Kitchen Reno..... with a very close deadline.

We finally decided that we'd renovate our kitchen. In true form, we will tear everythingggg out and put everything new back in. At the advice of some friends who do a ton of remodeling work and design, we checked out Ikea for cabinets. I was 100% nervous. Ikea? For Cabinets? Are they going to fall apart after 3 days? Let me just say... I fell in LOVE the minute we walked into the store. This gives an idea of what we saw.

If you pay attention to seconds 0-13, those are very similar to the cabinets we chose. We were floored that we could pay so little for such nice looking cabinets. And granite. Yep, we went for granite. Partially because, again, we were at Ikea and couldn't believe how much less we were going to pay for this stuff than we expected. In a matter of three hours, plus a serving of mac and cheese and swedish meatballs, oh and some apple crisp, we had ordered brand new cabinets, a hood for the stove, and a dishwasher (ummm built into the cabinets- AWESOME), and picked up a number of other affordable items, mostly for our unfinished office that is always in the back of our minds. I will have to post about all the other fantastic items we bought. 

I mean really this doesn't look nearly as good as I thought it did at the time, but I skipped lunch that day. Besides, anything related to mac n cheese is my friend.

Okay, so the cool thing about Ikea is that you can design your entire kitchen before purchasing a thing. Jamie worked on getting all the measurements at home (twice- since once ikea.com crashed and we lost it all), and we went to the store "more prepared than anyone I've ever worked with," per the Ikea salesman. The salesman also quickly told us that he does not work on commission. Awesome, we thought, because we have 8 billion questions and are going to consume your entire life :)

Here is a hint at our design. Use your imagination- we are thinking black subway tiles for the backsplash, and the countertops will be granite. The table we don't own yet- just a smaller version- but we will do it eventually.

We went for white cabinets to make the room brighter and bigger. We plan to do black subway tile as the backsplash-- but not all the way up to the ceiling. probably just to where the cabinets begin. Then, we will get some slate grey flooring. We haven't bought the flooring yet- nor do we exactly know what we are doing. But what we do know is that there are many, many youtube videos bout how to properly install cabinets. We plan to use those. I'll keep the blog updated as we go through the process... cabinets arrive march 18. For now, we will begin the process of moving everything out of the kitchen and starting to prepare to eat take out, grilled food, and microwave meals for approximately 2 months. Our deadline is May 14 because we are having a big party at our house- you know- since I decided to finally walk in graduation and be a real doctor.

So we need all the luck (and hands to help) we can get for this one. Once it is finished though, all of our major projects will be totally complete. Did I mention that simultaneously I need to finish the office room and we are stripping and refinishing our deck? Big times here at the Walls House!!