"Honey, let's paint the cabinets...." Home Renovation 2013-2014

Okay, it didn't quite start with just the cabinets.   Royce and I ordered new hardwood floors in late October 2013 and I was going to paint the cabinets to give our home a much-needed facelift.  It started off just as we'd planned. 

 

I was thrilled with the progress of the cabinets.  Not a process I enjoy, painting cabinets that is.  I don't enjoy it at all.  But a gallon of paint is a lot more budget-friendly than new cabinets.  I was so excited for ANY change whatsoever that I didn't care how much of my time was involved. 

 

SOMEBODY walked on my pantry door as it was drying in the garage.  Leaving perfect Amelia-sized foot prints.  I'm aware they are also Caroline-sized.  And I'm not 100% sure it was Amelia, the paint was only tacky and not really wet anymore so there was no visible proof. 

But I'm 99.9% sure it was Amelia.

 

                     

November 20, 21, 22

Let the DEMO begin!

What fun is removing old laminate flooring if you can't have car-races down a huge ramp?

 

"Okay.  If we're going to get new flooring we should really shift some cabinets that just don't make a lot of sense.  If we're going to do it we need to do it NOW before the floors. "

 

Let the CABINET demo begin!

 

 

Finding lots of treasures hidden behind make-shift coverings!

 

A little more BEFORE:

 

DURING: November 25-29

                        

Let us pause for a moment and breathe in the Heavenliness of these floors!

Anyone who knows what the floor was like before will understand our delight. 

3/4" Solid Hardwood Natural Acacia.

Exactly, precisely, perfectly what we wanted.

 

I was soooo fortunate to find a flooring guy who specialized in custom designs and insets.  While Royce and I figured out most of the math and layout, Jason was able to execute the design exactly how I had hoped it would turn out. 

At this point we had a LOT of people wondering if we were actually going to reel this project in and make it look like everything was supposed to be here! 

Just before the above picture we had four different cabinet colors (previous white, new gray, purchased oak, and Royce's homemade above-the-fridge bridge).  Pretty sure the doubters were doubtin' but Royce and I knew what we were after.  The floor was the only place we hired labor and the rest was up to us but we had faith in ourselves and our vision. 

Royce did the stairs himself! 

We LOVE having wooden steps instead of carpet. 

Royce took a first stab at cabinet making and stair treads & risers while I took my first run at tiling.  I've watched a million shows about it, was very confident I could do it, and after Ron got me going with setting the tiles correctly I was able to finish on my own.  

                  

"Well, if we're re-arranging cabinets that means new countertops too, right?"

December 18, new counters arrive.  We ARE hosting Christmas on December 25th. 

 

"And while we're taking the sink out we may as well get a new faucet."

This is precisely how the instructions said to install the faucet.

 

Have your pocket-sized seven-year-old daughter stand on the counter and hold the mechanisms in place while you attach remaining parts....

 

Also during this time I textured the hearth room & hallway walls, painted them, and Royce and I put up crown molding & he put up window casing & baseboards.  Hanging crown molding with your spouse will really strengthen a marriage.  Try it sometime.

 

We had everything in place for Christmas festivities except for the back-ordered backsplash tile, crown molding to cap the cabinets, and one upper cabinet on our North wall.  So it wasn't too bad at all.  Very livable, and through it all we were only without a kitchen sink for about 36 hours the week before Christmas.  Not too bad.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Happy New Year!~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Week of January 13th I started setting backsplash tile.  Whew!  Tiling vertically isn't as gravity-friendly as tiling horizontally!  This isn't very much fun at all.  I got a good chunk done and then was busy with work and quite frankly tired of home projects all together.  About 10 days passed with no change and then we shipped kids off for a weekend to make our last ditch effort at finishing.  With the help of that weekend, a delay with the passing around of a stomach bug, and finishing strong again we were done by February 9th. 

 

14 weeks of work with on-and-off construction.

But I don't think 14 weeks is too bad for doing it all ourselves. 

We worked hard, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into the project, and we got

EXACTLY what we were after. 

 

Speaking of 'after'...