the little reveal
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Just about 2 years ago this month we started our biggest house project
yet: a kitchen remodel. It’s pretty much done!
After reading many kitchen design books and websites, I can tell you
that an incremental DIY project like this will never really have a “BIG REVEAL”
stage, but in the balance, we got to celebrate a lot more mini and major
revelations and celebrations along the way. The other side benefit of the long-term remodel is that we spread out the cost over a long
period. We had a few months with big outlays, but for the most part
absorbed the entire project into our regular monthly budget. But yes, you have to be able to live with some chaos for an extended time frame: it's definitely a trade-off.
August: Second round of dry-walling |
May: Reclaimed floor going in |
The two hardest parts of the project, probably the two we
could have saved the most time on, were the things we wanted to do the most, so
there we were. First the floor. We had a laminate floor floating on top of
two layers of vinyl/tile and an underlayment. We went back
and forth on options but we both really wanted hardwood and for the floors to be on one level. This meant pulling everything out and going
down to the sub-flooring. We also opted
for reclaimed flooring from our local Habitat for Humanity Restore. We loved this option as
it matched our vintage oak in the rest of the house, and hit all the buttons of
saving money, recycling, etc. BUT, it
also meant removing hundreds (thousands?) of nails, and scraping the joints to remove any tar paper/finish etc.
The second time-consumer was that D wanted to build the
cabinets himself. In some ways this made the project really flexible, as he
could build one at a time and customize each one to the space. But it also took time, and made us dependent
on warmer weather as his shop is mostly in the (unheated) garage.
Layout-wise, our our biggest change was to remove the cabinets from the back wall and add a window that looks out into the back yard and garden. (D's idea, and a brilliant one.) To compensate for the lost storage, we added extra cabinets to another wall, and a long counter with drawers replaced one of our rolling carts. Originally an L-shaped eat-in kitchen, now it's more of a wide galley. We also widened the doorway to the living room.
So here we are today. There’s still a bookshelf to add, and some trim-work in a couple of spots. The flooring has its original finish so eventually we will sand it down and re-varnish. Most mornings we are still amazed by the transformation when we walk in to make coffee. There are certainly flaws—any DIYer (and heck, probably most folks who have contracted jobs) can point you at mistakes or compromises we made along the way. But I like that our kitchen is handmade, that it doesn’t look that it came from a store, and that we can use it every day knowing we did every damn thing with our own effort. (Special thanks to two siblings with renovation skills that came up and helped for a weekend each, and also provided consultation and trouble-shooting along the way.) I will add, while we had tackled most of the elements of this job before (windows, drywall, tile) having so many factors in ONE room made me very glad we waited until we had built up our skill-set before taking this on. It was daunting, but really rewarding.
A few details (based on things I was looking for when researching this project):
Sink: IKEA farmhouse sink, by way of Craigslist
Faucet: a ubiquitous Kohler from Home Depot
Dishwasher: 18 inch Frigidaire (Energy Star rated and perfect for a 2-person household)
Range Hood: Kobe (purchased sight-unseen online but well-built and works great so far)
Stove: BlueStar RCS (my splurge/reward for all that we saved on labor...it's somewhat quirky but I love it.)
Cabinet color: Persian Blue milk paint from General Finishes
Counters: Maple butcher block from Forever Joint Tops, a wonderful Wisconsin family business.
If I've forgotten something, leave a comment or send me an email.
Cabinet color: Persian Blue milk paint from General Finishes
Counters: Maple butcher block from Forever Joint Tops, a wonderful Wisconsin family business.
If I've forgotten something, leave a comment or send me an email.
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