Here's our kitchen, pre-addition. It was not a terrible kitchen, but we were very crowded in it. At the time all twelve children were still living at home and, it seemed, spending most of their time hanging out in the kitchen with me! I liked having everyone with me in there, but I constantly felt like I needed to "part the waters" of children when I walked anywhere. We did figure out how to bring an extra oven into the room and basically made the kitchen work, but it was really, really a squeeze.





When we decided to add on to the back of our house I began to collect ideas in a "kitchen planning notebook." We had hoped to begin construction in the fall of 2007, but for various reasons that did not happen. In hindsight I am really glad that it didn't happen then. I think I would have rushed into decisions that I hadn't done adequate research on. We ended up breaking ground in April of 2008, so I had all winter to collect ideas, get bids on work and compare prices on items that we would need.

We broke ground on April 1 of that spring... so exciting!

Then it promptly began to rain! Each time it rained, we had a muddy river running through my basement and laundry area. Yuck! We did finally get the foundation poured though~ so exciting to see some progress happening.



Here we have walls going up.... During this time we continued to have some pretty impressive spring storms~ tornadoes etc. I vividly remember wondering what would happen to that poor south wall which was left standing all by itself (braced of course by some 2x4s~ but still!) if a bad storm came up that night. It did storm and I did pray!

and more walls going up!

The picture is terrible, but what we found was a 1920s 78"long farmhouse sink with double drainboards and both original legs! Wow! It was in desperate need of a new coat of porcelain.

After an embarrassing amount of begging and general groveling I talked a local porcelain business into sandblasting my "baby" and putting a new coat of porcelain on it! Yay!
Here's one more "before" pic of the sink (and cute boys!).....

Things continued to progress...

We still hadn't taken the wall out between the old and new kitchen.


Wait, what is that I see? Could it be children horsing around in the rafters? Surely not!



It really was fun for me to see the room with sheetrock up. For some reason that made it seem more "real" to me. Perhaps the end was in sight after all!


Once the sheetrock was all in place and taped, etc. we had lots of painting to do.

I chose a Sherwin Williams yellow, (banana cream # 6673 ) and I was certain that I had made a terrible mistake once I was done. It looked so.... well, yellow! I remember calling my mom and asking her to console me.... now I love the color!



I can't believe how long I've let this post get! Probably more information than anyone wanted, but I sure had fun reminiscing! So there you have April 1 to August 29, 2008.
Next up... the official kitchen tour/open house for you!
susan
How exciting! Who doesn't love to see makeovers? I can't wait to see part 2.
ReplyDeleteps. love the kid shots..kids in the sink and one licking the brush! It shows your family has a sense of humor!
Susan it is lovely! I enjoyed this post and didn't think it was too long. A picture speaks a thousand words they say and all you pictures are great. They sure "tell the tale"! Amazing where you've come from hey?? Oh, do I ever know about renovations, but is it every worth it in the end! (Did I just write that?!)
ReplyDeleteAND...I love the colour choice ~ it must be so very cheerful in there since the room faces South.
Blessings,
Camille
I am so glad you took the time to share! Each photo is an encouragement to me (we're in the midst of some remodeling ourselves). I can't wait for the "reveal!"
ReplyDeleteOh I love seeing this! Helps me to dream about my own tiny kitchen growing up someday. Can't wait to see the after pics. Keep 'em coming. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love it! My little kitchen seems rather tight, but we laugh when we are all in there together...our lives are full of people! (His greatest creation!) I love the sink and can't wait to see part 2.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I LOVE that sink and confess I want it!!! Beautiful kitchen, and I really think a mom of many children deserves/NEEDS a big, beautiful kitchen. (I hope to have one too, someday!)
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Kathy
Love it! Thank you so much for all the pictures! We have similiar taste and ideas. You guys did an awesome job!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for all the kind and encouraging comments, everybody! I'm glad I didn't bore anybody too badly!
ReplyDelete