Kitchen Renovation Update

While I would NOT recommend doing a major kitchen renovation during pregnancy, things are going surprisingly well, despite a blizzard and an ice storm. Thought I'd update you with a bunch of pictures to help you visualize where we are as of this week.

Mainly, we are living in my Office/Kitchen, which may explain why I have a writing deadline looming, but all I can seem to do is eat Costco Trail Mix all day long. We use an electric burner from Amazon, a panini maker, and a microwave we found on a yard sale site. My bookshelves are now a hodge bodge of books, olive oil, and snacks. Here's Tim chopping an avocado on his knees. Better on the back, I guess.

We do our dishes in the laundry sink one room over, and the fridge is in the family room.

No one seems to mind this set up. It has given us more time together, but I do miss the dishwasher. Each time I come down with another bug, I wonder if it's because our dishwashing isn't up to par.

ON TO THE KITCHEN!

We live in a traditional split level, with a kitchen, dining area, and living room on the main floor. We also have a teeny tiny foyer that flows into the living room. Our goal was to open up the walls between the kitchen and living room, and widen the opening between the kitchen and the dining room. We did keep half walls and columns to delineate the rooms. This was a hard decision to make, because I was sorely tempted to have it one open space, but money came into play, as did my desire to not have all my kitchen crap in the living room. We'll see how that goes. For the past two houses, the living room and dining room have stayed "nice" but no one used them. We also didn't have a baby or toddler. This will be a more casual plan, likely more messy, but hopefully more fun!

Here's a BEFORE view from the living room into the kitchen. A dark corner with my awesome antique "Swan Table" in it. Those two walls got cut down to half walls, with a soffit above containing a very important beam:

DURING:

Here's the same view now with shallow shaker cabinets for school supplies on the left and a breakfast bar/homework area to the right:

Here's the same view, but from inside the kitchen. I liked the layout before, but a few of the cabinets were falling apart. 

BEFORE:

DURING:

We got rid of ALL of the upper cabinets (GULP!) and made a straight corner instead of going on the diagonal. That's Margaret standing on a stool, showing you our beams, I suppose.

Also, inside the kitchen, the narrow doorway between kitchen and dining area got widened a bit.

BEFORE:

NOW:

It may look dark in the pictures, but it feels brighter already. Sadly, those gorgeous french doors need to be replaced with sliders, because otherwise there is no room for a dining table there. We took about 24 inches from the dining room and added it to the kitchen, and that's about how much space it takes for the french doors to open inward. This change is $$$, but needs to happen. A smarter fix would have been to replace the doors with a window, giving us more wall and floor space in in the dining area, and moving the doors to the deck into the living room, but that was cost prohibitive. Sooo, I'll be looking for a small-ish table and also considering NOT moving my china cabinet back into this area.

Because we got rid of all the upper cabinets, we needed space for, um, FOOD. So, we turned my little desk area (crap pile) and the doggie feeding area into a pantry. 

BEFORE:

DURING:

It will involve NOT stockpiling as much food, but it should work fine. Haven't asked the dogs how they feel about this yet.

On another note, we went with inset doors. Our old doors/drawers were frameless, which means our new ones look more like furniture, but have a lot less storage. The jury is still out on this decision.

OK, here's the other side of the kitchen, where you walk in from the garage. Not much not to love here. Those drawers ROCKED!

BEFORE:

We are keeping the same stove and fridge and instead of a microwave, installing a vent hood. Our yard sale microwave will go on the other side of the fridge, more toward the dining area. I also tried to center the stove a little more by moving it over a tad.

Here's where the microwave and  the coffee maker will go, in this narrow cabinet that borrows space from the dining room. In theory, they will be behind closed doors, but we'll see if we actually keep them closed. I doubt it, even though it was my idea.

Speaking of the dining area, I ordered a light fixture from one of those daily deal sites. But, I couldn't find my tape measure anywhere and ordered one that is HUGE for such a small space. 

I like it a lot, but I'm afraid it will look weird. So, we are thinking of swapping it with our foyer light. 

Thoughts?

FOYER LIGHT:

Even though the foyer is only about 4x4, I think it can handle a larger light because of the high ceilings, and I also think bringing some black into an all-white kitchen is not a bad thing. As for other lighting, we are not having pendants over the breakfast bar because we felt like the columns and the soffit already cut off the space enough, without anything else hanging down.

Okay, for those of you who like the nitty gritty: 

We are using these pulls from Build.com because they are cheap, good looking, and we need a lot of them. They are only about $2.50 each:

And this faucet from Build.com= cheap, good looking.

