Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Behind the Dust and Drywall

From the moment our Realtor opened the front door of our home, I knew it was the perfect house for Justin and I to start our lives together. I also knew I wanted to demo the kitchen as soon as the funds presented themselves. It's not that the kitchen was in terrible shape or was disgusting or even hard to navigate. It was just old. The appliances, cabinets and counters were original to the house. For appliances, 23 years is an awfully long time. We immediately purchased a new dishwasher, refrigerator and stove. New appliances made the kitchen much more livable. But the chipped, scratched counters and dated, off-white cabinets just didn't mingle well with the brand-new black appliances. (And that awful pink, tiled back splash!)


Replacing cabinets and counters seemed like the best course of action. On Saturday, September 20th, we found our new cabinets, ordered them two days later, and immersed ourselves into a huge, messy job. Replacing the cabinets? Well, naturally, that means we'll have to replace the floor. So we ended up gutting our kitchen down to drywall and backerboard. This could not have been done by just the two of us- I lost enough sleep as it was. While I did enjoy wielding a sledge hammer and pry bar, we couldn't have completed the demo portion of our project without the help of so many (Paul, Jess, Andrew and Matt). Once our beautiful new cabinets had arrived, we had a boat-load of help putting our kitchen back together (Paul, Matt, Helen and Megan). Thank you so much! Two weeks later, our granite counters were installed, and things were looking pretty darn good. Tiled back splash, trim and under cabinets lights were needed to give it that final pop. Finishing touches over the past two weeks have resulted in a gorgeous kitchen I am proud to call ours. Plus, we put our blood, sweat and tears into making this kitchen uniquely ours. It is truly a work of art.