Lessons from the Kitchen ~ Part 2

Being my own contractor and designer, I certainly learned a lot on my kitchen journey.  I could probably be a kitchen consultant.  Most certainly, my  husband could be an installer.  We both, however, are content with relinquishing those titles and settling back into more familiar roles of chief cook and bottle washer.  

I learned about more than kitchen remodeling during my journey.  I learned a few personal lessons as well.

• I say I want to honor God and His will in my life.  I say that He owns everything and what I have is just on loan from Him.  I say that I acknowledge this ownership and that I want to be a good steward of that which He has entrusted me.  To me, that means checking in with Him first to make sure I am on a path of His leading, and not merely of my own desires, wants and proclivities.  When the rubber hits the road, however, my actions do not totally line up with what I "say."  We/I did have a rough budget and saved money, and we/I did throw up a few prayers to see if they would stick.  We/I did not, however, wait patiently for the answer. I thought that since we had been graced with the funds, and since we did (what we thought) was due diligence, we were good to go.  Fairly early on our journey as the reality checks kept coming in on what the kitchen would really cost us, even after accommodations and compromises, it became glaringly obvious to me that we raced ahead without the full grace of God.  I'm not saying the new kitchen wasn't His will for us, because as a very kind friend pointed out, we have the gift of hospitality and are always inviting people over, but I am saying that maybe we should have waited until it was fully planned out to every detail and all the money was saved in advance.  We came out of the deal debt free but it took a bit of our savings to make up the difference.  I must be honest when I say I felt like I had disappointed Him in some way.  This has nothing to do with guilt.  It has to do with treating the One whom I love with respect, and in being a woman who walks her talk.

• Trust my gut.  I come from an artsy background.  My mom is very good at interior design.  Her father was a builder of buildings, maker of furniture and a painter. Her sister was a master seamstress and all around crafty kind of gal.   I guess you could say it's in my genes.  I must have second guessed myself a zillion times during this project.  When it came to a technical design aspect, like will a particular structural arrangement allow us to open cabinet doors, my second-guessing was really more about being clear-headed and detailed in our planning.  However, when it came to the overall look and feel of things, the answer almost always popped out and then I would question, question, question.   Two big things that come to mind are choosing wall paint and the glass back splash, both of which were a lot about color.  I knew almost as soon as our light maple cabinets were installed that green was going to be an important color.  However, I had gone into the original design process absolutely certain I was staying with yellow (because of the north facing windows and because it's a happy color).  I painted the walls yellow and tried really hard to get my brain to wrap around the look, but it was having none of it.  I eventually acquiesced, and used both colors where appropriate.  Don't even get me started on the back splash story except to say after it was all said and done, I ended up with glass that had almost the identical look and feel of my very first choice.  Let's just say that at the end of the day, I had pulled together all the design elements that just felt right almost from the start.
  

•  I have more patience than I thought I did.  I realized early on that this project was not totally in my control and timing.  I could design the kitchen but I couldn't build it.  That meant turning to my husband (who did 80-85% of the work) and a team of expert helpers.  That meant skill sets and schedules that were out of my hands.  And that meant waiting on others.  Let's see, we started planning in June and I cooked my first meal the week before Christmas.  The kitchen wasn't being constantly worked on during that time; there was a lot of waiting.  I definitely have more patience than I thought I did.

• I got pretty good at cooking on the barbecue, so much so, in fact, that I felt a bit awkward when I finally had access to my new range.  The secret to my successful outdoor cooking is aluminum foil, olive oil and ice cubes.  I learned the basic trick from my husband and I expanded from there.  I really should write a cook-full-family-meals-on-the-barbecue-while-your-kitchen-is-being-remodeled cook book.

•  I won't lie, having a new kitchen is fantastic, fun and gratifying, but I am so thankful that I have a small house where the expenses are reasonable and the upkeep (read cleaning) isn't a time buster.  (I could use one more room; I just wanted to put that down for the record.)

• I am over-the-top proud of my husband.  I knew he was a handy guy.  I knew I was the envy of many of my girlfriends whose husbands aren't as gifted in the tool wielding department.  I am, however, totally blown away by his work in the kitchen.  Whether it was laying the tile floor, installing the inset ceiling fixtures or affixing glass on walls, my husband did it with grace, style, expertise and the minimal amount of @!%#!  You rock, honey!

I know there will be future anecdotal stories and thoughts, but for now, it's time to bid adieu to my kitchen remodel and embark on a new journey of enjoying what has been created.  I leave you with some final photos.



refrigerator corner ~ 
large pantry cut in half which opened up 15" to shift everything to the left and create more counter space on both sides of range, pantry now a pull out

 

command central ~
larger range, more counter space, more efficient corner cabinets, drawers replaced doors, upper cabinets raised, blankety-blank fluorescent  banished to junk yard and replaced by LED inset lights

sink area ~
new dishwasher and halogen over-the-sink lights, pull-out spice rack added 

view of in-kitchen dining area ~
large blank wall on right now has built-in cabinets, space opened for table and can now seat 12 comfortably, art work on wall to come

Thank you for following my kitchen journey with me.  It was worth every step (but I won't be doing it again any time soon).  Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of our labor and share the space with friends and family.  Y'all come by real soon, ya hear?