New Kitchen Part I

 I titled this post "Part I" because this is the reveal of one wall only...well, one wall and a half.  There are other reveals to come, but they are purely aesthetic, so they will have to wait until later.  So once again here's the before photo (before the cabinets, counter, and sink were ripped out and the subfloor replaced)...

 And here's the after.  We purchased very inexpensive cabinets (pre-assembled) that are unfinished but structurally well-built.  The counter top is actually laminate, but it has a beautiful extra-large print that does not repeat.  The edges have a lovely rounded finish that really doesn't scream laminate.  The sink is a white-ish granite composite that was $100 less than the cheapest enameled cast iron (though it collects smudges that a regular wash rag won't scrub off, so I can't recommend it).  But it is way better than the stainless for the faucet we have.  We turned the corner there on the right and added several extra feet of cabinetry and counter top, which has already been very helpful.  Why the people who built this house put cabinets and counters only on one wall I will never know.  But we will correct that! The last thing we did was put in a tiled backplash.  We learned a few tricks after tiling the mother-in-law suite's shower, and Jason did a fantastic job of making difficult tile cuts look perfect -- even around rounded edges!

There is still plywood exposed on the foor, and a little step-up to where we stopped ripping up the 5 layers of linoleum on the rest of the kitchen.  People trip on the little step - which I guess we can enjoy as built-in comic relief.  No dinners have been lost to spills yet!  We still need to caulk between the tile and counter, finish with trim on the left and right walls around the tile, and add one shelf on the wall on the right (beside the fridge). The bottoms of the cabinets need trim, and the cabinets themselves need painting and hardware.  But we have sturdy, undamaged subfloor, no holes in cabinets, extra counter top space, and no gaps between the counter and the wall.  And, as one of my friends exclaimed upon first seeing the new cabinets, "the cabinet doors CLOSE!"

 It's funny how little money we've spent on materials, but how beautiful I think this kitchen is looking.  I don't know if I'll ever put granite or marble in a kitchen.  Especially when the house is in an older neighborhood where most of the kitchens haven't been updated in 50 years.  Makes me think we wouldn't get our money back when we sold, and I personally favor having the entire house updated over spending extra for natural stone countertops and having to let something go un-addressed elsewhere.

There will be a shallow shelf along the top of the tile backsplash, running from the open cabinetry on the left to the fridge on the right.  I hope to find vintage glass spice bottles and store my spices there, since my spice cabinet in the old in-wall ironing board cubby will have to go as we finish that wall.  If you look at the floors, you can see the plywood on the left side of the floor and the linoleum still on the right.  I can live with that as we pay off debt.  I really love having a lot of deep drawers for pans, baking dishes, and kid dishes, which we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd paid for good-quality already-painted cabinets.  The girls can unload all their dishes from the dishwasher and set the table with at their places, because they can reach all their eating utensils.

Also, that blue wall is starting to grow on me.  I was planning all along to paint the walls light grey when we renovated the kitchen, but now I'm falling in love all over again...

Rotten Kitchen Subfloor

 When I see measurements in pencil on existing surfaces, I get a little excited.  Because 3 years into this live-in renovation, I still struggle with feeling like we should have more done than we do.  I thought I'd have a new kitchen by now, a new bathroom by now.  Maybe even a second bathroom.  But you know what? When you have 2 kids in 3 years and your husband works really, REALLY hard, long hours at his day job, the renovation simply isn't going to be overnight.  Or even over a year.  Plus, this has been the year of unexpected repairs.  I can't even list all the things that have come up since January 1st, but you probably wouldn't believe it anyway.

I will, however, list the majors:
1)Water heater busted (there is still a gaping hole to the dirt under the house and the attic above, covered only by a sliding door nailed into place. I used painter's tape in a fit of desperation to block all the holes so critters wouldn't come in the house)
2)We went 2 months without a renter in our NC house (that we pay a full-on mortgage on)
3)Gutted the mother-in-law suite's bathroom to repair water damage
4)Storm knocked a huge limb down on our power lines, cutting power to our house and the mother-in-law suite.  The power company came in the middle of the night with chainsaws, but would only re-connect the power to our house because the mother-in-law suite's connection wasn't to code. Our amazing electrician friend came and reconnected power to the mother-in-law suite so the next tenants/friends could move in.
6)Oven broke. But with all the unexpected expenses we put on credit after blowing through savings this year, we got some kickbacks and the cost was covered between that and my dear mother (see it in the photo below?!)
7)Kitchen disposal broke. More on this below...
8)Turns out when that big limb knocked down our power lines, our neutral was fried.  All the electrical here was not to code, and we only got 100amp service (you're supposed to get 200-250).  We got a quote on having electrical upgraded and corrected to code, but it was several thousand dollars that we didn't have. That amazing electrician friend of ours helped my husband do all the work to (initially get power back on, then) upgrade our electrical over the last couple of months.  We have an upgraded, to-code system that cost us less than $1k and a lot of that friend's time.  We are so blessed.

So back to that broken disposal.

 We knew the subfloor under the cabinets was rotten in at least one place along this kitchen wall.  So when the disposal broke, we decided it was time to go ahead and deal with that subfloor.  The rest of the kitchen would have to wait until we've paid off the debt we've incurred this year, but it made sense to fix a rotten subfloor problem as soon as possible.

