"Mommy's New KitKit"

"Mommy's new kitkit" is Reuel's favorite phrase at the moment. Translation: "mommy's new kitchen" for those of you who don't speak toddler. We spent our summer completely remodeling our kitchen. And while I am super pleased and excited about it now that it is practically done, I can't say I would recommend doing something this big with two toddlers and pregnant and a hubby who works full time and doing almost all the work yourselves! All our relationships suffered. We were all stressed out most of the time and no one was feeling any grace for anyone else. So we all behaved rather poorly toward each other. It really needed to be done so our lives can return to the grace-filled-chaos that is our family norm! So that is my only negative to share and now I will move on to the fun stuff.

First off, WHY? Why a kitchen and why now? Well for starters I really do spend half my day in the kitchen. I love to cook from scratch. I'm passionate about REAL food. I love to experiment with things. I've found the kitchen to be a perfect place to combine all my talents and passions and creativity. It's math. It's health. It's art. And seeing as how we have to eat something, it's also practical. Only ... it wasn't practical. My old kitchen was anything but practical. There was no. storage. at. all. I kept half the things that should have been in my kitchen in the basement. The layout made no sense. There was no prep space next to my stove. The fridge stuck out away from cabinets in a corner across from the only drawer large enough for silverware so that the drawer only opened 5 inches before hitting the fridge. My particle board cabinets from the 70s were falling apart. Several shelves were missing and the ones surviving bowed terribly. And the sheer inefficiency of the lay out was maddening. Like "here is a 36 inch wall - lets put a 20- inch cabinet here" Seriously. You would think whoever built the house and put in a 10x10 kitchen would at least realize with a small kitchen you should maximize all the space you've got. But no, no they didn't. Cosmetically, it wasn't too bad. The previous owners had painted the cabinets and made some quick and easy updates to make it more sell-able. And I'm not really the type to care too much about cosmetic stuff. But the dysfunction of it all drove me insane! Anywho, I've pretty much been designing this kitchen for three years. Because anytime I was in it my thoughts would become, "Seriously?! there should seriously be a 36 inch cabinet here" and "Really?! the stove should really be here and the fridge there". Of course I thought it would be years down the road before we saved enough to do it. But then thanks to a generous gift from my parents we figured out we really could pull off my dream kitchen now. Especially if we did everything ourselves and made some wise and frugal decisions along the way. And so we took the plunge ... not knowing I was about to become pregnant. But there was no way I was backing out now!

DEMO TIME! Demo was every bit as fun as it looks on HGTV! I highly recommend for stress relief. We had to tear out one wall to take out a pocket door and put studs in so I would have something to hang my microwave on. This is where my fridge use to be. But we moved it so had to prep the wall behind for cabinets and stove and microwave. It also made electrical work easier. 

My dad came up and did a lot of electrical work for us. I even have outlets inside my cabinets! One I wanted for a charging station for phones, ipads, and things. The other is for a warming light that I will use in the winter next to my keifer to keep my fermenting going. The best part about designing a kitchen is all the little unique details I was able to throw in to make things work for me.

"Oh no what happened to mommy's kitchen!"

I finally got some cabinets! In the end we only paid professionals for cabinets and counter tops. Two things we really couldn't do ourselves.

Michael Paul taught himself to lay tile. YouTube can teach you anything these days!

He did the floors and I learned enough from him to do the back splash.

And he added some "wow factor" with this threshold leading to our family room:

Here I am with a bucket of grout. This is the only picture that proves I actually did something. But I did a lot, folks. A LOT! (but not as much as Michael Paul) Ok Ok. Credit is due. Here are all the things Michael Paul did either completely by himself or with a little help from me (help being I just stand there and hand him tools): He did all the heavy duty demo which included layers and layers of flooring (seriously it was linoleum on top of linoleum on top of plywood on top of linoleum on top of linoleum on top of plywood on top of sub floor - we went down to sub floor), built a wall and dry walled it, redid all the plumbing including rerouting for my new fridge, tiled the floor, installed all the appliances and faucet, patched and sanded walls, built new door frames and window casings and baseboards, and added lots of details to give it a "wow" factor, and I'm sure other stuff that I am forgetting. Not to mention making about 513 trips to Home Depot and putting up with a not so friendly boss (that would be me). I did all the planning, the buying, the phone calls, some demo, some painting, the backsplash, lots and lots and lots of cleaning, and lots of assisting. My dad did all the electrical stuff and helped Michael Paul on some odds and ends and helped me glue the backsplash. And my mom painted and was a huge help in entertaining the kids so we could work!

The Finished Product!

If you're looking for advice:

(And if you are actually still reading this lengthy post, you might be)

Besides my "don't do it" advice I started this post with, I can actually share a lot of helpful hints if you are just crazy enough to "try this at home"

How to maximize space in a tiny kitchen:

1. Run your cabinets all the way to the ceiling and invest in a stepstool. Then keep the things you use least on top

2. Run cabinets as wide as space will allow.

3. Get cabinets with no center stile. You can store really wide things easily.

4. Plan plan plan and know what you want before you order cabinets. I actually wrote down every kitchen item I own, then figured out the best way to store it, then designed my kitchen around my needs. Example: I have a really skinny cabinet that stores my toaster, my mini food processor, and my hand mixer. It's perfect for those three items and uses 7 inches of space without wasting any. There is no wasted space in my kitchen and yet none of my cabinets look crowded.

5. A countertop depth fridge is truly an awesome invention! Your kitchen will look bigger without a big fridge sticking out.

6. An over the stove microwave is also an awesome invention. Clear up counter space.

How to get a high-end kitchen on a tiny budget:

1. Pick out your appliances and then wait for them to go on sale. I had all mine picked out for months and then bought them memorial day weekend during a huge sale. I saved $1000 that way. Then they just sat in my family room in boxes for a month until we could install them. Annoying but saved us a lot!

2. Stock cabinets are your friend! They have come a long way. And they will cost 1/3 as much as custom at least! We are very satisfied with ours. Another bonus: no wait time because they are already built.

3. Granite has come way down in price. It really is more affordable now so don't be afraid to look at the things you thought would be out of your budget. 

4. Be flexible. You might love the tile that is $3.50 a square foot. But that other one that looks similar is only $1.00 a square foot. In the end you will love it just as much!

5. Obviously, do as much as you can yourself. Don't be afraid to learn a new skill. You can pretty much learn anything off the internet for free these days.

6. Be very thankful for your small kitchen. It's smallness is what makes upgrading so affordable. And if you maximize your space, you won't even notice how small it is anymore.

And finally, take care of your loved ones. And when your huge project is finally over, apologize to your family for being so stressed out and rude to them, take your kids on fun outings, give your husband a long healing hug, and when he says, "I think I can dry wall this whole family room myself," kick him in the shins.