Kitchen Makeover: Part 1 (Before)

When we bought our house we knew we would have some work to do in the kitchen.  The cabinets were in decent shape but the dark wood and dated hardware weren't really working for us. And after reading this post from Young House Love we felt like somebody was watching us too.

Notice anything missing? Where's the dishwasher?  After living in an apartment (sans dishwasher) while going to grad school for two years, a dishwasher was an absolute must for us.

The very vintage wallpaper will be was first to go.   My mom and I spent several weekends working on peeling up all the wallpaper in this room.  Did you know your arms get quite a workout from wallpaper removal?  We were so glad this was the only room with wallpaper; it was so tedious!  Matt ripped out the back deck, busted up a sidewalk, and removed all the old shingles from the roof (with help from both our dads) in the time it took my mom and me to finish removing the wallpaper!

 

We did not know what to make of the strange wall with the railings.  This wall divided the kitchen from a living/dining space and made the kitchen feel dark, cramped, and confined from the rest of the house.  We envisioned a large and open kitchen that flowed into the neighboring room which we plan to use as a dining room/extra living space.

Our kitchen checklist looked like this when we started:

So far we have finished the wallpaper removal, purchased new appliances (not yet delivered), selected countertops, and we finally finished painting the kitchen cabinets!   Some projects we felt more comfortable leaving to the experts and our contractor handled those for us (especially taking out a wall!). We can't wait to share more details as our kitchen starts to come back together.

xo
Steph

Apartment Dwellers to Homeowners.

Our home search ended much differently than it began. We began looking for a move-in ready home.  We quickly realized that even the "move-in ready" homes we saw needed updates (in my opinion at least) but it would have been a stretch for us to afford those updates when we were shopping at the top of our budget (i.e I'm still in grad school). We ended up deciding on a house that needed a new roof, exterior siding, and some  many updates inside as well but the listing price was much below our initial price range.  Here's a photo from the listing.

We I was immediately drawn to photos of small cottage houses for inspiration for our home renovation. I could picture the house with an entrance that would draw the eye to the front door and sweet details like board and batten shutters and a window box that would soften up the look of the house.  This house in particular inspired our renovations.  The dark gray siding looks so sharp against the bright white trim and black shutters.  This house looks so inviting and I love the way the eye is drawn directly to the brightly painted front door.

 

Renovation Inspiration

What cottage home would be complete without a pretty window box?  Here are some of the pretty window box inspiration photos I found:

 Southern Living

Plow & Hearth Window Box

Board and batten shutters are not something you see frequently on houses in our area but for our house I couldn't imagine any other type of shutter fitting more perfectly. These shutters look so pretty and romantic on the right home. I think part of their appeal is that they are so unexpected and have an Old World charm.

 Board and Batten

Board and Batten Shutters

And here we are a few days after closing on our first home.  We hope the next time we pose for a picture in front of our home it will look and feel much different!

xo
Steph