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A 6 year Kitchen Renovation

January 20, 2020 by LauraCarlton 9 Comments

Let’s start at the beginning.

These next few photos are in the fall of 2014, just after we bought our home. We knew it needed work, no idea the first few years we’d be calling it the money pit. (face palm, sigh). One of the weirdest features was this awesome 6 foot x 4 foot soffit, (sarcasm font). I not so affectionately dubbed it the Spaceship. Not only was it a gigantic soffit hanging from the ceiling, I guess it was there for the recessed light?! But the guy who “flipped” this house before we bought it, painted this soffit as well as the other soffits, semi gloss blue. Like Royal Blue….

Looking back, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but who accentuates already ugly soffits?! (Haha)

The first year of this house was a blur, the pool was literally a swamp, the garage door fell off. The air conditioning took a crap 2 weeks into owning it, we used the Warranty to replace it. The warranty company used a highly questionable company to replace the central air, which left us with no air for 2 weeks.

No air- 97 degrees, 5 kids, long haired animals and a highly pissed off momma. I remember when I was pulling our of the driveway and talking to my mom on the phone, I hit the garage door button and the damn door fell off. My mom said, “Are you Serious?!” me- “Mom, I can’t make this shi*t up.”

Smh…

Shaking my head, it really was just like the movie The Money Pit. I’m honestly surprised the staircase didn’t fall in too!

There is usually surprises waiting inside of soffits…

Inside of the soffit’s we found ducting for the upstairs exhaust fan, which was easily placed into the beams above. My husband retrofitted the can lights with these Led lights from Home Depot. He also removed the track lighting and replaced it with a can light as well. The tulip shaped chandelier was replaced with a more modern lampshade Chandelier I already had.

Simple boho dining room.  Palladian blue. Antique table. Midcentury chairs.
Simple bohemian and natural vibes- I loved this look!

Now for the ceiling-

After we had demo’d all the structure and drywall, its was easily filled back in with a sheet of drywall. The texture we matched as well as we could.

Next up, Penny tile!

I love Penny Tile! Only advice, use lighter grout and be careful how you lay each sheet, there is a certain way to do it.

After Stage One of Renovation!

Homey and warm, we spent minimal money, made it more than livable.

Wow! This is already a big post!

For the first stage of our kitchen, we cleaned up the cabinets, replaced all the pulls, added matching appliances and a new Delta faucet. Also, removed soffits, painted and replaced all the light fixtures. We always knew its would be so much better opened up to the living room, but didn’t have time to do it until November 2018, four years later……….

This post is getting so long I’ve decided to continue it… Friday! Stay tuned for the follow up, in the meantime, I’ll leave you with this photo of the doorway between the kitchen and living room. See you Friday!

  • Before…..
  • After!!!!

(Here is our Fixer Upper Inspired Fireplace post- we did this one in 2015.)

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Filed Under: Diy projects, Home Decor, Previous Diy Projects, Uncategorized

Previous Post: « How To Restore an Antique Dresser + Remove Peeling Veneer
Next Post: A 6 year kitchen renovation – Part 2! »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Elise Speed

    January 23, 2020 at 9:55 am

    Wow! I am soooo impressed! I cannot even imagine no air in 97 degree heat! And that soffit. What the heck. Then the garage door fell off! You have made it such a beautiful space! Can’t wait for the next installment!

    Reply
  2. Susan Nguyen

    January 23, 2020 at 9:59 am

    Lots of inspirational ideas here! I’m wanting to paint our wood kitchen cabinets too and add backsplash tiling. The penny tile is so cute! Is it hard to clean though?

    Reply
  3. Emily

    January 23, 2020 at 11:33 am

    I can’t wait to see next week!!!

    Reply
  4. Nucci

    January 23, 2020 at 11:49 am

    The renovations turned out beautiful!

    Reply
    • LauraCarlton

      January 24, 2020 at 9:57 am

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  5. Linny

    January 23, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    I loved this post and can’t wait for the next one. That was a lot of work! Looks great!

    Reply
    • LauraCarlton

      January 24, 2020 at 9:56 am

      Thank you! I just got my next post up, reveal is live!

      Reply
  6. Sylvia

    January 23, 2020 at 1:34 pm

    Oh, wow! I had no idea what a soffit was until today. This is such a cliffhanger post because I want to see tomorrow’s post now! Can’t wait to see the rest of it 🙂

    Reply
    • LauraCarlton

      January 24, 2020 at 9:56 am

      Thank you Sylvia! The reveal is live on my blog now!

      Reply

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Nice to see you! I’m Laura

 

“Ha•ven~ A place of safety or refuge”
+ healthy home / lifestyle
+ home decor / diy
+ furniture artist

Read more about me here https://makingourhaven.com/about/

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