Once upon a time, in a house far, far away….well, not really. It just feels far away because we live in the middle of nowhere. Just ask my teenage daughter & she’ll tell you. I mean, we’re a whole 25 minutes or so from the nearest Target for crying out loud…and don’t get her started on how long it takes to get to the mall! Heavens!
I digress. Over four years ago, we bought our current home, and while I love most of my house, I’ve hated the kitchen since before it was my kitchen. I know ‘hate’ is a strong word, but I really, really mean it. I truly hate our kitchen.
It’s tiny, it’s dark, it’s cut off from the rest of the house – it’s like a dungeon in which I am forced to cook meals. It sucks. Finally, however, we are having our kitchen remodeled. I kind of feel like this right now:
Our contractor (yes, we hired a contractor because, as much as this girl loves a good DIY, I am not touching plumbing, electrical, and moving walls thankyouverymuch) arrived Wednesday to start the demo. And being the very good blogger that I am, it’s only fair that I keep you updated on all of the kitchen action, right?
In case you missed my design inspiration post about my kitchen, let me show you again what the kitchen looked like before the demo began.
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And that’s it. The whole she-bang. Huge, right? HAHAHA!!! Yea, I know. It’s a sad little kitchen. In preparation for the contractor, my hubby Mark & I had to do a little pre-demo demo. As of Tuesday night, it looked like this:
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The upper cabinets will not have doors when the remodel is finished, but I wanted to make sure that was what I really wanted, so I had Mark take the doors off on one side so I could live with it a few days. Final decision? Love it.
We also took all the wire shelving out of the big pantry and the small closet, since both of those are getting updated and resized. And my small desk area had to go away, too, since the kitchen will expand into that area.
As for all our stuff?
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I boxed up the food we don’t need to access during the remodel, and kept other stuff like bread and cereal on the dining room table, along with gobs of other stuff. My rolling cart came in handy to hold pots, pans, and small appliances, too.
My girls, Savannah & Dakota, are so confused. They’re used to going to the pantry for their food & treats, but now all that is in a corner of the dining room. {Look at Savannah’s eyes in that picture. HAHA! She’s got a laser beam on her treats!}
I even shared a little video on my Facebook page, which you can watch right here if you’d like.
So, the contractor has been here for a couple days now, and here’s what we’re working with so far.
The walk-in pantry was demolished (somehow “demo” doesn’t sound bad, but “demolished” sounds awful!) and they’ve added the studs for the new, smaller pantry. This really adds a lot of floor space to the new kitchen layout.
The opening between the dining room and kitchen was small. Even when I opened my refrigerator door, it would hit the wall behind it, so I had my contractor open it up. It’s amazing what something that small can do for a space.
Progress, people! I love progress. I hate mess, but I’m dealing because I know the finished product will be AMAZING! I can’t wait to share more updates as the process goes along. Be sure you’re following me on Instagram & Facebook, because that’s where I’ll share in-the-moment behind-the-scenes goodness regularly.
Got a tiny kitchen, too? Check out these posts:
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One Response
I can’t wait to see how it turns out! I HATE our kitchen too and didnt think I could deal with a reno, but you are inspiring me. I even told the hubs last night I wanted to do our kitchen when we finished the basement. He laughed crazily at me….so we will see 🙂 I will just live vicariously through you for now 🙂