Lessons from the Dust

A long time ago, in one of my comments, someone asked me to do a post about what I learned from doing a kitchen renovation. I'm bossy by nature, and love giving advice, so you all get to suffer through this--I think you have Jaime R. to thank!

Lesson #1. Prioritize. Everyone told me you will fall into the trap "As long as we are doing x, we might as well do y." So true. Our whole reno started because my husband suggested putting in wood floors and of course we couldn't put in dark wood floors with our oak cabinets so we had to paint the cabinets and then we couldn't have white appliances with white cabinets..you get the drift.

Now that the reno is done, if I had to pick only one thing to do, I would get new appliances. They are great for resale and they instantly update the kitchen. And guess what is the one thing everyone compliments in my new kitchen?--the fridge--go figure. (But I do totally love my cabinets and floors.)

Lesson #2 Accept that you can't do everything at once. This is an off-shoot of lesson #1. I really really wanted to paint. But after doing the floors, Sam wasn't going to do another dang thing in the house and I don't blame him. I also really wanted to replace our track lighting with cans and some cool pendant lights...and replace our blinds with shutters. But you can't do it all. You can do it little by little:

Bad track lighting

Lesson #3. Get a ton of bids. You never know how much something is going to cost until you bid it out. Some things were way more than I thought--like the granite counter tops. Other things were a lot more reasonable than I thought--like a new banister. You never know until you get the bid. Also, I loved asking all of the contractors for advice. You never know who is going to have great ideas.

Lesson #4. Sometimes you should hire the contractor who gave you the first bid and look no further. This is a direct contradiction to Lesson #3. The first guy that gave me a bid on my tile was awesome. He called me back immediately and his prices were amazing. I knew I liked him. I didn't need to shop around. Additionally, sometimes your time is worth more than saving a few bucks.

Lesson #5. Go with your gut. I really struggled with some of the choices in my kitchen. Do I do a white island or a black one? Everyone told me I had no black in my house so I shouldn't do a black island. I knew I always wanted a black island. I did it anyway and I love it. On the railing, my contractor told me to do a stained end post. I saw a white one in Pottery Barn Kids and decided to go with that. I really love it and I'm glad I didn't let a contractor talk me out of it.

This is our banister before the floors were finished.

My granite guy tried to talk me out of the black granite sink. I'm so glad I didn't let him. Sometimes contractors have good advice, sometimes they are just looking for the easy way out. Go with your gut.

Lesson #6. Break up with bad contractors. You know the ones--flaky, dishonest, etc. There are too many contractors out there right now looking for work. Don't waste your time with anyone who doesn't call you back or doesn't show.

Lesson #7. Demand perfection or ask for discounts. I can be a real be-atch. I always get my way. My motto is: If I wanted a job done half-way I'd do it myself. I got a sweet deal on my granite because it wasn't the slab I spent hours picking out. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and get a little crazy.

Lesson #8. You can save a lot of money doing things yourself. You can also end up in divorce court. I love Sam. I also love my new floors. But I'll be honest--I don't love that we are going on five months and the trim still isn't completely finished. (Hi Sam!) The husband works a full-time job. We had a preemie. A million reasons the job took forever. I'm so glad we saved so much money and the floors are beautiful but if you can afford it, pay a professional. You may just come out even on what you save in therapy:

Sam getting 'er done

Lesson #9. When you are in the middle of the reno, it will feel like forever. There were some dark days when I was walking around on sub floor with no appliances and no counter tops and I wanted to pull my hair out. In retrospect, it doesn't seem that bad. Keep your eye on the prize. And thank the good Lord for fast food.

Lesson #10. Don't sweat the decisions too much. You're not curing cancer. You are picking out granite and new appliances for crying out loud. Whatever you get will be so much better than what you have that you will love it. I have a whole file on my computer of pictures of kitchens I love. I also have a binder of pictures I've pulled out of magazines. It is easier to show someone what you like than to tell them.

Lesson #11. I couldn't stop at 10. The job will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you anticipated. Bank on it.

I could go on and on. I'm no expert but I feel like I know so much more now that when I started. Is anyone still here? Thanks for indulging me!

Better After

When I did my big reveal of my kitchen about 6 weeks ago, I forgot to include the before photos...as if anyone cares. But I figured now that we have our furniture back in place, I will show you the before and afters of the kitchen, family room and living room.

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:




Family room before:


Family room after: (floors and mantle)


Living room before:


Living room after: (floors)


Tomorrow I'm going to post what I learned from doing a home renovation project. Get excited!

ps. Today is Baby Mitchell's due date. He is almost 6 weeks old. Hello little chubby:



Doesn't he look like Ryan's twin? This is Ryan at the same age:

Big Kitchen Reveal

I figured out a way to get my photos uploaded onto my laptap at the hospital. So I'm posting way too many photos of my new kitchen. I will post more photos of the family room and mantel later. I love the new kitchen even more than I thought I would.

Every time I would tell Sam I wanted something for the kitchen, he would jokingly say "and then we'll be happy." He doesn't believe things can make you happy. The truth is, I was happy before--but my new kitchen sure does make me happy. Without further ado:

As much as I love my new kitchen, I'd give it all back to be assured that I will be bringing home a healthy baby boy in a week or two!

Nesting on Roids

So I still haven't done anything with the baby clothes or crib but I think the house project makes up for it. The wood floors are done and my kitchen has looked like this for the past week:


As a side note, I've always loved the look of open shelving in kitchens in magazines but never could understand how someone could pull it off in real life. My doors have been off the cabinets for weeks and it looks terrible. I know that people with open shelving would only display nice bowls and china but where do they shove the sippy cups and ugly stuff?

Here is my lovely family room area:


This project is almost done. The appliances are coming, the granite is on its way and the cabinets and mantel will be done shortly. I can't wait for the big reveal!

Before and After: the Banister

Remember my Plain Jane, boring oak banister?


It has gone bye-bye.

Behold the new banister:



And another angle:



I am so in love with it. When I squint my eyes and only look at the portion of the floor we have done and the banister--it makes me so excited to get this project done!


Now that the banister is in, we can finally finish the floors. More pictures soon!

Out with the Old

Drum roll please...We are updating our kitchen! I have been so excited to talk about this on my blog but I wanted to be sure it was really going to happen. Back in December, when I mentioned to Sam that our carpets really needed to be cleaned, he casually said, "Maybe we should just put in hard wood floors." From there it kind of snowballed into something much bigger.

I have blogged about wanting to change my kitchen here and here. So this is a dream come true for me. I have a way of smothering a project like this and it has consumed my last couple of months. I am so nervous with what I have picked and I hope it will all come together.

This is what my kitchen used to look like:

Good-bye oak cabinets, white tile, white appliances, blue and yellow accessories!

Good-bye oak as far as the eye can see:


Good-bye oak mantel and white tile surround!


Good-bye living room carpet:


Here is what Sam was doing on Saturday:


So I guess there is no turning back now.

Here are my kids watching him rip out the tile. I made them wear shades to protect their eyes in case of flying shrapnel.


Here is my family room presently with all of this extra furniture and wood in it:


Stay tuned for more pictures and updates. Sam is ripping out the tile and carpet and laying the hard wood floors himself. Heaven help us. The rest is being contracted out. So far, I have everything picked out except my granite for my counter tops. I am still stressing over that but hopefully it will be resolved soon!