Our Kitchen Reno - A Video Journey

When we started the process, I decided to document the journey with video updates. I knew I would appreciate looking back on these snippets to see how much things really changed! By default, Devin is my host!

Kitchen Reno!

Our first impression of our house when walking in with our real estate agent was:

• the walls need to be painted (they were a dark burgundy colour)
• the light over the table needed to go (wooden/fabric contraption)
• the kitchen layout and finishing choices was horrific - we would need to renovate

In fact, Vikki took me aside when we were seriously considering buying the house to say "Are you sure you want that kitchen? There's not even a dishwasher in it!" We had already decided that we would renovate the kitchen so I said I would wash dishes by hand until we did that. Ha ha ha. Looking back, I realize how naive I was! After living in the house 2 months, we were installing a dishwasher - albeit in an very awkward location.

We opted to finish the basement before tackling the kitchen. Although this turned out to be the right decision, our reasoning wasn't all that reasonable. LOL. We thought we'd get more "bang for our buck" by doing the basement first. And while we got lots of "bang" (family room, spare bedroom, finished closet space, washroom and several utility/storage areas) it was more "buck" than we had initially thought. However, we are thrilled by the results and after enjoying the space for the past 2 years it was time to take on the kitchen.

We decided last winter that we would start just after Christmas. That gave us pretty much a year to design and plan as well as save up some money! We had already decided on Ikea cabinets based on several friends that had done an Ikea kitchen. Now we just needed to navigate their software and start designing. It's fun to look back on the early designs - which basically started as what we had plus an island. We played around with moving the door to the laundry room, moving the stove, moving the fridge etc. but the game changer was deciding to close in the awkward window! That's when things really started to take shape.

I'm so glad we made this choice. Initially it felt like a "big deal" to close in a window but after talking to a few people we determined it was not as big of a deal as we thought and it improved the layout of the kitchen immensely! We closed the window in October in anticipation of wintery weather in January.

There was lots of research involved in coming up with our final choices:

• trips to Ikea
• browsing Pinterest
• attending the "Tour of Renovations" put on by the homebuilders' association
• trips to local flooring, tile, lighting, etc. stores
• soliciting advice from friends & family that have done a kitchen reno

On December 27th we started taking all the stuff off the walls and moving the contents of the cupboards to the basement where we would have our makeshift kitchen. (Remember when I said we made the right choice about finishing the basement first? Ya. I can't imagine doing this project and not having anywhere to BE when the upstairs is in such turmoil) On December 30th Devin started taking down the hideous wall and we've been going ever since!

I had no idea how much this project would infiltrate every room of the house. Displaced items from the livingroom in the office, the spare bedroom dismantled to access plumbing and electrical, the freezer room (where lots of extra kitchen stuff was being stored) spilled into the family room to access the electrical panel and run wiring and pipes. I believe our bedrooms are the only respite we have! But, it's finally coming together and the end result will be worth it. We're so excited! (And I'll be thrilled to be able to cook real food again and get rid of my dishpan hands!)