Kitchen

"Address this mess"

I'm really glad I decided to order the cabinets already painted. It was, by far, the biggest shipment we've received yet and storing it for longer than we had to was not really an option. Just previous to getting these in, I rented a small storage unit that's nearby. It was one of the best decisions I've made since we bought this house. For the last 4 months, our garage has been a non-stop exchange of new supplies and cardboard shipping boxes - one in, one out. I'd clean and organize the garage on Sunday and by Wednesday it'd be unusable again. Since the storage unit, we can walk around our garage as needed. It's a luxury.

The arrival of the cabinets motivated me to keep that space useable so I jumped right into removal of the old cabinets.

The Original Kitchen with old flooring

Prior to getting the cabinets, we completed a few tasks. We hired a crew to remove the old flooring and install the new tiles. The new floors made an impact immediately, it was the first thing we did when getting the house. I removed all of the old baseboards by hand, then hired a crew to install the new flooring I picked out. I knew I wanted durable material and warm tones. We went with Cali Aqua Tough Luxury Vinyl Flooring, and even sprang for extra padded underlayment. Removing the baseboards myself saved me around $700 and only costs me 2 days of neck pain and months on months of slowly reinstalling the new ones myself. Still at it.

Moving in the first week

Removing the old cabinets was not too horrible. I scrapped myself a few times but overall, was able to work out what I needed to do. I do have an extra set of hands around if I need some help with extra heavy or awkward things. Oh, and all while removing them, I had to be clever with storage, which we were already short of. We also needed a place to make coffee, which is essential for being.

Organized chaos

Months before starting the cabinets, I changed out our hanging lights. This made almost as big of an impact as the floors, in my opinion. It went from looking an industrial breakfast room to una hacienda. I really started to enjoy the vibe in here.

Adding Warmth

Ripping out the cabinets went quicker than I expected. The only difficult part was the sink and sink cabinet. It took time to remove the in and out lines, and separate the sink from the counter, and the counter from the cabinet. I had to break it just so I could lift it. Installing the new sink and reconnecting the new garbage disposal took a lot of effort. I hadn't really done any plumbing before this so I was learning as I was going, but it's been a fun process, except for the additional neck pain from long poses in odd directions. Half the battle of home improvement is finding the trifecta of time, energy, and resources.