Will We? or Won't We???

Quote for the Day:

“Indecision may or may not be my problem.”

~Jimmy Buffett

Twelve and a half years ago we moved into this humble abode we call "home".  It was my "dream" home...well...more like a "nightmare"...


You see, I always had a dream to live in either a converted old school house, a converted old church, or a renovated old house with lots of "character".  


Before we moved here we had lived in a tract home in California and we were SICK of cookie-cutter houses!  Our house in California had been built in the 1950's and except for a few minor changes in paint and carpet over the years, it basically looked like every third house on our block!  :(


Tract houses and new houses just don't "speak" to me.  They've no STORY to tell!  Ya know what I mean, Jellybean?  (Although, I must say that I do really, really like my son & daughter-in-law's newish house!  It seems to have "character".)


So when we moved here we bought a house that had been built in 1927...back when "men were men" and woodwork was solid oak!  


The only problem with this house was...well...EVERYTHING!  Over the course of the past 12 1/2 years we have renovated this house...top to bottom...EXCEPT for the downstairs bathroom and the kitchen.


Which brings you all up to speed on where we are at now in the course of things.  We have a kitchen that has all of 69 3/4" of counter space...which is taken up with the coffee maker, the microwave, and the bread box.  A kitchen that doesn't have a built in dishwasher.  A kitchen that has a porcelain sink that has been etched chemically by something long before we got here and is IMPOSSIBLE to get or keep clean!  A kitchen with linoleum from the 40's?  A kitchen whose sink sits on top of a metal cabinet that is RUSTED OUT inside!  A kitchen whose wall paint is chipping off.  A kitchen whose homemade base cabinets (2 cabinets and a bank of 4 drawers) make SHRIEKING noises when you open the drawers.  A kitchen whose homemade wall cabinets are so narrow that the doors won't close because my plates and mixing bowls are too big for the shallow cupboards.


Need I go on???


So lately I've been getting really fed up with all of the above and have been trying to figure out how we can afford to remodel the kitchen and give it more counter space and cupboard space...cupboard space that will actually hold my plates and STILL allow the doors to shut!  LOL  I don't ask for much!  All this...and not break the budget?  Well...maybe I do ask for too much!


Yesterday, Andy & I were out and about and stopped into Lowe's, a home improvement store, to gather info about cabinets, counters, etc.   That started the ball rolling.


Today we decided to drop into Home Depot, Lowe's competitor, and talked with a kitchen designer.  While there we saw some cabinets that both Andy & I really liked.  Let me say here and now that when it comes to renovating, to find something that BOTH Andy & I like is MAJOR!  We usually go 'round and 'round about things because we have different tastes and expectations.  


But, lo and behold...there in  Home Depot, nothing short of a miracle happened...we found cabinets AND counters that we both liked...a lot!  And if all of our initial measurements are correct, we have a working design plan.


We are going to take this week to "sleep" on the decision...and even go look at one more place to see if they have anything that can match our enthusiasm for the cabinets we found at Home Depot.  Then...if we don't come up with anything that impresses us more, next weekend we will go in and finalize the purchase at HD.  (We are planning to do all the work ourselves...Lord help us all!)


My motto is "if your marriage can make it through a renovation, it can make it through anything." 

My second motto is "it can't look any worse than it did before we started."  And if you saw the "before" of our house you would totally understand that second motto.  Nothing can look as bad as it did before we started!


Now...I'd love to show you pictures of the exact cabinets we found today, but I can't find them online ANYWHERE.  :(  The best I can do is show you some that look like them!  They are natural hickory and have a lot of color variations in them.  I think they have a rustic look to them.

And the best I can do for the counter tops is give you the link to them on HD's website:   http://tiny.cc/wr6kh


I'll keep you posted on how things go...whether or not we find something we like more, etc.  And when the renovations actually begin, I'll post pictures and keep you abreast of that, too!  


Thanks for stopping by today.  Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Loretta