Demo Day

We had planned for demo in April 2022. That date kept getting pushed due to our contractor and the cabinet makers schedule. We didn't want to sit in demo stage longer than needed so we waited until our custom cabinet guy was just a few weeks out from starting. I have been dreaming up and planning this kitchen for years. It is really hard to commit to decisions on your own home. I can do it quickly for other people but I know myself and I am constantly second guessing my decisions, because like a lot of people I like a lot of different styles. I could have 4 kitchens all completely different and still love them all the same. I had to pull the trigger on all our appliances ASAP because the time for delivery on those was up to a year for some.. Before we get into what we picked let's take a look at the kitchen pre-demo and demo...

I really wanted to change up this layout. I didn't like the fridge in the corner and I wanted the sink over by the window wall instead of the wall that backed up to the entry hall. We would later learn ALL the upstairs plumbing went up that wall so that created another delay for the plumbers to get that all moved over so we could free up that space. The wall was also load-bearing so we had to add a huge beam. On that day I stayed gone because I couldn't even watch that scary addition. The contractor did an awesome job though and after many days of the plumbers drilling, we finally had a much more open space. We purchased a longer than average oven and that ended up requiring a larger pipe for the propane gas line so yet another delay. I also decided to add a doorframe to the very long entry hallway to try and create more of an entry space and then just a transition room from the kitchen to the living room. My vision for that space was to have two lounge chairs we could sit and watch the kids swim during the hot summers or just have coffee and enjoy the view.

Things started to get more complicated because our ceiling was curved in the entry. We just went with it because we didn't want to loose the height or the sunlight from the window at the top end of the hall. I don't like the arch of that window and one day I am hoping to change that, but that's another story for another day. Part of the way through kitchen demo we realized our new wood flooring needed to go into our dining, library, and master bedroom all at the same time and that meant the baseboards needed to come off. We hadn't expected to move forward with fully renovating those spaces at the same time as the kitchen but with needing the current trim work off the wall in order to do the flooring we had to go ahead and get it done. Here are those rooms pre-demo for two but the dining we had already removed the wall trim.

We had our contractor remove all the trim on the windows in all rooms. They built new window seals and for our bedroom they actually made the window box a rectangle even though the glass remained the shape of an arch. I did this so I could install valances inside the window box and the end result will be the windows will look like a normal rectangle shape in our room. They also had to install new drywall on top of the current ceilings in these rooms because they all had a wallpaper installed that was installed on top of only drywall so pretty much it was going no where.I chose a no texture look and the walls and ceilings are all smooth.They also call that level 0 texture.

Our bedroom ceiling needed new drywall because of the wallpaper but also we took out the canned lights so we would just have one light fixture light for a more intimate feel in that room.There was also a door in the corner that I removed for two reasons. One is it created a just a busy look over by my night stand and mainly because it caused the bathroom to have a slanted wall in the corner which I really dislike and the day we reno the bathroom now we can remove that slanted wall and make a corner.

The mudroom also was in demo mode. We dubbed this the mudroom even though that is not really it's function. We had to name rooms quick for the contractor and normally a mudroom is off a garage door so we went with it. This room we planned for a built in cabinet for our alcohol bottles and wine glasses and a built in space for a wine fridge.They removed a closet that didn't go to the ceiling and it hosted lots of our brown recluse enemies so I was thrilled the day that was removed.

The contractor and I came up with a plan for all the frame work on the walls. We added trim and then the wall is smooth which gives the look of wainscoting. I gave him a picture of a fireplace mantel and some shelves and he crafted the library bookshelves and mantel and we love it. He also installed and built in our electric fireplace. Before you judge me, we had no choice of fireplaces. This fireplace was just a faux box and there is no gas line or chimney only an outlet. We have learned to appreciate them though since we can have a fire at any time of day regardless the weather outside.

We decided to add doors to the library. Which now we are so very happy we did because we planned to use this space for games and puzzles and if you have cats and dogs you know how many puzzle pieces go missing.We are very happy we can just close these up and protect everything.

Cabinets arrived 4 months after we began demo. In February we finally got to see the cabinets installed. I had created the layout and while I picked the cabinets and the layout it was incredibly scary to just pray it all was going to come together like I had envisioned.

Our cabinet guy is local to Muenster and can I just say... WOW. He had me come look at them while they were in his shop to sign off and I was blown away he does all this by hand with some guys helping. Just mind blowing. I basically gave him pictures of what I wanted and this island I only had a few images of and he was able to create exactly what I wanted. While we went skiing my dad came and stayed at the house so the painters could get started! We waited to install the floors until after the cabinets were installed. If I could do it again I would go ahead and waste a a little floor and I would have installed them before. This would have just saved the stress of them cutting the flooring to fit flush...which sometimes they just didn't do a great job and then it was up to our painter to fix.

We chose to add some shiplap to the ceiling just to give it a little something extra. We painted the walls and the ceiling with White Dove Benjamin Moore and the cabinets are Natural Cream. You can find all the colors we chose in my blog post "Our Castle Colors" .

I wanted to do tile on the wall with the arched windows in the kitchen. I really wanted a tile that had more character. I chose 4x4 tiles from Riad Tile in Snow and we picked it up at the Dallas Warehouse. This tile has a good white to it but also sometimes appears gray especially up against our white ceiling and Natural Cream cabinets. I wanted a grout that just blended in so I used Arctic White Polyblend grout from Home Depot and my tile guy was specific about it not already having a sealer in it so that kind was in a bag not the box.

The next step we were waiting on was the front entry tile. That was another complicated task I wish I had someone else to figure out. I had to find a tile that was the same depth as our wood floor. I also wanted a large 18x18 gray/white and one darker gray. We finally found two different tiles and Floor and Decor that were bigger than I needed. Our tile guy cut all the tile into 18x18 inch pieces. The lighter color was apparently incredibly difficult to cut and he said he won't be doing that style for anyone again so we're lucky he went ahead and finished it because my goodness I did not want to start that search over again.

After he was done we were so happy with it. No regrets and I am so glad we did tile in this space and not just the wood flooring. Another big step was getting countertops. I wanted quartzite this time around. We have had quartz and granite. Both are nice but I wanted a natural stone that looked like marble but I didn't want to have such a soft countertop that we'd need to be more careful with since my kids are always wanting to help in the kitchen. We chose Grand Canyon from MSI in Dallas.

Now that all the demo was done and the house was rebuilt the fun part was about to begin!