Kitchen Renovations

Here starts the renovation posts. I'm slowly going to work on getting the renovation posts up room by room. This may also encourage me to start getting things hung on the walls. I'm starting with the kitchen because it's frankly our most used space and it just came out so nice.

To start the kitchen was a big selling point with the house. After a year of looking we had really gotten accustomed to seeing a house for its potential and not the flashy good or bad things that hit you in the face. We knew kitchen remodels are wicked expensive, this kitchen was nicely remodelled and we were really happy with that and it's size, it was within the range we wanted it to be but didn't have gas. Frankly finding a house with gas was really difficult in this area, oh well, I'm learning to deal with electric :(

Again with the two tone and shadow boxes, and excessive molding. This project really began at the beginning of the house with the wall removal and arch install. Oscar and my father put the Arch in, which we got online. Seriously if you ever want to put in an arch this was the best way to go, you give them your measurements and in a few days your arch pieces arrive at your door. It went really well. So after some molding removal and my parents trip to VA we were able to start on wall removal. After the arch went in the kitchen was functional enough for us to move on to other projects and move into the house.

After we finished the priority move in projects we

started to focus on the kitchen again. We were originally going to keep the thin crown molding and paint it white and up to the top white so it appeared to be a continuous crown molding. Upon more consideration we just decided to remove it, and we're glad we did. After spackling, sanding, covering everything and priming we were ready to get our color on the wall, "moon mist." We also found that remodelling while living there and with the kids was easier at night for the most part. Once the kitchen was covered in plastic we were certainly motivated to move the project along in order to have the space in working order again.Of course ducking under plastic to make sandwiches was a good time.

First we painted the ceiling because it was ridiculously disgusting. And in the wisdom of John Sperry you always paint the ceiling. Frankly this wisdom had me cursing a few times but like all of his wisdom, he's right, it's a world of difference in all the rooms! We then primed the whole room and did two coats of "moon mist." The paint color really changed the whole room and it was amazing what just that did for the light there. It was amazing how much brighter and cleaner it felt. It's really nice to know that the only grime and mess in the house was made by you and not some stranger (or 20 as we've learned from neighbors). After we finished the color we uncovered the room and got it back in working order. I worked on the trim and crown molding in white while the girls took naps. I have the curtains, as you can see the rod in the corner of the picture, I'm just encouraging someone to hang them ;) And I'm trying to figure out placement of some other decor. I'm still really in love with this room and stare at it regularly remembering what it used to look like!