Kitchen Renovation: Before Photos

I think I’ve been pinning and sharing images, sketching layouts, and dreaming of our kitchen redesign for YEARS. Even when I didn’t live here and this was just Josh’s house, I was walking around slab yards looking at counter options knowing that this day would one day happen for us lol. Yes, my friends the time has come to FINALLY start our kitchen renovation. This is going to be an incredibly busy yet exciting few months for us and this house and things are happening quickly. We’ve actually already started demo AND the electrician will be here this week to rewire our kitchen! But before we jump right into the design and plan (which I’ll share in another post), I wanted to share some before photos to give you a visual of the kitchen we’ve been living with all this time.

Layout

We’re going to try and work with the existing layout as best we can, but one thing that will def be changing is the giant effing wall that sits right smack in the middle of the house. Our dining room and living room are on the other side of this wall and the main issue I have is that it’s a complete #lightblocker (Do you see how dark these photos are??) If you follow along on Instagram, then you’ll know that we installed a big beautiful slider window in our bonus room. It gives us so much natural light and a front row view of the backyard oasis that Josh is building (more to come on that at a later date). Unfortunately, we can’t even enjoy the bright natural light from the window from any other area of the house thanks to this wall obscuring everything I love. We definitely plan on addressing this area

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, our double arches are staying put people! I only say this with an exclamation mark because our neighbor keeps “advising” us to take it down and I’m so offended by this suggestion! Not only would we lose precious storage and counter space if we removed it and opened this up, but we’d also lose the character of the house. Something I’m not willing to sacrifice.

Appliances

Our kitchen is tiny, and the current layout is organized in way that gives us appliance on top of appliance. Meaning, when you walk into the room you’re greeted with the stove, then the dishwasher, then the sink. Our stove is pretty old and outdated, but to be honest it’s a workhorse and has never let us down. Outside of just being ugly, the only thing that ever bothered me about it was its location. When you open the oven door it blocks the entire main entrance! It feels like such a safety hazard to me just cooking anything, especially with young kids that come running down the hall and around this corner excited about the smell of whatever is baking. I mainly only use the back burners in fear that one of my gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches will spill and burn whoever is walking by…lol okay I’m clearly not the main cook in the house. But maybe, just maybe by having a dedicated cooking area away from the chaos that comes through this door, I can use that space to practice cooking new recipes and unlock a hidden talent.

Also, our current fridge is a huge (36”) standard depth beast that protrudes into the middle of the kitchen and even pass the wall that it’s on. The vegetable drawers are cracked so badly that they sag and are legit hanging on for dear life. It also always makes this weird popping noise when it gets started (kind of like popcorn popping)…maybe it’s just stretching and its old bones are cracking.

Cabinets + Counters

Hello missing cabinet door. Greetings awkward space between the uppers and ceiling. Oh hi there, random ceiling trim. Shall I continue? I think you get the point. Our kitchen cabinets, hardware and the overall placement of everything needs some work. We’re missing out on precious storage and organization opportunities and as much as I love storing my crock-pot, flower vases, and air fryer in plain sight on top of the cabinets (sarcasm) I think extending our uppers to the ceiling would provide a more seamless and less cluttered look.

Our current counters are vinyl (?) I think…I don’t what they are to be honest, but I do know that they 1). look like hardwood floors 2). hate water and 3). flake. We had to put a piece of duct tape along the bottom of the counter above the dishwasher because anytime we opened or closed it, little pieces of the cabinet would flake off onto the floor, dishwasher, or dishes.

Floors

What? You don’t like brown “marble” floors? (Okay they’re vinyl). Annnnd of course our floors aren’t level so there’s that. We’re actually still finalizing some of the design/cosmetic decisions, including the floor. The main issue I’m having is that the tile we choose needs to transition into the bonus room as well (which is a super high traffic area). We’ve been living with cement backerboard in that room for quite some time, because I just can’t make up my mind! This has been the toughest decision and I’ve reached a point where I think I need some expert advice. Thankfully, installing the floor can be one of the last things we do, so I still have time to decide.

Pantry

So we actually don’t have a dedicated space for a pantry and we’ve been struggling to find one. This shelf-turned-pantry started off in our laundry room, then we renovated our laundry room and moved it into the bonus room, then we renovated the bonus room and moved the pantry into the kitchen. Now it’s time to start the kitchen renovation which means we need to move this to the bathroom…wait what? Kidding, it means we can finally design and build a real pantry area for our food and have this second entryway cleared out. Bring on even more open space and light!

I’m excited but I also feel super nervous and almost sick to my stomach about this whole thing. Is that normal? We ordered our fridge and stove the other day and I swear I almost threw up lol taking on a kitchen renovation is a HUGE project and I guess I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to get the design just right. Anyways there’s no turning back now.