Clean Eats Kitchen Renovation UPDATE

Hello friends! I have been getting so many questions on the progress or our kitchen renovation, I felt it would be easiest to answer them all for you here in one post!

Our dream kitchen is well underway!! I realize it seems like this has been dragging out forever. Trust us we know. We started our renovation in the basement. My mom recently moved into our home and we created a beautiful new MIL space for her downstairs. A full kitchen being the highest priority. She loves to cook as much as I do and where my kitchen is basically my office, I needed somewhere to continue working when we tore ours apart!

Having a wet bar downstairs that was already plumbed in made the transition fairly easy! We bought pre fab white shaker cabinets from Home Depot and my husband did the install himself. They look higher end with the solid surface countertop we chose. I also added brushed silver hardware from Amazon to give it a more custom look. I think it turned out great and it definitely serves its purpose.

Once the downstairs kitchen was complete I gave my hubby the green light to start demo upstairs. First up ripping out our corner pantry and home office. Nate removed all of our cabinets himself, kitchen and office, with a little help from our neighbors. We were able to salvage them all and are planning to sell or donate. They were still in great shape!

With the remodel it was so important to me to have more storage space. That meant we needed a larger pantry! The office was moved to our front room (which was wasted space anyways) and we tore down a wall to create a new walk in pantry complete with a Costco door!! This is probably the one thing I’m most excited for!

I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent on Pinterest designing this little space. Pantry organization is a BIG priority for me. If you saw pictures of my previous pantry, you can understand why… such a mess! I will do a post of final dimensions when it is complete. We are still figuring it all out as we go. I managed to talk my hubby into shiplap on the walls to save him from days of sheetrock repairs… I’m sneaky. I love how it turned out!

We are on the hunt for a pantry door. I am leaning towards a sliding barn door with glass that would be mounted inside the pantry? That gives us a little wider opening for walking space. Thoughts?

Removal of our upstairs tile was up next. We will be putting new flooring through the entire upstairs so there was A LOT of tile to come out. We found a dust LESS tile removal company (note the LESS not FREE) and it was worth every penny!! My husband randomly spotted their truck on the freeway one day and called them immediately. This saved him SO much time and hard labor!! They removed all of our tile in one day with very little dust. They attach a vacuum to all of their tools so the dust is hardly released into the air. GENIUS. Thank you to whoever invented this. THANK YOU!

Our cabinets were supposed to be installed this weekend but were delayed until December 8th. At first we were a little bummed with the news, but it has actually worked out for the best. Our timeline is out the window at this point. We still have a lot to do before they can be installed. Does anything ever go as planned with home renovations? I’m learning the answer to that question is NOPE.

Our appliances were delivered today…. about three weeks too soon but were rolling with it. Nate wrapped them in plastic to save them from any dust and they are nestled nicely in my family room. It’s a circus around here.

Next on the list is paint and floors. As soon as the pantry is painted I can start unpacking some of the boxes taking over our house!

The one thing I miss the most is cooking! Yes, we have the basement kitchen, but everything I use to cook with is packed! So we are basically indoor camping and living off eggs, oatmeal, cereal, Instant Pot soups and shredded chicken every possible way. Keeping it simple these days. We’ve definitely eaten out more than I care to admit. That said we are headed to Park City for Thanksgiving. I figured rather than try to pull off a small miracle we would let someone else cook our turkey this year! I will miss the leftovers so if you have more than you know what to do with… send them our way!!

We are currently making more decisions than our brains can handle, living with sub flooring and dust in every nook and cranny. My husband is working his full time job by day and moonlighting as one handsome handy man by night!  This renovation wouldn’t even be possible without him so three cheers for Mr. Clean Eats!!

I’ll answer our most asked questions below! Stay tuned as we’ll be posting more updates as we get closer to the reveal!!

Q and A

1. Are you doing all of the reno work yourself?

No, but we are doing a lot of it! I would say we are close to 50/50. My husband is incredibly handy and OCD so he prefers to do what he can himself. We hired out our cabinets, countertop, electrical, paint and plumbing.

2. Do you have a designer?

Yes. I am working closely with Lindy Allen from 4chairs Furniture. Lindy helped finalize design on our cabinet layout and has supported my style and vision from day one, all while fine tuning the space to absolute perfection! Just check out her feed. It’s GORGEOUS!

3. What is your style?

My style is definitely more traditional while my husband leans towards a more modern look. We met in the middle with a final industrial farmhouse feel. I’m pretty excited about how it all came together!

4. When will your renovation be done?

We are shooting for January 1st. Fingers crossed.

5. What is your budget?

What’s a budget? Just kidding. We started pretty low in hopes we could do most of the work ourselves, but have since doubled that number. A good rule of thumb is 10-15% of your homes value.

6. What is a Costco door and how much was it?

A Costco door is a door leading from your garage directly into your pantry. So you can unload from truck to pantry! It was $250 installed. Worth every penny!!

7. What color and style cabinets are you doing?

We went with a white classic shaker style with a thicker trim. Color is White Dove by Benjamin Moore.

8. What color/brand appliances are you doing?

We fell in love with the sleek look of Kitchen Aid stainless. The lines are modern but timeless.

9. How old is your home?

We built this house 13 years ago.

10. Why remodel instead of a new build?

We love our house! We adore our neighborhood and our kids are rooted here. Yes it would have been easier to build, but the foundation we have built HERE means everything to us.

 

Thanks for following along! I’m excited to share with you our progress!!