There is light at the end of the tunnel!

After months of LONG hours and LONG work weeks we have finally moved into our new home.  This massive remodel has taken every ounce of perseverance that I (we) have.  There were a few moments when I lost sight of the big picture and sat out on the back steps sobbing! Which mostly made Robert feel worse and responsible for his wife having a breakdown!

The good part about doing a project for ourselves is it puts us back into the shoes of our clients, the excitement of progress, frustration, the disappointments when something doesn't work and then the feelings of "I just want it done, yesterday!".  We have always tried to be empathetic to the stress that remodeling or building brings into our clients lives, so it's not necessarily a bad thing to be reminded up close and personally how it feels to live through a remodel.

There were times when we had to look hard at what we had taken on and what we were going to accomplish by doing this.  I lost sight of that more than once.  I just kept singing the song - There's a Light at the End of This Tunnel by Third Day as we slogged through weekend after weekend of work.  

Here are the floor plans of what we bought and what we did. 

floor plan when we bought it.

Where we took this project.  Made a couple of tweaks
along the way, but this is very close.

I wanted to post some quick photos of what we have done so far.  These are fairly quickly taken pics so don't be too critical.  There are better ones to come.

BEFORE: looking at the end of the living room towards the kitchen.  You must be asking
Yourself, why did they get rid of the wagon wheel? It's a good thing trends come
and go. That was definitely a GO AWAY.

AFTER:  same view but now it is completely open!
When I see it like this even I can't believe the changes.

BEFORE: Old kitchen. Totally boxed in and horrid!

AFTER:  New kitchen, from just about the same angle!
  Note, I chose the single bowl stainless sink! I love it!

BEFORE: Original laundry room space.  We kept the rock wall,
I thought it added character, Robert is not such a fan!
So far the pro rock wall people outweigh the haters!

AFTER:  Love the new laundry room. 

BEFORE:  OLD HALLWAY

AFTER:  new bright and cheery hall way.  The hallway to the left
is going to a new bedroom we added on. We closed off access to the
old kitchen and added a linen closet and an extra deep coat closet.

BEFORE:  Original dining room space

AFTER: New dining room space.  We put the new master bathroom
in the window end of the room and vaulted the ceiling.  Big difference.

A shot of my pantry just because it makes me happy!
Sometimes I just go stand inside it because I can!

There are more rooms to photograph, the master shower is lovely.  I think you can agree that we have truly done an amazing makeover of this tired house that was asking for some love. Robert worked so hard making this happen.  His skill and talent are just incredible.  Now we are working on the outside and hope to have a patio and some landscaping before summer passes us by.

Picking a sink for me! Harder than you might think.

A couple of months ago I wrote an article on how to pick a kitchen sink.  I still stand by every word of it and would tell a client exactly the same thing today, but now that I am picking out a new sink for myself it is harder than I remembered!

Here is my dilemma.  My new kitchen is much more contemporary than any I have personally had before. With my dark cabinets and Everest White Radiance Quartz counters the obvious choice for a sink is a one bowl, zero radius stainless sink.  Okay, I love that look but the bigger question is will I still be happy with my stainless sink 5 years from now? Hmm... I am not sure and Robert says I won't be happy.

 

Then I began to consider my other options.  I currently have a fireclay sink by Rohl, that I LOVE!  It is about 4 years old and looks as good as the day it was put it.  Rohl makes a single bowl sink that is gorgeous but it does come with a price tag that is a little higher than my hoped for budget. On the other hand I do love the fireclay sinks and would never regret that decision.

My one other option that would be a little, okay a lot more budget friendly is a one bowl granite composite sink.  Again, I ask myself "will I be happy in a few years from now?" 

 I just don't know.  I have however decided it is good to put myself back in the shoes of my clients and realize how emotional these decisions can feel.     
 

I will let you know what I decide.  However on the positive side of decision making I ordered my cool Sutton pulls by Jeffery Alexander!  I am feeling very hip!