Kitchen Creative

source

Happy fall to you!  I know it's been quite awhile since my last post, but I promise my time away has been well spent.  You might remember me mentioning that we are considering doing a large scale remodel to our 1967 home (check out this link for more info).  We are mostly focusing on the main floor of our 2-story home as that's where most of the problems and disfunction is.  We hired an architect and ended up with an amazing layout that knocked our socks off!  Now if only the rest of the process was so simple and easy to get done.  We have gone through a very slow loan process and have spent a great deal of time trying to find the right contractor to make our dreams a reality.

We have met with four different companies that range in their services and prices, of coarse.  You would not believe how expensive a remodel can be!  Okay, maybe most people can believe it, but I was obviously living in dreamland when it came to the budget.  That being said, I'm not giving up my endeavor to see this remodel through...thus begins the quest to save money without sacrificing what I really want.  That may sound pretty impossible but I'm pretty determined to make it happen.  The first thing we did was to decide on the general look & feel we want our space to have.  We live in the Pacific Northwest so we are surrounded by Craftsman style homes and want to incorporate that into the design.  We also love contemporary style touches here and there so a modern layout will be just the ticket!  Here is my kitchen inspiration board that will set the stage for the rest of the main floor design.

Our remodel won't be simple at all.  We will be going down to the studs on this one!  We have to completely change the layout and will basically start from scratch.  We have decided to rent a POD to move all our stuff into while the remodel takes place and continue living upstairs in the midst of the craziness.  I did a little researching on how to live through a major remodel and have gleaned some pretty good tricks.  No matter what, it will be stressful and will take a lot of work and patience to see it through.  We have moved a bunch of toys upstairs to the kids rooms so they can fight off boredom (our playroom was downstairs before) and have set up a mini kitchen area in our master bedroom sitting room.  Luckily my in-laws live in the same neighborhood so I can do laundry and use their oven when needed.

So, lets do this!  After 5 years of waiting, hoping and dreaming we are ready to begin.  

Part 1: DEMO

good-bye wall and hello kitchen!

surprise!  no insulation in any exterior wall

We were definitely surprised to find out we didn't have any insulation in our exterior walls.  No wonder I've been so cold during the winter!  Along with some unpleasant discoveries also came some good ones.  We were expecting to replace all our plumbing to the upstairs and found out we didn't need to do that (money saved!).  It's pretty crazy to see our home in this state but really exciting to see all the potential.  So now that this is really happening, I can go ahead and let myself be excited!  Check back soon to see our progress.  Things are changing by the minute.

~Trisha