchen is not easy and we changed our minds constantly, this only added to the confusion!) We decided to take the cabinets all the way down to the wall with the bay window so that the sink and dishwasher could stay on the back wall. This left the question of what to do for a dining table? There was no longer room in the bay window area for a table…. We talked about leaving the island oversized and just having bar stools in the kitchen and then I remembered a Fixer Upper episode I saw that turned the back of the island into a banquet for a long table that was placed in front of it! Problem solved!
After that decision was made things went pretty smoothly, other than being impatient for things to get done so we could move in! We lived with the Hubs’ parents during renovations, all of us in one room!! Plus we had a foster baby at the time! Yikes! Let’s just say I really like my personal space and three weeks of waiting for floors to be replaced and the kitchen torn down and replaced was a little long for me!
We purchased our cabinets from Cabinets To Go. They were pretty easy to work with and they seem to be pretty decent in quality. Definitely a step up from Ikea but not quite your custom cabinets. We chose the shaker style in Malibu White and Platinum Grey for the island. We took a layout with measurements to them and talked through what kind of cabinets we wanted where and they did a blueprint type drawing of it for us. This helped us see what it was really going to look like when all laid out. Then we ordered and waited about a week for everything to come in, aside from the island which was on back order. Once we got everything it was pretty simple to assemble them all. Things came in large pieces or sections so putting it all together only took about day and then placing and hanging everything took another couple of days. Overall I’m pretty pleased with them and the pricing was great too!
Once the floors were done and the cabinets were placed we moved in! We waited a couple of weeks for those back ordered island cabinets and a couple more for the granite to be installed so we lived with a make shift kitchen for a month or so, ( a small price to pay for my own space!). I’ll share in another post what we chose for the floors and why. I put together a vision board for our kitchen so I could wrap my head around what it would look like someday! I’ll share the big reveal soon! You won’t believe the before and after!
