The Kitchen Eight Years Later

Hi All -- I'm glad you've stopped by.  Around this time eight years ago, we were having our kitchen renovated -- a long-overdue improvement, I might add.  We had lived here for 16 years before we had an opportunity to get the kitchen properly re-modeled.  Part of the room was stuck in the 70's and part was stuck in the 90's.  Not the best look ever.  😏  I'm not going to go back over that process; if you'd like to see pictures of the before kitchen and the renovation process, you can see that here, here, and here and here.  I showed the final reveal in 2013 here.             All of this is old news for those of you who've been following along here for awhile, but I updated my pictures yesterday because I just finished a good spring clean in the kitchen.  Since I knew it would only stay this way about 17 1/2 minutes, I knew I'd better snap some quick pictures and record this for posterity.  I inherited my mother's love for saving, and looking back at, old pictures.  I'll note here that when we did the original renovation in 2012, we didn't replace the dishwasher, refrigerator, or floor.  We've now replaced everything but the fridge, which I hope won't be needed for awhile.        

   

Today Is Flooring Day

Day 1
Whew, what a pain!  Last night I told my husband that I was not having fun.  I wouldn't want to do this again for a long time.  I know -- what a whiner, right?  As I type this, we are sitting here waiting for the hardwood floor installers to arrive.  They'll be doing our foyer, living room dining room, and kitchen, over a period of three days.

Since this past weekend, I've been packing up dishes, more dishes, stemware, and dishes.  When it comes time to put all this stuff back, I plan to take some to the Goodwill or give some to my niece, who's getting married in August.  Who's idea was it to get all this stuff anyway?  Heaven help us if we ever move.  😨

Beginning the Kitchen Reveal

I'm so excited to finally reveal the first part of our new kitchen!  Those of you who regularly read my blog have seen pictures of this cabinet in various stages of construction, but this is the first time I've shown the finished product.  We waited so long to be able to have our kitchen re-modeled, and then the actual work itself took four months; our contractor was working another job during the week, so he could only work at our house on weekends.  The cabinet and tile man and the granite guys were able to work during the week, so eventually, it all came together.  I've been doing the happy dance for weeks now.  :)

It's Been One of Those Weeks

Hi everyone!  I'm having one of those kind of weeks.  Can anyone out there relate?

First of all, I won't be doing a Mother's Day tablescape since our dining room and kitchen table are piled high with -- clutter.  The dining room table is in some semblance of order.  At least things are neatly stacked on it, and the boxes lining the walls in the room are neatly stacked.  However, the kitchen table is filled with a hodgepodge of this and that; and our little buddy, R2D2, otherwise known as the shop vac, is still in the kitchen floor.  Other than that, why, everything looks just great.  Can you tell I'm slightly frustrated?

Kitchen Remodel -- An Update

We're right in the middle of the messy part of the kitchen renovation now.  Yes, folks, the shop vac is temporarily residing in the kitchen, next to the table.  Our very own, personal R2D2.  WARNING:  Please excuse the mess in these pictures.  /:)

Beginning a Kitchen Remodel

Hi everyone!  I hope all of you had a great weekend and hopefully enjoyed celebrating a bit o' the Irish.  I have a partial metamorphosis to share with you today.  We're having our kitchen remodeled; that's right, we're dragging it bringing it into the 21st century.  This is so exciting for me because I've waited 16 years to do this.

Our house was built in 1972, and we're the third owners.  The first owners had it custom built and lived here 22 years.  The second owners lived here two years before they relocated to Atlanta.  And as of this summer, we will have lived here for 16 years.

Thankfully, the second owners did some re-modeling and updating to the house while they were here.  When we viewed the house, they told us that most of the house still had its original 1970's decor when they moved in.  The kitchen had orange Formica counter tops, yellow, tile backsplash, and avocado green appliances.  A Brady Bunch kitchen for sure.

The young couple who sold us the house updated most of the kitchen as soon as they purchased the house.  They took down the original wallpaper and replaced it with a pattern that I really liked for many years.  They replaced the orange counter top with white Formica, which has remained in pretty good condition.  They replaced the yellow backsplash.  They also replaced all the appliances with shiny, new white ones, and a white porcelain sink.  What they didn't replace was the linoleum floor and the cabinets (the most expensive part of the re-model).

Have a look at our 40 year old cabinets.  I'm trying not to cringe when I see them in photos.