Whole house renovation?

I can’t believe I have’t written an update for 4 weeks!  I can’t believe 4 weeks have gone by since I wrote an update!  I can’t even believe I’ve been working on this kitchen for that long and have so little to show for it!

Seriously!  Lots has been happening but nothing is DONE so nothing has felt “share worthy” and I just keep working and directing traffic and watching other people work and at the end of the day feeling like I just worked a whole day.  That’s weird but it’s totally true.

We keep making small milestones but there is still so far to go that it feels like no progress is being made.  I’ll let you make your own assesement with the pictures you see here.  But first, let me REITERATE that I am not doing this alone!  I am building my cabinets.  That is all.  I’m hiring out EVERYTHING else.  So don’t think that I’m some superhero mamma that has gone and knocked out all this — unfinished awesomeness.  It probably doesn’t look awesome to most right now…unless you have “the vision”!  If you  have “The Vision” it looks Frigg’in awesome right now!

 

In a sort of chronological order, here is the progress update on the kitchen since my last post on November 27.  Sheesh!

 

1.  All my appliances are delivered and sitting in the new dining room.  It’s really the old dining room but it’s not open to the living room and kitchen so it feels like a whole new room!

 

2.  My dear friend (and client) Kelly came down for a short (very short as in like 2 days) visit and she helped me knock out  three main cabinets.  (Oven, cooktop and broom closet.)

3.  I finished planking the entrance hallway on both sides.  The doorway to the library is FINALLY getting trim work (I’m having the handymen pick up where I left off).

The super wide hallway behind the kitchen leading to the master bedroom now has a pocket door leading to the laundry room.

And a big new storage closet at the other end…  That giant armoire in the above picture used to sit in a bit empty space where the closet now sits.  Much more usable storage.

This whole wall is getting planked and the door to the basement is getting a bit barn door!

I removed all of the old kitchen cabinets and half of them are in the basement while the other half sit in the old “second dining room” attempting to be a temporary place where we can find things so we can eat at home once in a while but we’ve just been eating out every single night which is getting old on top of the fact that we completely wasted energy setting up the dishes and salt and pepper (and other shtuff) in here.  Whatev!

 

…Oh you wanted to see the actual KITCHEN progress?
Of course!  What am I doing?

The floors are in as well as MOST of a box beam ceiling and a couple of the cabinets.  There’s a lot of coordinating to be done when completely reconfiguring your kitchen.  Plumber, HVAC, Electrician and I have 3 handymen working away.  There were 6 people here all at the same time several days last week not including myself.  It was amazing how they were never in each other’s way!

 

And this weekend we put up a Christmas tree…because Madison said this is a really depressing Christmas with no decorations or movie nights or game nights…  So we put up the tree.  I think the electrician is going to be especially excited about getting behind the tree to finish the work in that closet.  LOL

 

We’ll get all the fun and games next week when we’re all on “staycation” because my goal is for the main wall to be done by Friday.  Yeah, tomorrow.  Not tile or cabinet doors but the appliances IN.  The sink is currently in the laundry room and that’s ok for now.  Appliances in and lights in the kitchen and we’ll be happy for now.

I’m really happy with how it’s coming together.  Just have to remember that “It’s going to look like crap until it’s 98% done and then all the sudden — Bam — it’s awesome!”  It is getting there.

 

I’m really happy I’m not trying to do this all myself and that Kelly already helped me build the appliance cabinets because I irritated my sciatica on Saturday and am back to ground zero ( after I sneezed at the salon in March).  I’m on my second day of a 12 day steroid pack and Vicodin so I’m not hurting too bad but I’m getting an MRI on Monday to see what the heck!  I seriously just got out of the car wrong and that’s what did it.  SO DUMB!  But it won’t stop this kitchen remodel from happening.  I’m just going to build with someone and let them do all the work while I boss them around in the nicest of ways.  I promise I am taking care of myself.  It’s all good in the hood.  Or it will be very soon.

 

That’s my update.  Sorry I’ve been MIA lately.  I’m trying to get this done as quickly as possible while still making sure everything is exactly how I want it to be and it’s taking all my physical and mental energy right now.  It’s crazy!  We’re all going insane because our entire house is literally torn apart.  The upstairs has junk just dumped all over the floor to get it out of the way in the lower two levels.  The basement ceiling is 3/4 of the way torn off and everything is crammed into the other 1/4.  Literally 9 of the 12 rooms/spaces on the main level are under some sort of construction.  SO — it is insane!

 

I’ll have lots of pictures and tutorials for you after the New Year so for now — Have yourself a Merry Christmas and I’ll see you on Facebook.  I’m sharing pictures there frequently so if you want to see more “real time” updates –get over there.    Peace!  <3