I mentioned last week that we’re in the middle of a kitchen renovation at our ranch-style Fort Worth home from the 1950s, so this week I thought I’d share more about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
First off, the home we live in had not had a single renovation before we moved in, aside from the previous owner (sadly) tearing up all of the original wood floors and replacing them with laminate. I was excited about everything else being original: it meant we could afford the house, and it also meant we could one day update it to our own style. That day is here.
Our first several years here were filled with new plumbing, new electric, tearing down a wall to build a third bedroom, adding a garbage disposal, and then 6 years later, adding a dishwasher.
8 years in, we redid the bathrooms. That was probably the best year we’ve ever had here, at least for me. It was so incredibly exciting.
And now, 10 years in, we’re renovating this 1950s Fort Worth kitchen. I’m THRILLED.
This is what it looked like before:
Yep, that is wallpaper on the ceiling, that is laminate flooring, that is tile countertops and grimy cabinets with doors that are warped and won’t close, that is some weird vent that has never worked and the dishwasher that I love, love, love that we added a few years ago (it gets to stay).
I’ve been Houzz-ing and Pinterest-ing and blogging and swooning over kitchen design for 10 years for kitchen renovation, and then finally late last year, we decided to start moving forward.
My first step was to download and purchase the most amazing app for my IPad: Home Room Planner. It’s $5 a week, which adds up, but I didn’t want to hire a designer, or a contractor, so this money is well worth it.
Then I went to town; designing 11 different layouts, and finally deciding on one (it’s actually the same layout as before, just with less walls, and more base cabinets):
After my husband approved it, I went looking for cabinets. I thought I’d do what we did in East Nashville which was hire a local carpenter to come and make our cabinets, but that just felt like too much to handle in a year where everything still felt so heavy and overwhelming, so after a Google search, I came across and then ordered our cabinets from Prefinished Cabinets.
I love them. They’re solid wood fronts and drawers, plywood insides, and the man we hired to put them together said that they’re higher quality than any others he’s seen in the market of cabinets that you have to put together (so think IKEA, Home Depot, etc.). They’re affordable, and Chris, the owner, is so helpful, patient, and knows kitchen design: he has been a home remodeler all his life. The company is local to Texas, too, which is nice.
We hired Pedro back, the incredible man who redid our bathrooms, the one who I can’t stop recommending (he’s just so dang good), to come and demo our kitchen, which consisted of tearing out 2 walls, tearing out the old kitchen cabinets, those baby blue tiled countertops, the wallpapered ceiling, the laminate floors, and the stained, gross wood paneling. Oh my gosh, that was a wonderful day. He then built beams to hold up the ceiling in the places where the walls came down, and then he and his team began adding back in: all the electric, drywall, plumbing, etc. This is what it looked like one week in:
As dusty as it is right now, I can guarantee you that it’s cleaner than what was there before. 65 years of grease and grime and crumbs are gone. That VIEW is now the center of my kitchen. That view – what we bought this house over – is now what I get to see all day, every day. I’m thrilled.
Next up comes the wood paneling on the beams, the paint, the cabinet install, the floor install, the countertops and all the finishes. I know we’re still ways out, and even so, I’m loving every minute of this.
More to come next week! Thank you for reading!
Love, Jen