Topping It Off

In continuation of our kitchen project (which we've talked about here and here) our next step was cabinet fronts and countertops. Believe me when I say that there is nothing simple about the initial process of building the cabinets. Now of course, it's doable with patience but it's not simple. Thankfully, Ikea gives some relief towards the end and makes the process of hanging and installing fronts very simple. It's almost a click-in system, with few screws for support, which at this point in the project was very welcome. Nothing like an easy finish. 

You can see above where we were after the first day of installation. By the end of the next working day we had closing doors and drawers. We waited to put the pulls on for quite a while because we couldn't decide exactly where we wanted them, decisions decisions. 

The next step was the countertop. It was a bit scary to start cutting because we had a certain amount of space to cover and only so much countertop. At first we were going to join the corner by butting one piece up to another. My Dad mentioned that because of the wood grain we wouldn't be pleased with that and so we changed our minds to the angled corner cut you can see below. In order to make sure we did everything correctly, we used some 1/4" plywood to create templates that we could lay on top of the cabinets to ensure we were making correct cuts! Way better to make a mistake on a $10 slice of plywood than a $100 slice of butcher block. Practice makes perfect after all. 

   

Hunter and I watched through the window with Star Wars characters cheering on my Dad and Rob as they made the scary cuts. Always best for me to stay away during these moments, I tend to be a gasper when things can go wrong. Of course they made all the right measurements with the help of their template. With all the pieces cut, they were laid out, screwed in from the underneath and glued together at seams.

 

Once all the counters were secured we moved onto giving them a finish. We did quite a bit of research about this. We had to decide if we wanted this to be a true working butcher block or just in appearance alone. We liked the idea of a full seal which would remove our ability to stain or make water rings on our new surface but a lot of the products that we found and read about weren't food safe. While that might work for some people, we were not comfortable with a non-food-safe surface in the kitchen especially when the kiddos are involved. We ended up conditioning our butcher block counters instead of sealing them; this is something that we have to do once in a while but it's no harder than applying lotion after a shower. It makes the counters resistant and water pools on top instead of soaking right in BUT rings and marks do form. Thankfully most of those marks are easily removed with a light hand sand (read: wiping counters with sandpaper) and another coat of conditioner. While making our choice we read that wood, because it is porous, will eventually "fill up" with the conditioner and actually become waterproof like butcher blocks in butcher shops used to! We liked the idea that it wouldn't be such virgin wood forever and it wouldn't only get prettier as the time went on. 

At this point we were so pleased to have a most of a kitchen again. We still had finishing touches on the cabinets in the form of finishing sides (above cooktop and in corner) and adding pulls but the overall feeling was beginning to come together. It was so nice to have a sink on the main floor again - it's amazing how much you can miss that! 

My Dad was so helpful during the countertop process, he's awesome and teaches us so much! Hunter also LOVES when my Dad comes over - he gets to have a bit of play time in his work truck and spend time with his Buppa!

Up next is flooring! Stay tuned!

That Annoying Part in the Middle

And so began demolition on the kitchen. What was supposed to be drywall removal in a small corner (where Rob is cutting out drywall in photo below) to check for water damage, turned into a much larger project. First, we took that wall out from walkway to inner corner to make sure water hadn't spread further than we first assumed. Thankfully, it hadn't and replacing some studs was all it took to shore up the area. We did find a "fun" secret door (the old garage exit pre-kitchen-add-on) that wasn't sealed up correctly when the original construction had been completed. My Dad was so so helpful in this process because he knew just where to stop or dive a little deeper into a problem so it was solved the correct way! Dads are fantastic! 

   

After this wall was torn apart and the studs were repaired, we started removing the cabinets. Our hope was to remove cabinets and *snap* just like that put the new ones in their place. Well of course that isn't what happened as you might have read in our previous post but we didn't share how gross the situation was. 

    

Take a nice long look. Couldn't you just shed a tear at the awful sight of mold/mildew, improper plumbing and water damage? We could, I'm surprised that we didn't, but we certainly could have! The top left photo was our first glance... It was right as we pulled the dishwasher and first cabinet out. Our first reaction was to hope it got better as we continued cabinet removal but with every cabinet that we took out, our hopes sunk more and more. Behind the sink we could see that there had been some major water damage that the previous owners hadn't properly cleaned up (not really a surprise at this point unfortunately) and the drain plumbing hadn't been installed correctly. If you can see in the picture with Rob working on the floor, there was a very noticeable water mark on the floor so it was obvious some sort of flooding had occurred. Thankfully, that underlayment wasn't at all soft or mildewy, so we were actually able to leave it in place. 

As we moved along with the cabinet removal, we learned that at one point there had clearly been some sort of small rodent infestation. Now, let me note, our home is not disgusting or filthy and there are no longer rodents living in our walls but boy-o-boy, at one point... I don't know how the previous owners didn't hear them. It wasn't just something we found under the cabinets either. Every piece of insulation that we removed created some sort of "fecal rain" - gross I know - but it fell down on Rob and my Dad every time a run of insulation was pulled out of the ceiling. [Many many showers were taken during this part of the project!] It isn't something that we knew about before this construction started, so ignorance was bliss for a while, but now our house feels so much cleaner and we have such a greater peace of mind that everything is sealed up tight and is nice and clean! 

