OFFICIAL HOME REMODEL POST #1
When we bought our house last july, one of if not the main reason, besides us actually liking it and the price, was that it was livable right off the bat. We could move our stuff in one day, and start our lives the next. No major things that didnt work or large holes in the floor, roof, etc. One of the fun parts that I have half enjoyed, is being able to redo and update the whole house. The benefit of this is that we can totally make this house our own, but in doing so, we are not necessarily on a time contraint to do it all at once. So slowly but steadily, over the last 12 months, we have taken on certain projects around the house to update it. Although we have done several things already, the project I will focus on today is our kitchen. The kitchen is pretty small, and without a seperate dining room, we are forced to have our eating table in there. We also have no pantry for food. To remedy the no pantry issue, we had to use one of the cabinets in our kitchen as a panrty. By doing that, we lost space to put all our new dishes we got from crate and barrel as wedding gifts. So to remedy that, we bought a china cabinet from IKEA off craigs list. We then upgraded that china cabinet with another one from IKEA to match our kitchen table which we bought back in march. Basically what im trying to say is, theres no room in our kitchen. Another issue with our kitchen was the dishwasher. The thing is, we didnt have one. (well, technically we did. it was me) This catches us all up to the holiday weekend of July 4th when my in laws find a great deal on a brand new fridge, and being the loving parents they are, offer us there moderately used old one. Of course we accept. How could we, and by we I mean my lovely wife, turn down a fridge that has an automatic ice maker! You see, Julie loves ice in her drinks, and the fridge we had, did not make ice at all. So an automatic ice maker had the potential to make her dreams come true at the least, and at the most, solve world hunger. So I rush the measurements and turns out, our new fridge doesnt fit in our kitchen. Its 3 inches too wide. Problem? sort of. You see, we had already bought a new countertop and it was sitting in our basement. We had a new dishwasher sitting in our garage. I take some more measurements, this time more precisely, and it looks like if we install all of those things, we can make room for our fridge. Immediately the kitchen remodel jumped to the top of our list. This all brings us to Saturday. For almost a month now, we have this huge black refridgerator sitting out in our already to small kitchen, plugged in, working and in use, minus julies precious ice maker. My dad and I tore our the old counter top, ripped a cabinet underneath the counter to make room for the dishwasher, installed a garbage disposal, redid the pvc plumbing underneath the sink, put in a new countertop, and then ripped out another cabinet to make room for the fridge. It now fits, and although it isnt completely done, we have a dishwasher that works (a.k.a. my new best friend) and a fridge that makes its own ice (a.k.a. julies best friend). We still have to put a new cabinet up and redo the backsplash. Somewhere in the 12 1/2 hours my dad and I spent working saturday, I took an hour long break to the ER to have my finger super glued. I sliced it on the bottom edge of the sink precisely 1 minute after my dad leaves for the hardware store. This took two days and only three trips to Lowes. Enjoy the pictures. More to come soon.
Tommy
