We’re in deep now! Here’s the latest in our big kitchen/laundry room reno. It looks a total mess now. Everything torn down to studs, new dormer constructed and new windows installed, doors moved, HVAC vent moved to make way for new fridge placement. Plumbing is being roughed in and electrical is in progress, with recessed lights being installed this week. We are expecting that the rest of the infrastructure construction will be done this week, then some drywall and then the new flooring.

All the cabinets are in, taking up our whole living room! The appliances are all in, mostly in a storage unit until it’s time for them to be installed. However, the last item to arrive, the new fridge, arrived literally on the same day our old (32 years old) fridge died! Uncanny! So we have that plugged in our dining room, along with toaster and microwave. We’re living on carry-out, leftovers, soup, cereal, and prepared meals, LOL. I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait to cook again! And I’m truly over the laundromat experience.

We estimate that we will have functional use of kitchen and laundry by the end of March. Not too bad considering the scope of the project.

Pics 1-2. the new dormer with new windows — the kitchen sink will be centered under the windows. This will take advantage of the natural light and provide nice views of our front yard garden

Pic 3. You can see where we moved the vent to make room for a fridge next to where the new cooktop will be. We decided to get the cooktop off the island. In the upper right you can see where the loft (kind of a library space with built in bookshelves) looks into the kitchen. We’d like to update those railings but we haven’t agreed on how to do that.

Pic 4. The window on the right replaces a door to our back deck that was redundant, as there is a sliding door just around the corner from there, in the dining room. Now we will have cabinets and a countertop there, and we will add some sort of cabinet/counter outside on the deck to create a little pass-through.

Pic 5. Samples of the wood cabinets and floor tile

Pic 6. The backsplash tile and countertop samples

Pic 7. The island will look a bit like this one when it’s done. The material is green quartzite.

Pic 8. Looking into the laundry room. We moved the door to the garage over to make room for cabinets on either side. That will include a new larger coat closet on the left!

Pic 9-10. Laundry cabinets are SW Interesting Aqua, with silvery grey backsplash tiles and a little glittery silver countertop.

Pic 11. Samples of kitchen cabinets with backsplash and island material — pic is a little off in color, it’s a bit bluer IRL.

Pic 12. Progress from outside

Pic 13. In addition, we will be refinishing the hardwood floors in the rest of the first floor, taking them from a yellow tone to a cooler, darker shade to go better with the kitchen cabinets. I think we’re going with SW Agreeable Gray for paint color throughout — it’s a nice neutral that doesn’t pull too warm or too cool. We still have warm wood ceilings in the post-and-beam house.

Pic 14. The cabinets! They take up the entire living room! LOL