Tuesday Thoughts About...

...renovating.

Well, it's finally happening! The past month has been spent picking out everything, taking measurements, getting bids and placing orders. Things have started to arrive and this week the work has started.

Here's what I think about it:
1. Renovating is not for the faint of heart. It's HUGE! Almost moving huge! Not quite, but almost.
2. It's a ton of work. Whatever you think it's going to be time-wise, double it. I'm talking about the cleaning out part. It's a job for sure and it's HUGE!
3. Hire help. Teenagers are good for that. Save boxes and still you won't have enough.
4. Be prepared for the things that will go wrong---and they will. I think it's some sort of law---"whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!" I don't know who said it, but it's true. Sounds sort of like Shakespeare. Hmmm, maybe he did a renovation!
5. One thing leads to another. No matter how simple you think something is going to be, it will always turn out to be complicated--as in, take the old tile off the wall and suddenly, the whole wall comes down! New drywall going up tomorrow!
6. You really need to know what you want. I do. If you don't have some idea going in, there are so many choices---it would be hard to narrow it down. Lucky for me I always have a "vision." I don't always get to do what I want---due to impracticality---but I know what I want. I wanted a farm sink. Due to the cabinets underneath, I couldn't do it without a major re-do of the cabinets. Still, I'm happy with my old fashioned cast iron sink. I'm gonna love it!
7. The dust is everywhere. Something simple as sawing off the letter holders under the cabinets over the desk caused a big mess. I'm told the dusty part is about over. I'm not sure I believe it as there is the drywall work happening and that's the worse kind of dust!
8. You have to be flexible with food. The stove is gone. There's no water in the kitchen. That means, easy pick up foods or anything microwaveable. I've got it under control. Thank goodness for the bar sink. At least I have running water in the family room. Another good option would be eating out more. But the truth of it is I'm too lazy to go out! Once I'm home, I don't want to go out for food. So far, I've picked up fried chicken which we had Sunday, then used some in a salad for last night, lots of Lean Cuisines and other microwaveable foods, soup, sandwiches and other canned foods. We'll survive.
9. The timeline is going to change for sure. Originally, we were only supposed to be without the kitchen for one week. There's no way. Now we're looking at two weeks---realistically, it will probably be 3. I'll be happy with anything under 4! The painter comes on Thursday. Once the pantry is done, I can start moving things back in. Very excited about that. Butch thinks that's going to be a bigger job. That might be, but it will be fun to have everything re-organized again. Of course, I'll be washing everything before it goes back. That'll be a big job too. Still fun.
10. The cost. Not even going there!

Now for the pictures:

 Here's the before. You can barely see my old window treatments. Christy---my designer---has sold them for me! Yahoo!

As of today, all the cabinet doors are going away. Keeping my brass knobs---maybe I'll use them at the beach.

I have big plans for the desk area that I'm pretty excited about.

 The letter holders are gone. The cabinets on top are going to be glass all the way across. The bottom is going to be raised with trim around the bottom. The desk kneehole part is going to be cabinets. The wall on the back is going to be shiplap (I've been wanting to use that somewhere in the house just about forever). The intercom system is going away as are all the outlets. I'm having one double outlet and switch relocated to the wall on the side. The whole thing is going to be painted a color called "rainwashed". There will be lighting under the top cabinets. I picked out crystal pulls. The counter top will be white marble. My "vision" is that this will look like a piece of furniture. I hope it turns out as good as what I have in my mind.

 So we're doing meal prep and washing dishes in the family room.

 So far so good.

 We've moved everything in to the dining room. I put a couple boxes in the library so we can still have a path to walk around (and look for stuff we end up needing) in the dining room.

 The candle cabinet.

Cleaned out.

We have way too many cups. This is the overflow. The bottom shelf is our poker money. The mail slots were just full of junk. I'm happy to clean out.

 The pantry fully loaded!

Some of the things I anticipating needing. I'll be moving all of this to the family room before Thursday when the painters are due to arrive.

I can't wait to share the "after." Soon---I hope!