The Lake House Renovation - Designing the Kitchen

Though I don't have much proof, there has been a lot going on this week.

Michael and I have been spending about an hour each night trying to decide on appliances.  We've been emailing back and forth with our awesome kitchen designer as we put our kitchen look together, and we've been taking almost EVERYTHING from the first floor except for our master bathroom contents and laundry room contents down to our workshop area.  

Appliance decisions are tough!  There are so many different stores, so many different brands, and so many thoughts that it's overwhelming.

I'm so grateful for Facebook.  After almost thinking I didn't want to go with wall ovens, my Facebook family quickly responded to my request for advice, and we will definitely be having double wall ovens.  

Another one of the major dilemmas is whether or not to match our current refrigerator or buy all new. 

Our current refrigerator is a Whirlpool Gold that is NOT counter depth.

I think this is our current refrigerator.  It came with the house.

That's not a huge deal, as our kitchen designer can build something that will keep it from looking crazy big, but if we go with it, it will take up a little more space and we will probably need to stick with Whirlpool Gold appliances for the wall oven and dishwasher.  I'm not finding a lot of options with Whirlpool Gold, so I'm leaning toward Frigidaire.

We would want to stick with Frigidaire for the refrigerator, dishwasher, and wall ovens.

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For the microwave, I'm sold on this incredibly expensive Sharp drawer microwave. 

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Yes, it's very pricey, but we need something that can go on our island.  This has the control panel at the top, so it's perfect.  I THINK I've convinced Michael to spend a little more here.

We are adding gas to our kitchen, so we will be purchasing a gas cooktop.  I think I've settled on this Maytag.  

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Now, I have to figure out where to buy these.  I see some with one of these items for super cheap, but then everything else is crazy expense.  Then, some places offer 10% off or 24 months 0 percent financing.  Just while I've been typing this blog, I've come across even better deals than I've got on my spreadsheet.  It's making my head spin!

Our kitchen designer is incredibly patient with me.  He sends me designs, I tell him what I like and don't like, then he emails back with the modifications.  Our current design appears to be the following:

This is the bird's eye view.  Our living room would be to the left of this picture.  The oven goes in the corner.   

Looking at the refrigerator and coffee bar.  This is the top part of the bird's eye view picture.  

This is the oven, sink, dishwasher, and pantry.

These are the island cabinets.  

One thing I recently changed my mind about was the island.  At first, I wanted a bar height and counter height island.  So, we were going to go with something that looks like this...

Then, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted a gigantic island that would handle any project, whether it be cooking or school related.  I just want a huge space that is all one level.  So, I'm liking this look more...

Now, I'm also checking to see if we can get some shelves put in on the part of the island that is not cabinets.  I think that would be a cool thing to have for cookbooks or supplies that aren't necessarily related to cooking.

I actually just found a discussion about this topic on Houzz.com.

So, there you have it.  Lots of confusion, but progress is being made!  

The Lake House Renovation - Uh oh!

We have possibly had a hiccup.

We left yesterday evening (December 23) for a quick trip to Louisiana.  We got back tonight (December 24) at 9:00 PM.

We came home to this scene in our kitchen.

Water was leaking from our kitchen water line.

We have no idea what happened.  Michael was able to stop the leak, and thankfully we don't think it damaged anything of too much importance.  Of course, we don't know the actual impact of it until we can get someone to look at it.  

In case I have not explained this very well, I'll describe the layout of our house so you can understand why it may be a bigger deal.  

Our house is built into a hill, so you actually walk into our house on the second floor.  Our kitchen is on the second floor along with a living room, master bedroom/bathroom, guest bathroom, laundry room, and a second bedroom.

The bottom floor has two bedrooms, a living area, a bathroom, and a workshop. 

Our kitchen is over our workshop.  So, the ceiling in our workshop is showing some damage.  

All of our Christmas presents were in the workshop.  Only one gift was actually impacted, and it wasn't that big of a deal.

Instead of complaining too much, I am trying to be grateful that it wasn't worse and that I'm with my beautiful family on a wonderful Christmas Eve.

The Lake House Renovation - Flooring, Deck, and Shower Progress

Today, we started searching for (and ended up buying) our flooring.

My requirements - stand up to our dog, stand up to our toddler, and look pretty (obviously).  Oh, and the closer to $2 a foot, the better.

We started at Lumber Liquidators.  They offer installation for $3 - $4.50 installation depending on what you get.

I found several that I liked...

I ended up landing on these three...

We took samples and headed to Floor and Decor.  

I started gravitating toward these styles.

Finally, we landed on this one...

We decided to go for and it and purchased it!

Floor and Decor does not offer installation, but they do have a list of names of people we can call.

Some of the floor is still in Houston, so we will pick it up next week.

Can't wait!

~

I forgot to show pictures of our deck repairs yesterday.  This is a picture of our deck before the repairs.  The spindles were 8 inches apart.

Here, Michael's parents are checking out the view of the lake.  This was taken before we closed on the house.  

Now, our spindles are 4 inches apart.  We can't paint until the temperature is above a certain degree for an extended amount of time.  So, for now, we will go with this look.

~

Our showers also needed an overhaul.  As of right now, in additional to getting rid of the wallpaper, we must also deal with this glass.  I don't know why it was bothering me so much.  Probably because our last shower had a much cleaner look since the glass was completely transparent without the markings and ripples.  I'm not even sure what you call that look.  

While my mom was over at my house today, she said that she didn't think it would be that difficult to take it off, so we went for it.  

The sides unscrewed and were removed easily.  

The bottom portion was on there tight.  But, it was nothing a hammer couldn't handle.  

The only problem after getting that off was a few flaws in the tile.  Eventually, I want to redo that whole bathroom and turn it into a second master bath.  For now, this will have to do.  Now, back to the wallpaper removal!

~

PS!  I really like this white backsplash for our kitchen.  

I also like the middle tile for our mudroom.  

Hope you have a great holiday!

The Lake House Renovation - Kitchen Demo

Today was a BIG day in the start of our "little" renovation project.

Today was #DEMODAY!

I've been dying to use that hashtag since I saw Chip's (Fixer Upper - yes, I'm obsessed) shirt.

Chip from Fixer Upper

So, today, we started working on gutting our kitchen, losing a weird fur down in our living room, and fixing our deck spindles which were too far apart (don't want to lose Presley off the side of the 2-story deck).

We just finished day 1 of demo, so there's more to come tomorrow, but here's a few pictures.

This WAS the view of our kitchen if you were standing in front of our fireplace.
*Notice the fur down.  

This is the CURRENT view of our kitchen if you are standing in front of our fireplace.
*Notice that the fur down is gone.  

This WAS the view of our kitchen if you were standing in front of the windows that overlook the lake.  

This is the CURRENT view of our kitchen if you are standing in front of the windows that overlook the lake.
The wall that we knocked down actually separated the kitchen from what was a formal dining room that the previous owner had turned into a study.  (Notice the awesome book border.)

More demo pictures!

This is the view standing directly in front of our fireplace looking into the kitchen.  

More pictures of wires and looking into the former kitchen and formal dining room.
The plan is to add another wall in the middle of where the window currently is in order to create a mud room.