It All Started with the Kitchen

We thought we could live with our kitchen for awhile until the cabinet doors started falling on my very pregnant head. Solid plywood doors came off their hinges constantly and we decided to go ahead and renovate. I was still working a bajillion hours a week so we interviewed and hired a contractor to do the renovation.  I wish I knew what I do now about DIY, because I would never renovate a kitchen that way again.  It can be done so much cheaper with the same or better results as long as you have patience and time.  You don’t even need to do anything yourself, but finding your own contractors and acting as the GC (General Contractor) can save you a bunch of moolah.

We ended up ditching the contractor towards the end of the project for everything from the tile to the counter tops to the built-ins and we ended up with a kitchen we love!

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I will share a lot with you about doing your own kitchen remodel, but for now, know that this renovation gave me the DIY bug and made me the tool girl I am today.  So in that way, I am thankful for the contractors that made me cry and doubt what I knew I wanted.

Before we could actually do anything in the kitchen, we had to support the ceiling with a wall that had been removed and support the floor with a new staircase and beams in the basement.  That was a whole bunch of fun times on the wallet!  Sophia was a huge fan of the giant piles of drywall in our new framed opening.

Not only did we need to add a wall, but because we decided to extend the kitchen past where the original wall was, we actually removed a window.  That gave us room for a banquette where we spend a lot of time eating and doing projects. I still need to build a trestle table to make it easier to get in and out, but this work for now and no one cares how beat up it gets.  I love books in any room and the kitchen is a great place to show off some vases and of course, keep the cookbooks.  This bookcase and bench was built by a carpenter here in Charlotte for 10% of what contracting firms quoted us.  The entire bench has storage inside.  Much needed in an old house with limited closets and no real pantry.

It always stinks to remove light but here it was just the right move.  Besides, we still have 1 window with a fabulous window treatment that I absolutely adore! Yeah baby, it is a linen with an orange velvet damask.  Bonus…it was salvage from someone’s large order and was remnant fabric!

The window is not missed and you can see here we gained about 4 feet in the kitchen.  We did have to re-do the floors in the kitchen (you can see they run different ways) but they were original to the house and had been sanded so many times that they were too thin to sand again.

In the extra space we gained across from the table we added a bar / storage area.  We also moved the door to the kitchen so that it was directly across from the door on the other side of the hallway.  Small change but it made a huge difference!  You can see how the door now looks straight across into what is now our laundry and mud room.  Before it was off by about 2 feet.

Here are a few pics of the renovation.

We ditched the contractors after the cabinets and electrical were in so we went out and found an awesome granite installer and chose a gorgeous piece of white Carrera marble. When they got it off the truck it was cracked right where the sink hole was.  I was devastated.  I searched high and low for another piece that large with very few grey veins and came up empty handed.  All of the warehouses said it would be months before he next quarry deliveries to the Southeast.  With my second child Miles due any day, I had to make another choice.  We went with black honed granite and we are very happy.  It is perfect because I am not a huge fan of the shiny stones and like the marble I wanted, this has no sheen.  It is smooth and simple and elegant.  As a bonus, it happens to come in HUGE pieces so we have only 1 seam in the whole kitchen and it is not on the island.  Wahoo!

I did finally get my white Carerra too.  It went on the back splash in subway tile form.  Subway tiles are perfect for a craftsman house and white marble is perfect for me!

Our kitchen shows off 3 of the main colors in our home.  We definitely have a mood board that is helping us to make decisions around here.  Grey and black are my neutrals and one my punches is orange! It is so bright and sunny and little pops of it just make me happy.

I hope you like the kitchen, but remember, your house is all about you so I won’t worry if it is not your thing.  What we want to do is find ways to make our homes a reflection of us.

I will share all of my kitchen knowledge but please go ahead and share your renovation stories too.  Good or bad.  Kitchen renovations are hard but worth it.  We had some sort of makeshift counter I made from one of the old cupboards in the dining room, a hot plate and a microwave for MONTHS!  Misery loves company, so share away!

Oh, this is the very first post here at Tip Top Nest so thank you for stopping by.  I would love to share more home renovations but this site will also have home maintenance tips, tutorials and design advice.  Please consider subscribing and start to get your home in Tip Top shape this year!