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Friday, May 31, 2013

DIY Project: Kitchen Revamp - It Begins!

Most of you know that one of our major goals for 2013 is to finally update and really get our house into order - less 'cookie cutter' and more US!  Since moving in two years ago, we have been on baby mode.  We moved in and one week later gave birth to our beautiful son, Elijah.    
The truth of the matter is, there is a LOT to do.  But I LOVE my first home with my little family! We live in what I think is an ideal location for our first home, in a fairly large (almost 2600 square foot) ranch-style four bedroom, three bath home.  Our house, while fairly new, isn't as updated as we'd like.  But we knew, for the deal we were getting, we could do a lot of the work ourselves since it was all 'cosmetic.'  And to be honest, it's a LOT of fun! My close friends know that I think I missed my calling in either party planning or interior design.  I secretly wish I had my own TV show on the DIY Network or HGTV! ;)
All this week, we've scheduled out a plan.  When I say ' we've scheduled,' I really mean I was telling my husband all about my plans, and how I'd need him to help me execute said plans. Ah, the joys of marriage ;) It's okay, he knows I have a 'vision' and secretly loves it! 
Thus begins our DIY Project: KITCHEN REVAMP! 
Here are a couple BEFORE pictures.  We changed the paint color from a bright green to a neutral brown, which is also the same complementary color in other parts of our house.  Side Note: Ever go into someones house and think you're going to go blind with all the clashing colors?!?!? Yeah... me too!  While I have a bold taste for colors, I know that you have to use neutral complimentary colors to, for lack of a better word, 'compliment' the bold colors you choose.  Too many random colors from room to room is just too much and not pleasing to the eye.  I love the neutral tone we went with instead of the bright green.  With all the other color in our house, it's a nice break: 
I think it has good bones. Just needs some style! 
Here you can clearly see the boring white tile back splash
that we are soon replacing with a beautiful stone back splash
I didn't want to start the process too early and have kitchen that wasn't fully functional for more than a week.  With a toddler in tote, that would be rough, especially after tonight when we will have sealed off the kitchen from the rest of the house and begun sanding. Mind you, we are doing all of this while working full-time jobs, so the 'meat' of the project will be done Friday night, after work, and all day Saturday and Sunday.  

Wednesday we bought everything we needed (picture of our items coming soon)
Thursday we took everything out of our current kitchen cabinets, and wiped and cleaned from the inside out.  From all of our DIY research, we know it's important to give it a nice cleaning before getting started.  This will ensure you get rid of any oil, grease, and other residue buildup.  To tell you the truth - I'm so glad we did that! If anything, you don't realize the amount of crumbs (and crap) that will start to pile up in (and on) your cabinets. They are spic and span clean now! :) 
Everything has been removed, including the stove hood!
We are replacing it with a stainless steel one!
All the cabinetry has been wiped down with a natural wood cleaner.
The remnants of our kitchen now in our formal dining room. See, walls are still bare!
Friday, we begin the meat of the project! Which includes sealing off the kitchen from the rest of the house, removing all the doors and drawers of the cabinetry and sanding them all! Then we begin demo of the old boring white back splash.  
Stay tuned for more updates! In the meantime, the timeline above shows what the next few days are going to be like for us - and possibly longer if we don't reach our deadline tonight! 
If you can't get a hold of me for a few days, you know why... 

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