ms.mr: the remodel

I haven't mentioned much in the way of details regarding our kitchen remodel, mostly because I have been too busy trying to make it all happen + work a full-time "real" job. It has been stressful & hard, given that my boyfriend and I have never owned a home, let alone remodeled one. And most of the time, we are thinking, "what did we get ourselves into?" But we've been trying to really enjoy it, because once it all is finished, it will mean so much that we put so much of our own sweat equity into our new home!

Since we closed on October 30th, we've:

-Demo'd the entire kitchen ourselves
-Removed a wall ourselves (it sounds so easy when typed in 3-words!)
-Removed the bright (!) green (!) carpet that the previous owners had just installed in all of the bedrooms in June 2010 over gorgeous original hardwood- really?
-Been reading A LOT of Young House Love - so many great tips!
-Shopped for & purchased all of our kitchen appliances, washer & dryer, kitchen cabinets, granite, sink + faucet, floor tiles & backsplash tiles, lighting for the entire house, door knobs, light switchplates, window coverings, a new sectional, all of the drywall & lumber for rebuilding parts of the kitchen, paint, plus all of the stuff I never even knew I needed in terms of plumbing & electric
-Visted Home Depot & Lowe's about 20 times, probably totaling more than 24 hours
-Had the hardwood floors in the entire house refinished (they look amazing for being 70 years old!)
-Had the interior painted - just a note, all of the interior doors and trim were an interesting pale pink...they are now white.
-Worked with our contractor to build a bar and re-drywall much of the kitchen & mud room, cut out drywall where the backsplash will go, install cabinets, and lay down the floor base - we'll be tiling soon!

We've been physically working with our contractor on weekends to try to save some money, and it has been a learning experience! I definitely will be much more handy when this is all over.

I can't wait to share the before and after photos (they are shocking!), but until then, I will leave you with this: