Kitchen Renovation Chronicles: Tons Of Weeks

Hi friends! Now that things are finally starting to slow down we are picking ourselves up by the bootstraps and getting back to work in the kitchen.

Somehow during preparing for the kitchen renovation, it must have slipped my mind that planning something of this magnitude smack dab in the middle of the holiday season was probably a really bad idea!!  I finally realized that around the middle of November when life kind of came crashing down on us.

For months it seemed like we had a million things being thrown at us from a personal standpoint, including losing four family members in a three month period. One of those being my grandmother which has been one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever experienced.

If you’ve ever lost someone very close to you then you know that grief is a very dark place and if I’m being honest it hit me way harder than I could have ever imagined. There was one point that I honestly thought I was having a nervous breakdown and felt like I couldn’t handle one more thing being thrown our way and that no doubt affected my work, not only at my day job but here as well and I felt like I owed you guys an explanation as to why things have been pretty quiet around here.

So needless to say we didn’t get a whole lot accomplished but the holidays are long gone and life is finally feeling somewhat normal for us again so we are ready to get this project finished up.

After installing our new DIY white concrete countertops we have kind of been in limbo but this week we finished out the drywall on the range hood then mapped out where the open shelving and sconce placement would be. (Please excuse the iPhone photography and the giant mess, renovations aren’t pretty and I have to snap photos in between so it’s just easiest to use my phone instead of getting all of the camera equipment out)

Then it was time to get the electrical ran which meant tearing into the brand new drywall we just put up on the range side of the kitchen since I thought that adding sconces to the mix was a great idea AFTER we had already closed everything back up… Not my brightest moment but thankfully Wayne didn’t give me too much grief about it.

At first, we figured since things had been so busy for us lately that we’d have an electrician come in and do the wiring plus add two switches for the sconces and under cabinet lighting so it would free us up to do other things but when we received a $700 quote we decided to save the money for something else and do the electric work ourselves.  I said ourselves but if you know me at all you know that I sat on a bar stool filling tool requests and running back and forth flipping breakers and that was the extent of my contribution to the new switches.

P.S  We do not in any way recommend doing your own electrical work unless you are experienced and feel 1000% comfortable working with electric. 

Now that the switches have been added we can close up the walls (again) and tape/mud the spots we messed up then its time to move on to our cabinet boxes! We will be adding cabinets to the ceiling on the sink side of the kitchen and pantry area as well as building in our refrigerator to give it a more custom look. We plan to save money by using our existing cabinet boxes and simply add new doors which will keep this reno as budget friendly as possible.

True to my procrastinating nature I have been dragging my feet on the paint color for the lowers and if I’m being honest I still haven’t fully committed to a color.

When we first made up the design plans for the space my gut said dark green but finding the perfect dark green paint color has proved to be pretty tricky and I still have several that I am going to try out before deciding but if I’m unable to find “the one” black or white may win out.

(Sometimes renos call for lots of this)

The overall vibe of our home will be a touch of modern farmhouse meets California cool and I think any of those colors mixed with natural wood tones will convey that perfectly. Creating the right feel in your home is so important but paint is something that can always be changed so I am trying not to take it all too seriously, if we hate it we can change it.

One thing that I wasn’t prepared for during this whole process is how much I would overthink each and every detail of this renovation….. almost to the point of paralysis. But after having several weeks to clear my head without the sound of drills or a concrete mixer humming in the background I am slowly loosening my grip and leaning into the fact that my first reaction is usually the one I end up going with anyway and every little detail does not have to be perfect.

Choosing things for others and making those big decisions for someone else is a no-brainer, shoot from the hip kind of thing for me but choosing things for myself is a totally different ballgame and for some reason, I always seem to make things way too complicated in my head.

I am sure most designers would agree that when it’s your own home those big decisions are a little bit harder to make because suddenly you aren’t on the outside looking in anymore but standing in the middle waiting for that lifeline to be thrown but oddly enough you’re the one that’s supposed to be throwing it!

So after having a come to Jesus meeting with myself and recognizing that I was simply overthinking my decisions, I think all is well… I think 🙂

Now that we are officially getting back to work and I have given you all of our million excuses as to why our kitchen is not finished yet the regular renovation posts will continue every Friday just like before.

Thank you so much for hanging in there with us, I am not sure I say it enough to you guys but I want you to know that we are both so grateful for this community and that your comments, messages, emails, DMs, and all of the words of encouragement truly make it all worth it and keep us pushing forward so thank you!