Renovation journey

We've been some busy bees these last couple of months and they have been stressful and exciting and hard and fun and pretty much every emotion you can feel. Back in June before we found out that we were expecting another little one we decided to start the journey of house renovating. It was something we have wanted to do since we moved into our house almost six years ago. All last year we saved and saved and saved so we could do this renovation. We started by removing the massive fireplace that was cutting off our kitchen from our family room. It was a useless fireplace that smoked when used and leaked water in the winter. Our house is a smoke free zone so the option was get rid of that ugly fireplace. I love watching the DIY channel and have always wanted to try to open up my old house and make it a open concept.

 Eden posing in front of our old fireplace.

The result from opening the living room and kitchen up.

Our house feels so much bigger but the truth is we only gained about 20 square feet. But the illusion gives it that bigger feeling.

Then we scraped the popcorn off the ceiling. Can I just say I do not like popcorn ceilings they are a pain to scrape and clean off.

Our new orange peel ceiling

clean and fresh

The next step was to demo our hall closet and linen closet and build a laundry closet. My washer had sat in my kitchen since we moved into our house and the dryer in the garage. Laundry was always tough and at first I couldn't envision taking out my linen closet and coat closet because I was loosing so much storage and in a house that is short on storage that was a tough choice but our contractor talked us into it. So we demoed and boy was that a tough job. To save on costs we did all the demo work in the house with the exception of the fireplace. That was a more complicated job so we left it to the pros.

 my old coat closet and next to it was the linen closet.

Now my beautiful wash closet. all my linens and cleaning supply's fit nicely in my upper cupboards. I'm so grateful for a ward member who pretty much held my hand through this whole process but who also acted as our contractor. He had the vision and helped us to see that vision.

 My beautiful daughter featuring our not so beautiful old kitchen with the old 1961 metal cabinets. What you see it pretty much all the cabinets I had with Eden standing by the fridge. Our pantry was located in the dining area across the kitchen and it held very little food storage.

 Now our finished kitchen. Our kitchen had a great space to work with and there was little to no mold. We had some amazing bones to work with and we are so happy with the outcome. We learned so much. Jason did all the drywall and tileing we were pushed out of our comfort zone but came out of it with a better knowledge of construction and more appreciation for the job.

The second picture is of my  floor to ceiling pantry with a child lock so my children have to ask me for snacks and treats. 

We are not totally done we still have paint and flooring and baseboards to do but as in any project it will come in time. More specifically before the baby is born but not right now. 

We need a rest

Here are some of the pictures that I took during the renovation.