   

Once all the cabinets were removed, we had our first "while we're at it" conversation with my Dad. He's great at giving us options that we wouldn't have thought about; the soffit above the cabinets was the first topic we needed to make a decision about. We hadn't realized that this soffit was just a style decision made when when kitchen was constructed, but Dad did. We thought that it would make the room feel larger to extend the ceiling to the full size of the room so within an hour or two max, we had the soffit out! 

The next decision was whether or not to replace the ceiling. There were two factors to this decision: one being the ability to re-center the lights and fan since the soffit was now gone and the second being the knowledge that the ceiling was probably icky and poop filled. YUCK. So it seemed like the right decision. We would be able to reconfigure lighting to what we wanted it to be and it would be much cleaner, both great perks! The picture below is post dry-wall removal and pre insulation removal but the room already looked larger than before! 

After this, we removed all remaining drywall (except for a small section on the left wall). Rob and I got to work, with masks on of course, cutting and installing drywall in all the newly open spaces. We also sealed the old door area so that it couldn't be an entrance for little creatures if that had been their entry point. If you haven't had the pleasure of filling gaps or cracks in your home, let me tell you how awesome Great Stuff Foam is; it's so easy to use and honestly it's kind of fun. It expands to completely fill gaps and once dry, it's hard but can be trimmed if expansion gets in the way. We don't get paid to say this stuff, we just really like it!  

   

  

Once all the new insulation was in we started to feel like we were on the upswing of this project. When demo lasts much longer than expected it can start to feel like no progress is being made. With our lighting newly centered, pendant cans in place (a new addition for us) and all the insulation in place, we were ready for drywall to be installed. This is not a do-it-yourself project for us, we always call the best guy we know, Bill! He's super honest and trustworthy and does such fast, awesome work! The drywall process is so exciting because the space goes from construction to looking like a legitimate room again. Never have white, splotchy walls looked so great to us! 

We decided to freshly paint the ceiling and put one coat of primer over the walls before doing any other insulation so we didn't have to worry about splatter. Ceilings are the worst to paint but it's much easier when there is no need for drop cloths. 

   

Once the paint was dry, we were so happy to start hanging cabinets. The Ikea cabinet system is so smart - they give you a rail to hang on the wall so you don't have to worry about leveling each cabinet. Once the rail is up, the cabinets pretty much hang and clip on. The system is much lighter and much easier to manage without putting a million holes in the walls. Our little guy had a fun time watching his Buppa and Daddy doing work with all the fun tools and even got a popcorn treat from the hardware store!

We are almost ready to reveal the final kitchen, but it's a work in progress for a little while longer!

Two Weeks turned Two Months (and counting!)

Oh boy, when they say "allow more time than anticipated for larger projects" they aren't kidding (whoever they are). After seeing our house for the first time we assumed we would leave the kitchen in a very similar state for a long time. As you can see in the pictures below, it wasn't too bad at first glance. Upon moving in we decided to simply do some cosmetic upgrades to cover up the current look by painting cupboards, replacing the weird vinyl floor and eventually replacing countertops. [We replaced the cooktop immediately, you can read about that here!]

   

Well, we started those projects... I got to painting the cupboards before our things were even moved in and while it's not my favorite project ever, it's definitely a doable one with some patience. They turned out nicely and seemed to update the space significantly. 

      

Even after we were feeling settled into the house and the cabinets were starting to take shape with their new color, it just didn't feel right. We didn't like how obviously painted they looked when they were open - as the inside of the cupboards remained the original wood color while the fronts and doors had been painted. You can also see above that we were dealing with a really nice countertop and flooring (can you sense the sarcasm?). Altogether it just wasn't right and felt like a bandaid instead of a solution. 

After living for months with half painted cabinets while we made some decisions about the space, we chose to purchase new countertops and complete the painting. Off to Ikea we went where it just so happened the solid wood butcher-block color that we wanted was 50% off. We were off to a great start when it came to the kitchen budget. We has previously purchased flooring on sale and now this! What a cheap renovation! Are you scoffing at our naiveté yet?

   

While at Ikea we noticed one of their room displays that was as close as I could possibly imagine to a dream kitchen. It had the big farmhouse sink (that was proving to be impossible to install in our current cabinets) and the grey color scheme; to us it was dreamy! We figured it would be fun to use their 3D kitchen layout planner to see what the cost would be and then make an educated decision based on price and not emotion. Home we went (with countertops in tow since they would be part of the plan no matter what) and we used nap time to plan out our kitchen cabinet swap. It ended up being something that we could afford and with a sale/promotion they had going, it was more cost effective than usual.

So there we were a couple days later, in Ikea making the biggest house purchase we'd ever made. We were so excited! After all, how hard could it be to demo the existing cabinets and replace them with the new ones! You can scoff again. Swapping was our goal, but when cabinets were delivered and we started demo we realized it just wasn't our reality.

   

Stay tuned for the next steps in this "two week" turned two month project!

**Spoiler: This story has a happy and beautiful *swoon* ending!