At the beginning/middle of August, me and my hunny (who I have to give 95% of the credit to for making this all happen) decided to look into actually buying a home. Having lived together for over three years, paying bucket loads of money out for rent, we were over the moon to discover that being homeowners would soon become a reality.
Now, I must say, I seriously under estimated the process of home buying through a bank. It’s not like car shopping – picking out a pretty shiny one, quick credit check and then you’re on your way, key in hand……No….. it was a lengthy, and sometimes, a hair-pulling process. However, according to our bank representative, our situation went “rather smoothly and quickly”
However, we bought our new home from family, so that was definitely an extra perk. They allowed us to move things in, paint, and basically start on the house whenever we wanted, which we absolutely appreciated considering we were definitely in a time crunch, trying to get as much done to the house before we were actually living in it.
THANKFULLY my hunny knows just about anything and everything about building shit, which has saved us a tremendous amount. Here’s the “Home-Hunny-Do-List”
– Completely remodel the kitchen
– Add an entirely new bedroom (that previously had dirt floors)
– Turn the small bathroom into a laundry room
– Make the small downstairs bedroom into the bathroom
– Put on a new roof
– New paint and flooring in the living room
– Turn the upstairs bedroom into a closet (haha!)
So, it’s been 12 days since we’ve been in the new house and we’re gotten A LOT accomplished. Our first project that we’ve tackled/accomplished has been the kitchen. This was the room that I have been most excited about (come on, what girl wouldn’t be excited about a new kitchen!)
So here’s what the kitchen looked like before we did anything to it
Then we painted and started moving things in. We also cut out the doorway beside the fridge for the new bedroom. You can also see that we started framing up the walls and putting in windows in the second bedroom. I am OBSESSED with the color I picked for the kitchen!! (if you like it too, it’s called Wethersfeild Moss by Benjamin Moore)
We then ordered the cabinets and countertop from Lowes in Potsdam. If you’re planning on ordering kitchen shit from there, ask for Meghan! She is absolutely AWESOME and we loved her!!
Dustin and his dad started ripping out the old cabinets and just when we thought things were going smoothly………………..BLACK MOLD!!!!!
OH-FREAKIN’-NO!!!!!! By this time, you can see that we’ve ripped up the previous flooring and had to take out all of the sheet rock. The kitchen sink had been leaking, which drenched the wall and flooring. (In tears, asking myself, WHAT THE HELL HAVE WE DONE!?) We were scheduled to move in 3 DAYS LATER. Thankfully, all went okay. Dustin ripped down the sheetrock, got rid of all of the mold, and we set up fans to dry out the wood, re-did the insulation and replaced the sheetrock. WHEW!
TA-DA!!!! We did it!! I managed not to have a mental break down and we got the kitchen up n’ running within the week! I did have to do the dishes in the bathroom sink a few nights, but it was completely worth it! Dustin, his dad and our friend, Kenny, literally stayed there all night working to get the cabinets hung and the new flooring down. If you love the flooring too, it’s called Cafe Mocha by Allan + Roth…..and it’s laminate!! 🙂
We installed a new sink (obviously) which is now leak-free! However, we weren’t even sure if the damn sink would even fit! We had 3/4 of an inch to spare….When I picked it out, I thought “well, a kitchen sink is a kitchen sink!” no……there are different widths, sizes, lengths, etc. MEASURE YOUR COUNTERTOP! we just got lucky with this big ol’ honker fitting in there. Apparently, this is like an industrial size sink. It’s super deep and huge. Honestly, I just picked it out because it was one of the faucets where the hose thing pulls right down out of the faucet ( see below) haha!
Haha, don’t you love that little sign on the window sill?
The other issue we (Dustin) faced was this damn microwave!!!! (insert angry face here) I had the pleasure of picking out all of our new appliances, so, thinking that I would save counter space, I picked out a microwave that goes above the stove. Thinking that you just screw it into the wall, plug it in, and BAM!…………no…no no no no no. Now that it’s installed and we’re done with it, I love it, but at one point, I considered throwing it out the damn window. These things are handy in the fact that they have a built in stove-fan and light, but they are a pain in the ass to install. Dustin had to drill a hole in the cabinet above the microwave and install a new outlet because the cord comes out of the top of the microwave……I guess I should have done my research. Anyway, I LOVE how it came out, and I love that it actually pops my popcorn with minimal kernels left at the bottom of the bag 🙂
This fridge was actually left by the previous owners (thanks Alissa & Michael!!) which I love, and conveniently matches the rest of the kitchen…..(ok, I bought the other appliances to match the fridge. Shh! Don’t tell Dusty. haha!) However, the fridge isn’t super tall, and there was an awkward space between the top of the fridge and the ceiling. Lowes didn’t make a cabinet narrow enough to fit into the space (and we didn’t have the funds or patience to have one specially ordered) so I gathered up some knick-kacks and put them up there! It only took me an hour to slightly nudge each piece into the correct spot (thanks OCD) but I am SO happy with how it came out!
And our coffee bar! I’ve ALWAYS wanted a coffee bar (thanks Pinterest) but never had the space for one in the kitchen. So, I knew right away that I would make it happen at the new house! As you can see, we haven’t put on the bottom trim on the wall (which drives me crazy and actually made me contemplate photoshopping the photo lol!) But I am super happy with it! I also had to share a photo of the dish towel that I bought. SO funny!!
Here’s the before & after, side by side! New paint, cabinets, flooring, appliances, countertop and of course, my personal rustic touch! 🙂 I am over the moon happy with how our kitchen turned out. My hunny did such a FANTASTIC job and I can’t thank our family and friends enough for their help!!! Dustin has since then taken a little bit of a break to catch up on sleep and sanity. Our next project is finishing Rileigh’s room. She has has been SO good about having to sleep on the couch (of course, she does get to stay up a little later because Daddy is in the other room using power tools) So I will definitely keep everyone updated on our progress! 🙂
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