Ahh yes, the kitchen floor…not our dining room. Our dining room restoration was going swell: we had run new electric, repaired the plaster, primed and painted the ceiling and walls, and hung a ceiling medallion and antique chandelier. Despite having crown molding, picture railing, and paint removal on the trim to still do, we moved our table and chairs back into the dining room and have been able to use a once-again construction-free and (mostly) dust-free dining room…high fives all around! The finish line was in sight!
Then the kitchen got jealous of the attention the dining room was getting and decided to flood itself.
Thankfully, the weekend it flooded we were able to work with our home insurance and call in specialists with their big fans and get things dried up. But we were left with this:
This is where Murphy’s Law started to kick our butts…
“It wasn’t in our plans to do the kitchen this year, but we are now! Let’s get some floor contractors and plumbers to give us estimates…”
“Oh look. It seems our township chose to repave our depraved, pot-hole ridden road…which is good…but now we can’t get out and contractors can’t get in…”
One week went by of this being our road:
At least it looked like it fit with our home’s time period.
So I used the time stuck at home to look up “timeless” kitchen flooring ideas. I might have spent a bit too much time doing this because it looks like I lost check with reality our budget:
I can dream.
The following week, projects got ignored as we went on what was supposed to be a vacation. The first we’d had in 3 years. But Murphy’s Law continued into this week with giving us lots of time by ourselves…in the bathroom. Because of violent food poisoning. Yesss. No vacation.
Since returning home on a newly paved street this past week (and physically recovering), we immediately were able to get our kitchen floor measured and estimates. We also decided on the contractor, and when we walked into their showroom we picked out our flooring in 40 minutes! Go us!
We finally feel like our house projects stand a chance of getting back on track in August. We’re scheduled to have the flooring done at the end of this month (yay! Soon we won’t have to wear shoes in our kitchen and baby girl can crawl around in it!).
So…here’s where it gets tricky. When we decided on our flooring we also figured that if we’re going to be living with a dusty construction-zone-for-a-kitchen for some time, we might as well use this “opportunity” to replace our much-hated wood countertops (they’re so pitted you can’t even wipe them clean). Of course, before they put in the nice new flooring, we should also paint the walls and cabinets so we don’t have to worry about splattering…and maybe this is a good time to strip the paint off all of the tongue and groove wainscoating…and replace the ceiling light with something more period-appropriate…and…and…
…the snowball is now an avalanche.
Out of all of those ideas, we decided to look into countertops because our current ones make us frustrated every time we try to clean the darn things. It’s so bad that even laminate counters would be a step up.
Then we went to a supplier with our measurements and were quoted $800 for laminate counters. Yowzers.
“Hmm…maybe I should try Plan B and sand down and stain our counters…”
“Oh, look over there! That’s a small and nice-looking fridge we could buy to replace our beast. And it’s on sale!”
Any of you relate to this snowball effect when starting what seems like a single renovation in a room?
Thanks for following along on our craziness! ;)
