We have been saving and planning and talking about it for the 3 years that we have been in this house, but it was only just now doable. Thanks to the generous legacy of my grandparents, Calvin and Earlyne Thomas, we finally had enough in savings to at least begin the process.
After my Gramps passed away a few weeks after Owen was born, there was some money left in his account that was willed to my Dad and my Aunt. My Dad generously passed on his portion to my sister and me. The only stipulation was that we had to use their legacy wisely, for something that would make them proud, that we can share with them with excitement when we meet them again. *sniff* My sister will buy her first new car with her portion, specifically a Ford, which was Gramps' favorite make, and always a teasing bone of contention between him and my dad. John and I knew right away that we would use ours for our kitchen, saying that we would host the family for Granny's tacoes as soon as it was done. I know that my Granny and Gramps would have loved to see their legacy spent in such a way, and I hope I can make the short order cook in them both proud!
Phase 1: Planning
I spent a lot of time on pinterest and houzz gathering ideas for what I would like. As with every other design project I have done, somehow a color combination comes together in my mind, and then I am set on it for some reason. I was glad to see that what I like has a lot of options, and that John was happy with most of the selections I found.
At first we went to IKEA for the planning. It was here that we designed the new layout for our kitchen, and the Kitchen guy there also gave us the idea of using a cook top and a built in oven for space saving. We ultimately decided not to go with IKEA, though, because they only do cabinets, counters and appliances. We would have to contract out the rest, and we also didn't feel like we got tons of options.
I had noticed that on 9th street near us there are lots of home renovation stores. One day about a month ago, I just walked into several of them and asked them lots of questions. I was overwhelmed with the idea of picking everything out from scratch, but found that a lot of these places sell everything and that once you pick one thing, the rest kind of comes together. The place that we ended up going with sells everything except appliances, and even included demolition and installation in the price. We have learned that going with a contractor has its perks, but we needed the price to be at a certain point so that we could get everything done.
We designed our new layout, picked our cabinets and counters, and even found that we could get flooring through most of the house. It was so crazy to be sitting there in the room and have our first contract (demolition, cabinets, hardware, installation and counters) add up to EXACTLY the amount of our legacy. It made me feel like we had made the right choice!
Phase 2: Plumbing
We waited so long to begin the kitchen process because we knew that it was going to entail A LOT more than just the kitchen. Our house has been operating with rust filled galvanized pipes for probably the 50 years it has been built. It would be silly to have a brand new kitchen with horrible, clogged pipes!
We decided to go with the Repipe Specialists and were so impressed that the price was affordable and that they got all of the work done in three days! Unfortunately they found that the damage was more extensive than we had thought and they had to spend an extra day doing more repairs, but it is already SO worth it. Our water pressure is MUCH improved, it only takes 30 seconds for the shower to get hot, and no more waiting for the sink to drain.
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| Turns out that some housing codes didn't exist in the 50's. Houses now come with a gap between the foundation and the bottom of the house specifically for dealing with plumbing issues should they arise. Our house does not have that gap, so they had to cut holes in the outside of the house, and dig holes near the edge of the house in order to replace the pipes. They did an awesome job of patching up the holes, though, and now all we have to do is find our leftover paint to paint over the patching. |
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| The reason why they had to do an extra day's work: that pipe should not have 2 holes in it. That giant hole is on the side of a drain pipe, and was leaking on the ground under our house. :/ |
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| The other reason they had to do an extra day's work: see that piece of pipe in the right of the picture? It broke off when John picked up the pipe. It is not supposed to do that. I can assure you, because I asked him. |
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| New pipes going in and out of the house out of the bathroom. Don't worry, you can't see daylight under the cabinet anymore. |
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| We even got new shower valves and heads, and they raised the showerhead to the right height. I cannot tell you how nice it is to not be hit in the face with water when the shower head is too low and at the wrong angle. For those of you who might have taken a shower in here previously, I apologize. All I can say is that it is better now. |
Phase 3: Packing up
My mom so sweetly offered to come help me get everything packed up in the kitchen today. We set up a makeshift kitchen in the computer room, so I can still use the microwave and the crock pot. It didn't seem like there would be much to do, but it took a few hours and lots of boxes.
Up next is Phases 4-9, which will include demolition, electrical and more plumbing work, cabinet and counter installation, flooring, backsplash and moving everything back in.
I am going to be honest: I am really nervous about how everything is going to work out from here on out. Everything now depends on other people, and since I have never done this before, I don't really know what to expect. I am just trying to focus on the fact that I will have a DISHWASHER before the end of this year!!!!
More pics to come!
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