We knew we needed new cabinets eventually (there were holes through the drywall and floor inside them that allowed critters to come in through the doors that wouldn't shut, and I had to wash almost everything before using it because there would be insect droppings in it. yuck), so we didn't try to remove these cabinets gently.  We knew we needed new countertops (there was about a 1/2"-3/4" gap between the fake wood linoleum and wall where critters could get in, and we wanted to extend the countertops), so that was ripped out with a satisfying quickness.  I knew I wanted a white sink - new or used - because the stainless didn't exactly jive with the oiled bronze fixtures, and the faucet would wobble because the stainless wasn't sturdy enough for it.  So that came out too, and is now in storage in case someone needs one.

 And this is what we found.  This is post-critter-poop-cleanup.  There must have been 1/2" of it under the left side, along with a nest from some kind of rodent that we had heard chewing on the cabinets. When we were sweeping, there was one place where Jason literally accidentally swept THROUGH the subfloor.  Swept it into the dirt under the house in the crawlspace.  Basically, he had to get through 5 layers of linoleum, cut out the rotten subfloor, then lay new subfloor.  Fortunately, he was able to verify there was no damage on any joists.  He did an amazing job.

Then he had to remove all the drywall that had been behind the cabinets to make sure there were no water-damaged studs needing to be replaced.  You can see water drip stains down the right bottom corner of the window, but fortunately whatever had caused that (someone leaving the window open during a few storms??) had not affected any studs or structural items in general.  Really, cutting into any floor or wall in a home is terrifying because you don't know what you're going to find.  Your repair job could easily triple because there's something there that has to be fixed that you simply couldn't see before.

I really cannot say enough about this man.  My husband works a day job well over 40 hours a week, and comes home and uses time off to work on this house for me and the kids.  That's just amazing.  He did this work over a holiday weekend, and if I remember correctly my water was back on when the work week started.

What's that?  You're wondering what went in next?  Then come on back tomorrow for a little "reveal."

Well, The Bad News Is...

 Hello, there! I hope you had a fantastic holiday season. We had the pleasure of driving 800 miles with 3 small children, visiting over 7 groups of family and friends, 800 miles back, and then reaping the rewards of weakened immune systems over the following few weeks.  Our Christmas was quiet, calm, simple, and snotty.  But it was really good.  Time with people you love is not to be forsaken.

On to house things!  It's winter, so of course I'm going to speak of house things.  The only yard-related news is that we finally dealt with the multi-inch-deep oak leaf blanket that was keeping our entire property toasty warm, and nobody cares to see photos of that. 

So the bad news I was talking about...

About a week ago, we noticed a soggy seat around our water heater tank.  Of course, someone previously had foregone that expensive and nonessential catch pan, so the flooring was already warping and rotted. The next day I heard water trickling.  We tried to shut off the main, but it had corroded and water started spraying when we turned the knob.  This was Monday, around dinner time.  FANTASTIC!  Time to pack up a family of 5 for a 3-day stay in a hotel!  Jason spent his New Year day off at the house with our pastor, removing the tank (above)...

...and that asbestos pipe you see leaning to the right.  The left half of that closet used to be my pantry, and the tank was on the right.  A pair of (sometimes) sliding wooden doors hid it all.  Nothing like filling your arms with food items and accidentally knocking a giant wooden door off its track.  

 The guys also removed some drywall.

And possibly the floor.  They were able to complete a lot of prep work so the plumbers didn't charge us our OTHER arm and leg.  Yikes.  The silver lining here is that they were able to move the water lines so that this space can later serve a higher purpose...hopefully a shower in a second bath one day soon...because I'm so over having a line for my own potty.

 And if water line prep for a shower was the silver lining, this is the rainbow: an actual, more-than-double-sized, NEW pantry!  It's unfinished, not yet built-out, and still could use a bit more shelving, but MAN am I a happy girl.

Look at that! A non-counter-top place for small appliances.  Lovely as a newborn babe.  But without all the screaming.  I hesitate to paint this and other unfinished cabinets right away, as I dream of painting them white but in real life have 3 small children and a dog.  Better to paint over crayon art later than to scrub it now, am I right?

For three days during this ordeal, the kids and I spent most of our waking hours crashing our friends' family time, homes, and even New Year's Day lunch.  Our friends are seriously the best.  And now we have a brand new tankless water heater in the attic, and my husband is still in fix-it mode.  Am I shallow for feeling loved when stuff gets done around the house?  I'll show you a few other little things that are getting done around here next time.

Our First Kitchen Renovation: Complete!

Before

After

Before

 After

Before

 After

 Eventually we hope to complete a more thorough renovation that will make the kitchen of better use, but this partial renovation has allowed me to enjoy this space far more than before. It's truly amazing how great an improvement can be made with so little money and time. What do you think of the results?

Sneak Peek: Our First Kitchen Renovation

Kitchen is almost finished... just a sneak peek!

The Kitchen Shelves Are Complete

My husband put bead board and quarter-round molding in each shelf, and we painted them a bright white.  A new light fixture was also added.

 This partial remodel of the kitchen has meant so much to me.  It has caused gratitude to well up in my heart over God's faithfulness to keep his promises, how much he loves us, and what a wonderful gift my husband is.  It feels so good to finally be able to work on this house!

I've enjoyed this warm weather, especially the camellia blooms it forced.  Unfortunately, we'll probably still get a hard freeze (we need one to kill off some of the bugs around here!), so they'll all get awfully shocked.  Better enjoy them while we have them!

Progress on the Kitchen Shelves

 My plants are waiting to get back into the kitchen window's light.

 My husband, working late into the night to get this project done.

Primed and dressed in the first coat of paint, early morning.  We're almost done with this phase of the kitchen!