Getting Ready for a Renovation
Getting Ready For A Renovation
As you all know, my family is embarking on our own renovation journey. My hubby has decided that he would like to do a lot of the work himself. So there was a LOT of reminding myself this past weekend that this is a journey, not hell! I think what I kept saying in my head was, "It's all going to be worth it....it's all going to be worth it." Our renovation includes the following:
- New foundation palette for our home (off-white)
- New interior doors
- New mouldings and baseboards
- New kitchen
- Hardwood installed on the entire main floor
- New carpet upstairs
- Every room painted
I've most likely missed something in that list - but you get the idea.
Evaluating Your Kitchen
When thinking about a kitchen renovation there is a lot to consider. It is important to evaluate your current layout with the following:
- your kitchen activities
- your dining activities
- your zones (food, food prep, cooking, cleaning, and storage zones)
to name a few. Once you have decided what is working and what isn't, it is time to start planning out your kitchen.
Planning Out the Kitchen
As you know, we have started our own kitchen renovation (which also includes more renovation things happening in the house as well). It has taken me just over 40 hours to plan out my kitchen! I kid you not - between working on the layout, figuring out the function of our kitchen (which was just ok in our current layout), to choosing cabinets, organizational systems for the drawers and cupboards, counters, hardware, and then tying it all together to make it pretty (because function trumps pretty), it's taken that long.I'll be honest and share a little secret: I'm not surprised at the 40 hours. I've designed a number of kitchens in the past year and all have taken me around that timeframe to plan them out. While some took a bit shorter (due to the size), plan to spend anywhere between 30-40 hours planning it out.Once the planning has been done, it's time to get ready for Demo Day!
Getting Ready For the Renovation
When you're getting ready to actually get the work done in your kitchen, it's so important to be ready for the crew! This past week was so exciting for me. There were two deliveries that made me jump up and down with excitement.
Storage Bin
OMG - when this arrived I was giddy. Seriously - giddy. WHY? Because I love calm and order in my house. How am I going to achieve this during a renovation? We're going to store anything that will be coming back into our home when we're done. My hubby did ask, "Why can't our stuff just go in the garage?" Here's a couple of reasons:
- Our son keeps his hockey equipment in the garage and if you've ever smelt a 19 year old's hockey equipment you would barf!
- Our garage is dusty. We live in a city where the dust piles up quickly. I don't want our furniture to be disgustingly dirty when it comes back into our new space.
- Have I mentioned my son keeps his hockey equipment in the garage? Yah I have. Discussion over about putting things in our garage.
Getting back to the calm and order in my home - I am calm knowing that our possessions are safe and sound in a relatively clean bin. I don't have to stress about covering any furniture and there will be plenty of room for any crew to work!
Dumpster
If you thought I was crazy to be excited about the storage bin, you'll think I've gone off my rocker because when the dumpster arrived the next day, it was like Christmas for me! I can't begin to explain how excited I was to see this bin. Not only will it be a place for all the construction debris, it is THE place to get rid of stuff that has piled up in our home. And yes, we too have stuff (although the rest of my family may not agree with me). While our neighbours and friends were able to take quite a bit of our things that we either don't need or no longer want, and some things went to donation, there will be some things heading into the bin. My skin is tingling as I think about clearing away the clutter.
Did I mention that my hubby would like to do most of the work in our house? That equates to 'US' doing the work which equates to me looking like this. Have to say, feeling pretty sexy (I think this is only the 3rd selfie I've ever taken)!
Getting ready for demolition
This is what the bin looks like after a weekend of demolition:
Next Steps
We've got a busy week as our painter is starting to paint upstairs, kitchen cabinets are being delivered, all the new interior doors, mouldings and baseboards arrive, the electrician comes on Tuesday, and hardwood arrives on Thursday (not installed - just arrives).This morning I'm going to videotape a little walk-through of what our home looks like. Stay tuned!