Skip to main content

Kitchen Renovation - Part 1

Two (or was it three?) years ago, I started on a kitchen renovation journey that has yet to see its end. Since the beginning when I removed the cabinet doors and began stripping decades of paint from the cabinet boxes, I have had a lot of stops and starts, toyed with different design approaches, and occasionally looked into hiring someone else to do the work.

Slowly but surely, I landed on an master plan and my efforts are starting to come together. And since I haven't posted in ages, I thought I would do a quick in-progress update.

To preface this, my kitchen is the size of the average bathroom. It's a galley-style that is small enough to be annoying if you get more than one person in it at a time (and doubly annoying if you get two people and a dog in it simultaneously). My house was built in 1940 and while it doesn't qualify as a tiny home, it's pretty darn close in my opinion. And this isn't a complaint because I actually love my house, small spaces and all.

The following pictures were taken after I had stripped the paint off of the bottom cabinets but had not yet tackled the top cabinets.


Originally, the backsplash was this speckled pink laminate sheet that was bowing away from the wall. Upon removal, I found a pretty crusty wall behind it that I immediately resurfaced so as to avoid any nightmares of creatures emerging from the creepy wall in the middle of the night to come and kill me in my sleep. The picture below was taken after the wall was resurfaced.


And to the right of the counter and sink shown above is a shallow alcove where the oven is located. This area was also the victim of speckled pink laminate backsplash, which was removed prior to this picture being taken. Under and behind the free-standing shelf unit in the left of this picture was evidence of a previous built-in cabinet that someone before me had removed. This picture was also taken after I had resurfaced the wall in this area.


Lately I have been making some significant progress on my kitchen master plan and will have more pictures to share soon, including pictures of new cabinet boxes built by me in an attempt to recreate what might have been around the stove previously.

Comments

  1. You would tackle about anything wouldn't you, girl? Eager to see more progress! Those bottom cabinets have necessitated a lot of floor time and you were wise to start at the bottom and work up!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intro to Carpentry, or Yes, I Went Back to Class...AGAIN

After creating the cabinet boxes for my kitchen last year, I was inspired to do more. I have worked with wood before, but for some reason this time, the whole process really resonated with me. The smell of the sawdust after making a fresh cut, the sound of the hand planer as it takes thin curls off of the surface, the feel of the wood once it's been sanded and finished...it just made me smile and gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. In addition, I found myself relaxing for the first time that I can remember in decades. My mind went quiet every time I started working, which was pretty amazing to me. I had been so stressed at my previous job for so long that my shoulders never relaxed and my mind was never truly quiet until I picked up my carpentry tools and started really working on my kitchen. After completing the two cabinet boxes, I wanted to do more which meant that I wanted to learn more. I looked around town at all of the options I could find and concluded that the most co...

Two New Chakra Meditations

I have two new chakra meditations now available to you on my channel! The first video includes an explanation of the chakras and a meditation that focuses on observing each chakra within your body. To summarize the chakra meanings and associated colors here:  Crown: Connection to the Universe Third Eye: Intuition Throat: Communication and self-expression Heart: Compassion for self and others Solar Plexus: Strength and drive Sacral: Creativity Root: Stability and safety I love working in the realm of the chakras and invite you to explore different aspects of each one. The second video includes a Qi Gong-inspired meditation that guides you through a process of energizing each chakra. This is a longer meditation but one of my favorites to feel aligned, rooted, and present. I want to thank you for accompanying me on this journey and I look forward to sharing more with you as we move forward. If you would like to schedule a distance Reiki session, please reach out to me at Resonate963...

Two New Videos, Including Energy Sphere Meditation

 I have two new videos to share this week, including my first meditation video that I am calling the "Energy Sphere Meditation". This technique is something that developed from my Qi Gong practice during my massage therapy school days. I consider this my foundational meditation practice, one that I use daily and that serves as the basis for my other meditations, which I will be sharing with you more as this project unfolds. This latest video can be found here . And for those of you who are curious, I have an additional video posted last week which was really more of an exercise in testing equipment. We took a road trip to Cold Springs Park, Iowa and I filmed our walk through the park from the lake near the entrance to the sandy beach of the East Nishnabotna River. Okay, maybe it wasn't the sandiest beach I've ever been to but it was still fun. I am contemplating YouTube as of late but still haven't fully decided if I want to use a more main stream platform. If I ...