Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Kitchen Reveal...better late than never!



Welcome to my kitchen reveal!  This has been a long time coming and very much anticipated.  We started renovations on our 1960's home in mid-August 2014 on our entire main floor and finished just in time for Thanksgiving.  You can learn more about our fixer-upper before the remodel here. This post is our beautiful kitchen reveal.  Check back for more reveals for each room.

Because we have lived in our home for 5 years, we were able to see exactly what did and didn't work and what changes needed to be made in order to make our house more functionally work for our family.  Our main concern with our previous kitchen layout was how closed off it was to the rest of the house.  When we first moved in there were two different doors that gave you access (and closed off) the kitchen from the family rooms.  I often found myself burning dinner when I had to run out of the kitchen and down the hall to see who was crying and what was going on. We also had to deal with cabinets that wouldn't stay closed, drawers that were hard to open and ancient appliances that had a mind of their own.



Now we have an open concept/great room feel.  I can be cooking away in my gorgeous kitchen and see my kiddos no matter where they are (gotcha!).  We were able to raise the ceilings throughout by giving the ducting in our ceiling a new home...aka the crawlspace and attic.  It was a major undertaking to re-route plumbing, electrical and ducting but definitely worth every penny.  We now enjoy top of the line appliances which make preparing meals a snap, cabinetry that functions the way it's supposed to, plenty of storage and most of all...its absolutely stunning!  We were able to add touches of reclaimed barn wood in each room which lends the overall feel of rustic industrial.



We opted for a very contemporary layout and chose to bring the outdoors in as much as possible with the addition of french doors and windows flanking them.  Now we have the option of opening up both sets of doors (when the weather cooperates) and feeling like our kitchen doubled in size.  We designed an over sized island with room for four bar stools.  We chose a stainless steel apron front sink and quartz counters that have the look of marble.  My kiddos love eating meals here and their afternoon snack as they do their homework.



We love the contemporary craftsman look and so we chose to do white subway tiles with dark gray grout.  Our perimeter countertops are dark gray quartz which makes the white cabinetry really pop.  Our floors throughout are solid acacia hardwood with the exception of slate in my laundry room.  We kept the walls light using Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter.  It's truly a dream to wake up to this each morning and enjoy a cup of coffee in my new space.  No house is perfect but our fixer upper is the best it can possibly be.  Check back soon for more photos of the rest of our space.

~Trisha

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Hello Beautiful!


Welcome to my remodel!  We have been making some serious progress the last couple weeks, the best and most exciting being that I almost have a working, not to mention gorgeous, kitchen again.  All the many individual decisions I've been making over the last 3 months are coming together and looking exactly right.  I was able to take my idea of a dream kitchen and main floor and actually see it come out way better.  Phew!  What a relief that is.  Now I can admire it and know that I really wasn't crazy, our old out of date house did have the potential!  We are now in the finishing stage but still so far from being able to use our space.  There are a million things that have to be done and I can hardly stand it I'm so excited!

  In my last post, the walls were finally going up along with texture and paint.  As soon as that was done we moved on to hardwood floors and trim.   It went from this...






...to this




This my friends is the exciting part...when you get to see all your finishes in your very own space.  You can look at countertop slabs in the warehouse to your hearts content, but nothing can prepare you for how it will look in your home.  I'll admit that a lot of our original plans had to be altered because of one thing or another.  Remodeling an older home versus building a new one comes with many challenges.  We had to "think outside the box" on a lot of decisions and hope for the best.  Now, as I stand in the space and take it all in, I wonder what all the stress was about!  It looks amazing and feels completely functional for our family to live in.  I guess it's just our nature to worry and stress (or at least mine anyways!).

  This week we are doing a lot of electrical and plumbing finishing touches.  My faucets, toilet and sinks are being hooked up and under cabinet lighting along with my island pendants will be done today.  Next thing on the list is kitchen backsplash and fireplace grout.  Oh the joys of choosing grout (don't even get me started on that topic)!  Check back soon to see the finished product (and my feet up on the couch!).

~Trisha