My Kitchen remodel

Months of work – my kitchen remodel is complete. When my husband and I built our home 12 years ago, we were on the tightest budget you can imagine. There was no room for going over on anything! Most builders will tell you to expect a 10-20% price difference depending on your selections of flooring, lighting, cabinetry, trims, door hardware, countertops, and so on. We made it a point to make sure no matter what, we would stay completely on budget. Why, you may ask, would we be such sticklers to the budget. Well, that story is a long one and you can read a lot about it on my daughter’s caring bridge @ http://www.caringbridge.com/visit/Bailynn, but it basically boils down to medical expenses and life. We made the choice to be as frugal as possible because we had no idea how much our daughter’s looming brain surgery would cost. It is a good thing we did, cause over the years her medical expenses have been ridiculous! So back to the kitchen. A few years ago we sealed off an entrance to our kitchen to add a bedroom to our first floor for Bailynn, our oldest who is wheelchair bound, and intern made our kitchen feel a smidgen claustrophobic. A few months ago we made the leap to remodel it, fill in the hole that had been left by the door being sealed off, and update the appliances that we had purchased as floor models/display models, and clearance items. I’m no stranger to an appliance or piece of furniture with a few dings in it to save some money. I have 5 kids! I have 4 dogs! Likely hood is, they will end up with those dings and scratches anyway. This way I won’t be as devastated by them. The process began as easy peasy as you can imagine. It isn’t hard to draw a plan, make a budget, and makes lists of what order everything has to be accomplished in. We listed old items on craigslist and Facebook and they quickly sold (seeing as they were all in great condition). We began demolition. I have to admit that this was my absolute favorite part. Give me a hammer and please let me smash a wall!! It was amazing fun. We moved electrical, smashed out a pantry, smashed out a wall to give my daughter’s wheelchair room to enter, rehung drywall, painted, caulked, tiled, did trim work, reconnected and connect a sink multiple times. We watched youtube videos and skimmed through pintrest pictures. It was a process that, though not always fun, gave us a lovely new kitchen that is handicap accessible and gorgeous – all on a tight, but doable budget. So our once bare bones kitchen became the center piece of home design. Though exhausted from the work, I’m ready to dive all in to the next project.

Before shot of sink and dishwasher area.

Before shot of stove and microwave area. One of our greatest choices was to move the microwave down lower into a base cabinet to make it more accessible to our children.