Slow and Steady Wins the Race...

Right? That's what I keep telling myself when it comes to remodeling our house. We started this about 4 years ago. Our house was not in desperate need of remodeling. In fact, we built it and picked out almost everything in it about 9 years ago. As a matter of fact, in what has to be a record setting design feat, I picked out every fixture, color, and finish in less than one day. This was our first home, so I really hadn't even had a chance to play around and figure out what I really liked as far as my style. So at the end of the decision making marathon, the result was a whole lot of neutral, and a kitchen that looked a lot like one of my friends. I followed the design of her kitchen not so much because I felt like it was my style, but because it was a warm comfortable kitchen and she was a good friend and I wanted to feel that in my kitchen.


After a few years in our house, I discovered southern living, country living, cottage living, house beautiful, design blogs, etc. I would just devour all of it. Tearing out magazine pages, saving pictures in folders on my computer that I loved, until I finally figured out that my house was not me at all. I also realized, that there were some things about the design of our house that didn't work for me. Like how crowded or kitchen and living room always felt.

I immediately wanted to do something about it. I started in the kitchen. Budget was a huge concern...My husband is a youth minister, I am a stay at home mom, and we have three kiddos. We are blessed beyond measure BUT we did not have thousands lying around for contractors and such. I was a little discouraged because my husband and I were NOT handy. The most we had ever done in the way of home repair was change a light bulb. Fear cost us a lot of money and kept us from even considering figuring things out on our own. I actually paid a plumber $90 to change a washer in a leaky faucet.

That really irritated me. I mean really. I could have done that on my own for like five bucks saved myself $85.


Sooooo...after much encouragement from all the mommy diy bloggers, and an outrageous amount of research, I started pulling down the wall paper in the kitchen. After that, it was katy bar the door!!!

It was slow going though. We really had no budget and with three little ones running around, we would just squeeze projects in where we could. Here are some "in between" pictures. Our kitchen looked like this for a couple of years!!!! It really makes us appreciate the work and the end result!
This was the second major step. First the wall paper went. Then we painted the dark cabinets white. A HUGE step in making the kitchen bigger and brighter.The kitchen with the wall paper removed and the desk and book shelf ripped out. Those two things really just contributed to the clutter and crowdedness.


In this picture, I was thinking open shelving...that eventually started to bother me, so I just got the doors back out and put them on. The island...i was looking for a pop of color and a country feel. I decided it was too much of both.



Now, we had pulled up the linoleum, because we had taken out a built in desk and book shelf that never got used and there was a big hole in the flooring. I knew I eventually wanted tile or wood so we just pulled it all up. We had to scrape the adhesive off the floor. Hardest work I have ever done. Then, as a temporary solution, I painted the floor. I had read where lots of people have done this. It did not work for us. At all. It was tacky and gross. And I had to scrape that off the floor when we finally had the tile.

I saved money a made from cutting hair and we reserved a large chunk of our tax return and we finally have an (almost) finished kitchen that is truly me and fits my family's needs.
I wanted it to feel bigger and brighter. In the old kitchen, while the colors were warm, it felt to cluttered and dark. Also with the island and dining table, there was just not a lot of room to move. For a long time, I wanted to take out the island and put in a huge dining table. I was scared though because I knew that islands were a big selling point. On all the hgtv shows, islands are a big deal! But it just wasn't working for me. And we have to live here. That was my first step towards decorating my house for me and my family and not for "them". And boy do we love it! This is exactly what I wanted my kitchen to be used for...a place for fun:

We took out the island, we built that table (probably our proudest moment :))...the only thing we didn't do ourselves in the kitchen was have the walls sprayed with texture. We tiled, painted, demoed, all of it.

The biggest thing left to do in the kitchen, is move some lighting around. I want a chandelier over the table. I can't wait to do it!

So back to the title of this post...Slow has been the theme of this renovation. If you are one of my 14 followers ;) and you get discouraged because your friend had new cabinetry, carrera marble counter tops, and hardwood floors installed in her kitchen over the weekend and that leaves you feeling a little frustrated, maybe even envious...know that I have been there too. It took us 3 years to "update" our kitchen and I still have my old cabinets and my laminate countertop. BUT, the blessings that have come from our experience have been numerous. We have no debt due to our renovations, we have acquired new skills and gained confidence, and aaron and I have had tons of fun working together in that kitchen. You can't buy those memories people!