For paint, we are going with Moonshine by Benjamin Moore. I'm afraid it will be too much of a COOL gray, and I'm more of a WARM person, but we will see. Grays are tough, yo! I wanted to make sure there would be enough contrast between that and the warm greige we have on the lower level of the house. I would have done the whole house in the greige, but it was painted before we moved in and we don't know what it's called.

As for countertops, I can't really talk about it yet because I am still a little freaked about them, but I will give you a little info here. We (Tim) chose Quartz countertops called Calacutta Grey by Quartzmasters. We said goodbye to the natural yet finicky stone we'd been eyeing since Christmas and ponied up the extra money for this low maintenance solution. It costs double our countertop allowance. It gets installed this Friday, and I'll let you know late next week what we think of it.  

Here's what it looks like standing upright. It may or may not look like my varicose veins.

So there's the update. Let's get this bad boy finished up so we can move on to a NURSERY!

Love and Hugs.

No Pictures Yet

I've heard that in any kitchen renovation, there is one thing that stymies you and makes you crazy.

For one friend, it was pendant lights. Another lost it over a faucet. For me, it was the counter tops. I know, you would think that with my life experience I would get a grip and not obsess about something as unimportant as counter tops. Plus, I had the happiest childhood in the world with white plastic counter tops that showed every Kool-Aid spill and often had words that bled off the daily Washington Post stuck to them.

But obsess I did.

I made multiple trips to the granite place. I scoured message boards, online conversations, Pinterest, and Houzz. I drove Tim and Margaret crazy. Around Christmas, Tim and I found something we both loved and the angels sang. Until I over-researched and discovered that  the material might not wear well. Then I contemplated going with a man-made and more expensive material, but could not see a large slab in person.

I even considered driving to a warehouse in New Jersey to see it. Yep, my pregnant self was sick and uncomfortable, but I wanted to see those counter tops! On Monday,  I found a place that had them closer, about an hour away in MD, and I rushed to get there and back before my big sonogram.

When I saw the material, I was like, "Meh. No love here." No angels sang. I liked the tiny sample better than the slabs. But after promising our contractor months ago that I was the most decisive and easiest to work with customer he'd ever meet, I needed to make a decision that day or risk throwing off the whole schedule.

I avoided his eager texts.

Then, at 11 o'clock at night, I did the unthinkable. I told Tim we had 2 choices: Luxurious and high maintenance or Meh and low maintenance, and I wanted HIM to decide. Lest you think I gave him this honor because he is a known for style, let me remind you that he brought only a rusty metal New England Patriots trash can and a pair of maroon parachute pants into our marriage. No, I let him choose because I was desperate. I even let him pick the paint color for the kitchen, living room, DR, and hallway.

Margaret, who would like to be an interior designer, preferred the one he didn't choose, but I knew I would have fewer resentment and blaming opportunities with her.

Hold me.

Update

Kind of a hodge-podge update for you today.

It has been a week of highs and lows, sometimes in the same moment. The week started well with my passing a 3 hour glucose test at the lab! While most of my friends and neighbors were scrambling around getting ready for our impending blizzard, I was getting A LOT of blood drawn. The whole process made me feel sick and worn down, but that could have been residual issues from the stomach bug last week.

Margaret and I were sleeping at my dear friend's parents' house in anticipation of construction dust and fumes at our house, as we were having the kitchen floor refinished. I slept better than I have in months, and ate well too. It was wonderful to be away from my sickbed-exile and in my friend Cynthia's childhood home again, snuggled in her cozy bed watching Gilmore Girls with my girl.

The best part, however, was how both Cynthia's mom and dad MOTHERED me while we were there. I realized that even at age 46, I crave mothering; perhaps you do too. I feel like I've been on my own for such a very long time. They fussed over Margaret and me, giving us just one more bite of Lebanese food, one more piece of fruit, helping Margaret print out a paper, and searching for flights for me on the computer.  Reflecting on how special this mothering made me feel, I now know I want to mother those who need it, whether or not we are connected by blood.

Tim had to leave town, which meant my finding the dogs a safe place to stay out of the fumes as well. Two lovely friends offered to help, despite crazy schedules and puking kids. The process of getting the dogs' things together, however, meant that the dogs and I were exposed to the absolute brunt of the fumes (due to a mix-up, the workmen showed up hours earlier than planned, while the dogs were still there). I had to get them safely OUT of the house, but I didn't want to be IN the house. Breathing those fumes has caused me a lot of anxiety about the welfare of the baby, but I can't undo it.

