Big News

No, the big news is not that I'm writing a blog post.

We're renovating our kitchen! Like the gutting it, tearing down walls, everything will be different kind of renovation. I don't think I could be more excited (or more stressed) at this point. This experience so far has been fun, rewarding, eye-opening and challenging at times and we haven't even started the actual work yet. Demolition starts on Wednesday and we can only hope and pray for smooth sailing. I should mention that unlike a lot of kitchen re-dos that you find in blogland, this is not a DIY project. This is more like the opposite of DIY, or PSTDI (pay someone to do it)!

Here are some before pictures - not the greatest light but wait until after the wall comes down! I did sort of a 360 view around the kitchen and then a few shots of the living room since that will be impacted as well.

Looking into the kitchen from the living room entrance. We just replaced that slider a few months ago...

To the right of the slider, new window that was replaced at the same time. Oh how I will miss our marbled beige tile with its obnoxious brown grout. That peninsula will be gone in just five short days...

Next to the window/sink area, the wall between the kitchen and dining room will be cut down to a half wall (or pony wall as I've been told). No more upper cabinets, no more soffit and maybe we'll replace that burned-out recessed lightbulb too.

To the right of the dining room entrance. This entire wall is coming down and will be replaced by a large island between the kitchen and living room.

Coming full circle, this is the living room entrance (where you can sort of see the front door beyond) and the entrance to the garage.

This is the wall between the living room and kitchen that we're tearing down! Goodbye wall. Goodbye ginormous tv. Hello open space and beautiful island. I can't wait.

View from the front door looking into the living room, kitchen to the left. The slider in this room will be painted white to go with the kitchen door and window. We're repainting everything - walls, trim, mantel, nothing is safe. 

Nothing major happening on the other side of the room, but we're replacing the couch and paint color on the wall so it's worth a picture. We're definitely keeping that little baby playground, which we call "the pen." I think it really adds something to the ambience of the room, don't you?

So there you have it in all its builder basic glory. My wonderful husband has done his part to make improvements over the years, but the kitchen is so closed off from the living area that an open plan design will really make it feel bigger even though we aren't drastically changing the existing footprint. I can't wait to post during and after pictures!