Remodeling Dreams

Blast from the past… post updated 2018 before our move to rural America:

I heard that Pledge was doing a “Pledge to Love Your Kitchen” contest – one in which a $15,000 gift card from a major home improvement retailer to help update their kitchen… and a year’s supply of Pledge to help make it shine.

Doesn’t that sound dreamy?

What would I do with 15,000$ in my kitchen?

* It would be extra cool if they sent those Design on a Dime folks in – and someone with carpenter skills. Because the problem with my kitchen is that my back door is right in the way of my table… and on the other side of the table is a long, shallow 2-door pantry. I would have a HUGE oversized island built that had bar-seating on one side for the kids and LOTS of storage under it – to replace my rickety antique table and give us more room for the tools we need to cook. I’m thinking something using antique materials (old glass refurbished cabinet doors) and something really blocky and solid would be perfect. The more rustic looking, the better. (estimated 350$)

UPDATE: We solved this problem with a 150$ movable “island cart” with storage under it, a small flap-up bar on the back side and stools to keep the extra eating space. Seriously, this update was 150$. The extra tools went in the pantry when the dry goods went into jars up above the counters in those wasted areas up there.

* I’d love to have the funds to refloor the kitchen (and subsequently the downstairs because it all flows together in that ‘open concept’ look) and put in shinier counter tops. My plan? Rip out the builder carpet/nasty plastic and stain the concrete. (estimated 4K)

UPDATE: It cost us just under that amount to do the floors, but it was for the entire downstairs, not just the kitchen – since my husband layed the tile himself. It would have cost double that, if we had paid labor. We went with wood-look ceramic. Love it so!

* The light fixtures would HAVE to go – replacing those would really make the kitchen pop (and the dining room). (estimated 450$ – cuz, chandeleirs are my fave)

UPDATE: The kitchen fixtures were never gotten to, but were on my list before we stopped renovating to sell. We decided it was better to save money and use it when we moved because the home we are moving to needs much more renovating than this one.

* The cabinets could be updated with just a little antiquing and some top molding – maybe some hardware. A few could even have chicken wire or some other type of mesh put in to replace the doors… and lights could be added for a decorative touch. (estimated 150$)

UPDATE: Not done, sadly… and it was a big one on my list! I was going to put in granite, though, which would have been way more than 150$!

* I would put in some fancy cabinet features such as roll outs and lazy susans to make getting things out of cabinets and the pantry much easier. (estimated $300)

UPDATE: Nope. Used what we had. Made do.

* I would add a pot rack above my kitchen window and put in a curtain that matched on both kitchen windows. (estimated 175$)

UPDATE: IKEA kitchen pot rack… and we never did get around to those curtains during our “cowgirl renovations“.

* I would upgrade my dishwasher, fix my ice-maker, and put in a water softener system so we would stop losing appliances (worried about the new washer upstairs if we don’t get the softner soon). And of course, at the sink – a reverse osmosis filter for drinking would be put in to save us a ton of money on plastic bottled waters (which in turn would be a really GREEN thing for the environment). (estimated 3,500$)

UPDATE: We wanted that filtration system, but we ended up not getting to it. It would have saved us a few appliances, I’m sure… which would have more than paid for it in the long-run! We get reverse osmosis water from Natural Grocers in our cheap 100$ water machine from Lowe’s (my tea pots have been expired since I now just have to push a button). We go fill our 5 gallon jugs at Natural Grocers and have clean, fresh water available nice and cold without the need of ice. Good thing, because ice machines seem to die quick in our house – we’ve been through two refrigerators here in 10 years.

* I would buy some accessories (baskets for linens and oversized canisters for the counter) and matching towls… and I would put all my cookbooks in the dining room bookshelf that I’m dreaming of building – along with a nice, long, new, over-sized, rustic wooden table that would seat at least 12 (estimated $800)

UPDATE: Our inlaws graciously put in custom cabinets in this room from wall-to-wall and we used it as a buffet and bookcase (and hidden craft area in the cabinets) until we discovered that it made a much better TV entertainment center and we ditched this room layout all-together.

… and I’d still have nearly 5,000$ to fix the floors and bathroom cabinets upstairs!

UPDATE: We did the floors! It was worth it! We replaced the carpet in this house once, too. Carpet is so last decade… and has such a short expiration. I love the tile.

A girl can dream, right?

Of course Pledge could help me love my kitchen (and a whole lot of other places in my house) with this amazing make-over and after it was done, the lemony scent and shine would go a long way in keeping a smile on mama’s already happy face.

You can enter the MomItForward.com Pledge contest, too – but hurry – it ends tomorrow! <<< That contest is closed and I’m not even sure this link still works… but for the sake of history, I kept it in the post!

….

Decided it was too tempting not to update this post with our final images of what all we did get accomplished in this home before we moved away… wanna see? Man was I glad to see that freaky silver “dining fixture” go!!! We put in a dining fixture in the “living area” that is amazing. I never finished staging the room, though, so I don’t have a good photo of it…. and now we are packing to move out.

This is that dining room in the photo above. Yep. We finally got sick of eating at the table in there and the table in the kitchen… because our family and our guests would be split apart by lots of carpet and a huge “living room” with a TV that distracted who-ever was trying to do the dishes or talk to each other. So… we changed the room’s purpose and made the formal dining room into a TV room instead… and we claimed the huge “living” space for our actual dining area so it could fit a large farm table and be right off the kitchen with wood look tile floors that usually look clean, even if they aren’t. We also nixed the cramped breakfast table area in the kitchen and replaced that with a movable bar for extra counter space and some matching stools. I love how it all turned out. Too bad we didn’t do all this when we moved in 10 years ago!!! Now we are moving out to the country to renovate a farm house that is nearly 100 years old (in parts – it’s a franken-farm-house), so we are starting all over again!

Here’s a quick shot at the last look for this house’s kitchen before we moved. We didn’t get all the things we hoped done, but it was vastly improved! The things I really wished we could have done were the counters painted grey and some light colored granite counter tops… and a farm sink with a new spraying faucet. Those were on our list, but we quit renovating after my mother died and we decided we would have to go renovate her house if we ever wanted to sell it.

I love having more space in the kitchen and a spot where I can sit while I cook if I want. I also like having our extra eating space and our eating space be in the same vicinity of the house and within ear-shot so we can all feel included.

See the new door? We added a storm door so we can hear the kids play in the back yard (the top screen slides down so you can listen and get a nice breeze inside) and prevent water getting in the door during hard rain, and we love having more light in the house and no problems with the door being in the way of the table that is now in the old “living room” space.

See what you can do if you put your mind to it? Just rethink your spaces before you throw your hands up in the air… this was not that expensive of a fix. It was mainly a flooring cost and my husband shaved a ton of the cost off by doing the labor and installation himself. I got the kitchen “bar” from Craig’s List for 150$ and it came with the two chairs! We put our dry goods in jars on the cabinet tops because it helped give us more space for ugly kitchen items and oversized things to go behind doors. I love them up there (and we just use a chair if we get them down).

 

Disclaimer: This post has paid advertising click-through links and old blog post links.