During my intense freak out about this (Why would God give us a miracle baby only for us to harm him doing something stupid? Will we ever get this parenting thing right? Why does Tim always go out of town at times like this?), my car broke down on a major road. So that was fun.

Two days later, my car back from the shop,  I had a doctor's appointment. They said I should have been getting sonograms every 4 weeks due to my age, but no one had told me or given me a prescription. They gave me one for as soon as possible, but I can't be fit in for another 2.5 weeks, which will mean I will have gone from 20 weeks to 30.5 weeks between sonograms. Ergh. I was dealing with some serious insurance wrangling when I saw the first flakes, and it became clear I needed to get someplace fast and hunker down for the storm, so I headed home to sleep for the first time since Monday. It also became clear that there was no way I could make it to Charlotte, NC for a speaking engagement. That was really disappointing.

Tim is in town again. He says he smells no fumes anymore, but I don't buy it because-- male nose-- so I'm back in my bed (the farthest spot from the kitchen) with all the windows wide open, looking out at more than 2 1/2 feet of beautiful snow. It's like unofficial bedrest-- a theme for this pregnancy. Margaret is at a friend's house for the duration, so she'll have someone to hang out with. The dogs are their spunky, happy selves and are LOVING the snow. No plows have come to our neighborhood yet, so it will probably be a few more days before we go anywhere. I hope you are warm and safe where you are.

So, no words of wisdom here.

No faith or philosophy. Just a mixed bag of worry and trust. Impatience and patience. Anxiety and peace. My village has really helped me this week. Thank YOU for being part of it!

p.s. Here's a pic of my kids during a BIG STORM in 2009

The Winter of my Discontent?

Today is my 23 week prenatal appointment!

I'll let you know how it goes. As of now I'm still in my robe, trying to stay quiet in case Margaret is asleep, when in reality she is probably hunkered down in her room with her computer. She is the early bird, I'm the night owl, and the teenaged sleeping all day thing hasn't hit her yet.

Sleep continues to elude me.

My routine is to try to go to bed around midnight, but I'm restless and awake until at least 2, usually 4. During the time between 12 and 2 I get up about three to four times to go to the bathroom. I know I should be "storing up sleep" during this trimester, as if that even works, but instead I feel sleep deprived, draggy, and uncomfortable.  Two years of poor sleep before pregnancy haven't helped either. I'll ask the doc today if she has any advice, but really I just wanted to share some of what has been running through my head during those waking hours when all is not calm, all is not bright.

Of course I'm worried about whether I'll be able to mother a baby again. I saw a newborn baby last week. The tiny-ness! The vunerability! The gaping portal of need! In my head I know I can do it, and I'm trusting the process, but lack of sleep whispers doubt and doom into my head in the night.

Oh, and did I tell you we are going ahead with our kitchen renovation? The one that predates this pregnancy? When we found a great kitchen remodeler last spring, he said he couldn't start the project until January. "That sounds PERFECT!" I replied. "We have nothing going on early next year!"

It doesn't seem so perfect right now, because I am thinking that the third trimester, a house in chaos, and you, know, a possible blizzard or two might push me over the proverbial edge. I don't know. I figured if we waited until after the baby came, we would likely never get around to it, but I'm still apprehensive about the dust, the noise, the lack of a working kitchen for 8 weeks, and how to keep the dogs from being traumatized. I want the kitchen, I just don't want to have to GET THERE, you know, and I feel greedy and "things-y" for bringing this problem on myself in the first place.

Our family likes structure and order, and I think this will be a challenge for all of us, pets included, barreling right up against the biggest game changer of all-- the new baby! Is it too much? I think of all of the Christmas decorations to put away,  a kitchen to pack, furniture to store, and a baby room to figure out, and I wonder why I wanted to redo the kitchen in the first place, when right now I kind of want to torch it all. Then there's the expense. We chose to remodel the kitchen before I found out how much having a baby would cost under our insurance plan. The numbers are staggering. So the thoughts churn as I toss and turn, eventually waddling from bed to bed, couch to chair, hoping to find a comfortable place to sleep. I think the lack of sleep is what caused my shingles to flare up again last week.

Although I am not a morning person, and never have been, I do understand that things always seem brighter in the morning, or at least by mid-morning. Because now it is 10 am, and my be-robed self has a much better attitude than I did in the night. The dogs are snuggled together on a dog bed at my feet, Margaret gets to go to a cookie baking party later, and the temp is in the 50's in December!

And we are NOT going to think these crazy-warm temperatures portend a blizzard on kitchen cabinet delivery day in February, right?