Here's how it went:
Me, being the kind of person that gets antsy to change furniture arrangements and paint colors had gotten to that point. Perhaps it was the seemingly never-ending winter that made me a bit stir crazy and longing for change. Perhaps it was spurred by all the great DIY projects on Pinterest. Who knows?
One afternoon in early March, I sent Chris an email saying that I intended to paint the brass on our fireplace, to stain the mantle and paint the wall. Really, I was just warning him of what was to come. It lead to a discussion like this:
If we stain the mantle, then the tile around it will look funny and we (Chris) want to replace it anyway. If we pull out the tile to replace the brass edging around the carpet, we will have to pull up the carpet. If we are going to replace the floor in the living room, we should pull out the wall between the living room and kitchen to make continuous flooring rather than doing the living room and then repeating the process at a later date.
If we were going to take out the wall, I (Janice) would like to add onto the island a breakfast bar. Adding a new counter would require new counter tops so they all matched (and to get rid of the hideous pink countertops that I have loathed for the past 6 years). While we are at it, why don't we put some drawers and a counter under the window where our kitchen table once stood? And since we have a huge pantry in the back hall, we really don't need this little one here. Let's rip that out and, oh, hey, lets move the fridge over where the pantry was and add anther cupboard and counter where the fridge was. Since I'm dreaming up a dream kitchen right now, how about building a wine rack and getting new backsplash too?
We had fun sitting and looking at our cozy little kitchen, dreaming about how we could make it more spacious and modern but I don't think either of us really thought it was going to be realistic.
We have a way of getting excited over things like this and it is contagious. I was dreaming of a fabulous kitchen and I think Chris was thinking of how fun it would be to inflict such destruction on our choppy living space. We dug out the blueprints that we were fortunate enough to have been given when we purchased the house.
There are 2 sets of blueprints for our house- the original plans and the modified plans that the family that purchased the house had done (the ones that made the house the choppy many-roomed maze that it was). Well, would you look at that? It turns out that the plans we just dreamed up in our heads were nearly exactly what were drawn up in the original floor plan for the house. This actually made us more excited for the possibility of doing this- if the original design was for this, then the walls we wanted to take down should (in theory) not be load-bearing or full of heating, plumbing and electric.
The very next day, I headed to Home Depot to get paint for the small project I had in mind- the fireplace and wall. While I was there, I had a look at flooring, tile and paint colors. I might have brought home a stack of samples. I also might have measured and created a drawing of what I had in mind and estimated the amount of tile needed for backsplash. It just may be that I had already decided this renovation was happening.
The fireplace and living room wall before:
And after:
With Chris' bonus due to be given in just a few weeks, I was anxiously waiting to hear of it's arrival. We had decided that IF we were to do the kitchen, it would be completely dependent on the bonus.
Bonus day came and we were thrilled that it meant that not only could we afford to do the kitchen, but that there would be more than enough to cover it. Our taxes were also submitted and we were getting back more than we had dared to hope so we were in a good position.
When it came time to measure for the amount of flooring, I suggested that maybe we think about buying enough flooring to do the entire main floor (apart from the formal living room, bathroom and back hall) so that the flooring was an exact match WHEN we were ready to install it.
Some before photos:
We custom ordered the laminate to be placed on top of the existing countertop (after finding stuff we liked weeks prior then discovering it was out of stock when we needed it), we went and cleared out every box of the laminate flooring that we liked from Lowe's (53 boxes in total- my poor truck!). Somewhere along the line, we also decided to replace the stainless sink we had with a black sink (to match the new counters) and of course, a new faucet. All these were purchased and waiting in the computer area.
We mentioned to family what our plan was and rallied the troops to come the weekend after Easter for a work bee. Our original plan was to do the demolition ourselves in the week leading up to the weekend everyone was coming to help. Instead, Pat came to help the Saturday of Easter weekend and by the end of the day, the walls were down, carpet in the living room and lino and subfloor in the kitchen was ripped out and the garbage hauled out and the now huge space was swept clean.
The boys were eager to help tear down the walls!
The trick would be trying to live in the mess for the next week until everyone came to help put our house back together again. It wasn't my idea of a good time. With a fridge in the living room and a stove moved completely out of the way, cooking was a challenge. There was some slow cooker, some BBQ and a lot of eating out that week.
Throughout the week, Chris worked well into the evening to get some of the smaller jobs done- electrical rewiring, new drywall, and building the base of the breakfast bar.
The weekend of the major work came and work began quickly. With the help of a rented tile lifter tool thingy (that's the very technical term), the dining room and computer room tile came out rather quickly. Oh, did I forget to mention that our "future" plan of continuing the floor at some later date was changed to doing it right then? Turns out that the direction Chris wanted to lay the laminate would require that it all be done at once. No biggie.
My hands were bruised and blistered after pulling so many staples out of the floor!
And it was so very dusty from all the destruction!
By the end of the Saturday, all the old flooring was pulled up, the new drywall was taped and mudded and some of the new flooring was in place.
By the end of Sunday, the flooring was complete (and looked fantastic!), the fridge and stove were in their homes and useable and the new cabinets were in place. If only there were a sink in the kitchen so we didn't have to wash dishes in the bathroom sink!
Pat and Joanne were staying for a few days to get the bulk of the work done. I had to attend a workshop on Monday and sub on Tuesday so I am so thankful that they were here to help Chris on the days that Chris had taken off work. Joanne was such a help in preparing crockpot meals for each day and keeping the boys occupied when she wasn't helping where she could in the kitchen. Pat and Chris worked so hard from the moment they woke up until they fell into bed in the evening. Without my fabulous in-laws, there is no way we could have gotten the amount of work done in such a short time. Plus, it was nice to have them stay with us for a few days- something that almost never happens. And just to throw in a little bit extra, we were also dog-sitting for our friends that were in Florida for two weeks.
On Monday there was new countertop on the bank of drawers and the counter on either side of the sink. By Monday afternoon, I even had a sink! Tuesday saw more of the countertops finished. I don't think any of us anticipated the installation of the counters to be such a time consuming task!
Chris returned to work for a few days and on Friday Pat and Joanne returned to help with the last of the major jobs- the counter tops and to finish the mudding and taping. Luca and I had to attend his Beavers Sleepover at the Telus Spark Science Centre and I was delighted to come home Saturday morning to another countertop done! Oh, and throw in there a starter that went on Chris' car the Thursday morning as he was getting ready to leave for work just to make it a bit more interesting!
By the time a snow storm blew through on Saturday afternoon, forcing Pat and Joanne to head home early, all but the breakfast bar had new countertops and the walls were ready for paint. I helped Chris attach the breakfast bar that evening and finally the kitchen looked like it was more finished than not!
Sunday morning Chris left early to get to the airport for his flight to Houston. While he was away, even with a minor mishap involving 3 gallons of the wrong shade of paint, I managed to get the kitchen and living room entirely painted. With just weekend projects left to finish the details, our kitchen was nearly done and we are loving it!
After about 6 full days of work spread over 2 weeks, we (Chris and Pat and brothers mainly) transformed our small kitchen and living room into one large, bright space! Left to do are smaller projects: reinstall the baseboards, install new toe kicks under the cabinets, modify and hang a new upper cabinet and wine rack and someday scrape and re-texture the ceiling to blend the patched areas where walls once stood.
After living here for nearly 6 years and often dreaming of a new kitchen and larger living space, we finally have it and love it!
Coming this summer (hopefully): the remainder of the tile removed from the pantry/ back hall area and replaced with linoleum and new countertops and lino in the bathroom.
Oh, and the tile around the fireplace? It stayed and looks great! ;)
