Welcome to my Renovation Realities! My long awaited dream farmhouse kitchen will be a reality in just a few weeks. If you know me in person or have been around Domestic Deadline over the past few months, you know this kitchen is all I can think or talk about! See the before and follow along as I post about the progress.
Warning… this is kind of a brain dump, very little editing, think of this as the directors cut, lol!
Before the Before
I have several pictures of my kitchen from our home inspection. However, the previous owners were still living there. Even though I took the pictures, I’m not comfortable showing those pictures.
Upon moving in, we had so much to do right away. I took a lot of before pictures as we tackled room by room, knowing we would eventually renovate the whole kitchen. When the actual process started, I didn’t stop and take official before photos!
So, here are the only two photos I took in the kitchen when we were moving in (which was actually over a few weeks as we did some initial projects).
Yes, the cabinets had been painted with a faux finish. I’m not sure when but I assume the late 1990s.
The stove is at least 5 years older than me, if not more! Despite cooking food evenly, it heats the entire room! We learned quickly not to keep food above, below or even in the pantry cabinet to the right.
Five bags of Halloween candy were a melted mess.
At least we figured it out before the trick-or-treaters arrived! And, it wasn’t our kids loot!
Before, but After Stage 1
The first time my mom visited, I asked her to help me put everything away and figure out how to organize the space.
She refused.
Until she painted the cabinets.
Well, most of them… take a peek above the fridge, we planned on removing them so she didn’t bother painting them.
I think it was another year before we actually removed them!
We used the wall to test paint colors.
The cabinets were painted with a mix of whatever pale beige paint I had left. Added to a partially used gallon of white paint.
It was free and meant to be temporary.
She finally helped me organize after that!
Then my parents came back to visit before our first Christmas Eve party. My mom planned and prepared most of the food we served. And brought it with her from Ohio to New Jersey!
They arrived a few days early to help us with some other projects. And somehow, on Christmas Eve, we decided the walls needed to be painted. Hours before the guests began to show up! And we were finishing up the powder room makeover all at the same time.
We again mixed the color from leftover paint and an opened gallon of white. It really helped, but again, I never took pictures.
Before, After Stage 2 and Our 2nd Christmas
The following year, literally hours before company arrived, IronFish and I were finishing up our Farmhouse Mudroom Makeover.
And building in the refrigerator and freezer because the 1990s version no longer kept things cold on the side against the oven. We finally took those upper cabinets down that were never painted (by my mom, at least).
So, we did some rearranging.
And had our Christmas Eve party catered!
Stay Tunned
Progress is being made! I’m working on sharing all the behind the scenes that go into planning and renovation a kitchen. But, I also am trying to keep to a time frame.
This time, we gave the kids to my parents!
Three fewer people in the house to worry about means we can work long days and accomplish more. Which results in less time to blog. My goal now is to give you pictures of the progress now so check back often. As my schedule allows, I’ll do posts similar to this along the way.
Have you been through a kitchen renovation? Any tip?
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