If Walls Could Talk...

When we took out all the cabinets from our kitchen, we realized that the upper cabinets were hanging on the walls without any screws supported by a stud. All my heavy, very breakable dishes were sitting in a cabinet that very well could have broken off the wall at any moment. I was frustrated, but relieved that we took the old cabinets down before anything actually did break.

Behind the old cabinets was another surprise, this time it was a good one! There is a switch we never knew what it was for; it was wired behind the cabinets, a perfect set-up for under the cabinet lighting. I was debating on if I wanted to invest the additional money into lighting and the extra time, but now that it was already set up with the electrical, why not?

Since I wanted to make the kitchen more functional, I decided on additional cabinets on the wall that previous was bare. In the new design, I also planned to put the fridge on that wall. So I would have extra cabinets on both sides of the kitchen and more room for the fridge.

Both entryways of my kitchen have pocket doors, which are common in older homes.  If we wanted to put cabinets on the other wall, we need to have studs behind the drywall, not a pocket door. It was kind of freaky to tear down my plaster walls and remove the pocket door and add 2x4’s and new drywall. Once everything was torn down and the studs were in place, and new dry wall was up, it wasn’t so scary.

After all the construction was complete and all the walls were smooth, I decided to paint the walls. I had a gallon of this light blue, almost teal color. I loved the color and was excited to paint the kitchen that color since we had already started picking out color schemes for the backsplash and countertops.

The blue paint went on the walls. It was pretty, but I hated it for the kitchen once all the walls were that color. It reminded me of a bathroom, not at all how I wanted my kitchen to look. Hours of painting were wasted, but I couldn’t live with that blue color in my “dream kitchen". So… countless paint swatches later, we chose a cobble stone color from Lowe's. Lowe's has this new thing called My Lowe's which keeps track of all the colors and various home purchases, which is great because I don't have the time and brain power to keep track of all the details. The color matched perfectly to one of the colors in the countertops we decided on. I am excited to share the rest of the process in the coming weeks!!!

 

Peeling Away History

My house was built in 1954. Every time one of the previous owners decided on new flooring for the kitchen, they must have just put the new flooring right on top of the existing flooring.

The first layer was the glossy, very slippery when wet, tile. I had fallen twice, and broke a toe nail because the floors were super slick. It had turned into a major safety hazard since the backdoor was right there, and in Michigan any time it rained or snowed (which is all the time) the glossy tiles would get wet.

The gloss tiles were mortared onto several layers of linoleum. Once the gloss tiles were broken off the ground, which took hours, we took a break and left the old linoleum flooring for about a week. Since we knew that once we took out the rest of the flooring we would need to take out the cabinets. The older layers of floor went underneath the cabinets. Since we were not ready to say goodbye to our kitchen sink and counter space yet, we figured one more week would be best.

 

Once we decided to take out all of the flooring, we took it down to the sub-floor and could see into the basement. When we took everything out, flooring and cabinets, my step dad realized that a previous owner cut out some of the sub-floor and support beams underneath the sink area for some reason. We needed to correct this. He added 2x4’s in place where the support beams had previously been cut out. We added ply wood where the subfloor was missing. In doing this, we had to drill out 1” holes for the plumbing to still be accessible for the sink.

For all the tile and garbage we couldn’t put most things out to the curb on garbage day so we bought this big green bag sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s that are made by Waste Management called Bagster. We fill the bag and schedule a pick up time online with Waste Management and they come collect the whole bag from the front yard. It ended up costing like $30 for the bag and then $100 for them to pick it up, but it was worth the hassle of finding somewhere else to take it, which was probably going to cost money as well. I would recommend the “Green bags” to any one working on a project where there are bulky items that cannot be put out with regular trash. The Bagster @ Lowe's

We took the bottom cabinets we removed to the curb on garbage day (my city picks up bigger items, as long as there are no drawers or any some parts attached) because there were many oil stains inside and the configurations weren’t best for the space. In the corner of the kitchen, instead of using a lazy Susan or cabinet designed for a corner, there were two cabinets glued together and there was a ton of wasted storage space.

So we scrapped the lower cabinets but we decided to keep the upper cabinets for a possible bar in the basement, a future project I am thinking about starting this summer J.

Hidden Passion

I love shopping and “girly” things, not getting my hands dirty or breaking a sweat. Little did I realize that mindset was going to change…

Two years ago I began looking for an apartment, as many mid-twenties people do. It was time to leave the nest. On my quest for the perfect apartment I found that apartments are small, outdated, expensive, a terrible investment, and they don’t allow for customization.

After realizing renting just wasn’t for me I switched gears and found a realtor and began house hunting. This was a scary step for me. Scary was a good thing, it allowed me to test my comfort level and discover a whole new part of me and something that today, I am truly passionate about.

8 months into the stressful and nerve-racking process, I found “the house” and with every penny I had to my name- I signed on the dotted line, what felt like hundreds of times & then I got the keys!

It was mine, all the white walls, gloss tile, and nasty old carpeting.

After new paint was on the walls, old carpet was out, hardwood was refinished, I knew the kitchen was the next project I was ready to tackle. I love watching HGTV; all the shows where they renovate kitchens are really inspiring to me. I was determined to upgrade my kitchen and I wanted to do it on my own.

I wanted to turn my kitchen renovation into a Do-It-Yourself project because it made the project actually affordable for me and I knew that this wasn’t going to be the only house project or kitchen I would have to upgrade in my lifetime and I might as well learn now.

I spent a lot of time planning what exactly needed to be done. I had my parents help me with the layout and design and together we decided on where everything would go once the project started. Research and planning is key in any home project prior to actual starting. A kitchen is a huge aspect of daily life and I knew without proper planning it would be disastrous! I took numerous trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot and visited their online sites pricing out and making lists of everything I would need.

The DIY kitchen renovation began.