So, I can’t even tell you how many years I have fantasized about walking into an appliance store and picking out new appliances for my kitchen. It’s kind of a nerdy thing to fantasize about, but I have honestly spent countless hours doing it.
Right before my birthday in December, my husband and I were driving home from “town” when he looked over at me from the driver’s seat and said, in a very serious tone, “I have to tell you something”. My first thought was, “This is gonna be bad”. My second thought was, “Shit, he’s gonna tell me he actually voted for Trump instead of just teasing me that he was going to and now we’re getting a divorce”. In my head, I had already gone to “Where am I going to live? My life is over.” He quickly brought me back to reality by telling me that he’d been talking to the bank, and starting in the spring we are going to build the master bathroom we have been talking about since we moved in to our house. AND we’re getting new kitchen appliances. AND we’re rebuilding the front deck and stairs. AND we’re painting the exterior of the house. AND we’re getting new windows. AND we’re getting new flooring upstairs. AND, if we can make it work, we’re getting a spa out on the back deck. Needless to say, I did not believe him. I really thought he was messing with me, and I thought it was really mean. As the shock and disbelief subsided and it finally set in that he was telling me the truth, I started screaming, and I may have cried a little. If you guys have read my other blog post about my home, you know how important my home is to me. How long and how often I have dreamed about the projects I want to do to the house, and how unlikely it would be for my husband to be telling me we were going to do ALL of the projects. ALL OF THEM!
Just for the record, my husband did not vote for Trump (nor would he ever).
Since December, we have been planning and planning and re-planning various arrangements for the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, the front deck and stairs. It’s kind of become our Saturday morning ritual. He gets up at 5 am, stokes the fire, plows the driveway, goes on a 2 mile snowshoe walk with the dog, comes inside and brings me coffee in bed as I’m waking up and we spend the next hour or so penciling out different designs and ideas. It’s been the best winter of my life so far, guys. Also, how amazing is my husband?
Everything has not been finalized with the bank yet, so we have not financially committed to anything, but we have gotten a bid on the windows we need to replace or add, and we’ve priced out the kitchen appliances. I’ve also priced out some soaker tubs for the master bath, though I’m hoping to find a vintage cast iron claw foot. Those are pretty much the only solid costs we have nailed down so far. We’ve looked at different flooring options for upstairs, but have not made a decision yet. I’m leaning towards engineered wood, but we’ll see. A lot of the design decisions will depend on the cost of the projects as we start to bid them out and add them up. What’s very important to us both is to plan the projects with the environment in mind. That will mean buying energy efficient appliances, eco friendly materials wherever possible, and buying things of quality that will last. If doing so means that we have to wait on one or more of the projects, I’m okay with that. Luckily, my husband is very handy and his dad is a contractor. We’re planning to do a fair amount of the work ourselves which will help us save on labor costs.
Since we’re in a holding pattern right now until everything is finalized with the bank and the funds come in, I’m trying to restrain my excitement. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been pinning things to my Remodel board on Pinterest multiple times a day, though. What’s been most interesting to me through this process so far is that, even though I’m super excited about these projects, I also know that I’m totally going to be okay if, for some reason, it doesn’t end up working out. There’s an underlying calm to it all. A healthy detachment. For that, I am most grateful.
My ideas for the design aesthetic of my remodeled home are mostly in line with the design we already have going on in the interior of the house. I have a mid century modern thing going on, mixed with 70’s bohemian and some rustic elements as well. I guess I would call it “mid century bohemian cabin in the woods”. We’re going very dark for the exterior paint (like almost black) and will have natural wood elements from the deck/porch and front door. The upstairs will most likely have continuos flooring throughout (with the exception of the bedrooms, which we had re-carpeted when we moved in – I like carpet in the bedroom since it’s so cold here in the winter). The sunroom will get tiled and the walls will be painted. We’re opening up the kitchen some by removing the L-shape in the counter and taking some walls down. My plan at this point is to do stainless steel Kitchen Aid appliances, white subway tile, keep the original wood cabinets, and build some bench seating for the breakfast nook. If the budget allows we will switch out the pink Corian countertops for white. The pink is definitely going, though. We’ll also be getting a new sink and faucet. Probably a stainless under mount, although I’m toying with the idea of copper.
The master bath is veering off a little from the rest of the house, as I’m leaning towards a black and white color scheme. I’m hoping that with the natural elements of the cabinetry (or countertop) and wood door leading outside, it won’t look too modern. I feel like the vision has been in my head for so long that the design elements have been relatively easy to put together. The hard part is all of the details that you don’t think about until you’re actually measuring and planning the layout of the space. We had originally wanted to put the washer and dryer in the master bathroom (they’re currently downstairs in a laundry room that you can only get to through the garage), but as we started penciling it out, it was just too cramped with a stand up shower and a soaker tub. I have not been able to enjoy a bath since we moved here, so I’m not willing to compromise on my dream bath. It’s something I used a lot in our Portland home and I really miss it. Now that we know the washer and dryer are not going in the bathroom, we are still debating where the best place is to put them. No final decision yet, but we’re leaning towards building a closet for them in the hallway behind the kitchen. My only concern is how much space it will end up cutting from the kitchen.
I’m cautiously optimistic about the entire project and will be posting updates as the remodeling begins.
If you’d like to check out my Remodel board on Pinterest, have a look here. And if you have any tips or advice from your own remodeling projects, please feel free to share!
