Remodeling Your House With Your Spouse

Before you read this, go listen to our episode about this remodeling project. That can be found HERE

As promised on Wednesday, I’ll show you a few pictures of the project that we completed earlier this year. This was the biggest project we ever took on ourselves. Over the years we’ve been married we’ve become DIYers. We’re cheap which makes us figure out how to do things ourselves over hiring someone to do it for us in most cases. 

First The Backstory

We lived with a kitchen, for many years, that didn’t really suit us very well. I didn’t have good cupboard space. The sink was too small. There was So. Much. Wasted. Space! We put off the project for way longer than we wanted to because it was expensive and we didn’t feel like we had the time. Then just as we were screwing up the nerve to do it, God dropped a baby in our laps and we put it off again. 

Out With The Old

A few pictures..first the before. You saw this one on Wednesday. The cupboards didn’t shut all the way anymore. The drawers had been repaired many times. The handles came off and had to be repaired. And it was ugly. We got all the life we could out of this kitchen. It served us well but it was time for a change. 

The demo. See that soffit up there. That wasted space had been the bane of my existence for many years. Look at all the things you could store up there. Do you see how clean and neat it could be but isn’t. Look at that handsome husband of mine who works so hard to make things happen for us!! Isn’t he just the cutest! Ahem. Sorry. Got carried away there for a moment.

And now it’s gone!! As we mentioned in the episode, our house is over a hundred years old. As you can see in this picture, we had to add spacers here and fillers there so that we would have a semi flat surface to work on. It was a job! See that wallpaper. It’s still back there…waiting…for the next owner…to decide on their own remodeling project. Bwhahaha!

In With The New

The big reveal!! After many months of cooking on a sawed in half countertop, we finally had the countertops put in and the tile finished. The tile was another big project. I stupidly picked out the world’s smallest tile. And we worked painstakingly to put each and every one of those on there. They came on a sheet but the sheets didn’t fit perfectly on the wall. So we had to break many, many tiles in half to fill in around the edges. Fun times. I do love the way it turned out though. It is so clean and finished looking. 

As we mentioned in the episode, poor Jason unhooked and rehooked the plumbing roughly 400 times. By the end, our assistant plumber was able to do the job by herself. 

One of my favorite parts of the whole project was this right here. It was also one of the reasons the project got put off for so long. I knew the new cabinet’s footprint was going to be smaller than  the old one. And I just couldn’t figure out what to do with that space. We didn’t want to replace the floor and I couldn’t find even a close match. And what I did find would have been so obvious that it would have stuck out like a sore thumb. I came up with this after we finished the tile. It turned out so much better than I’d hope. It looks like we planned it that way and brings the whole thing together. I just love it!!

Lastly, we did hire a few small things done for this remodeling job because we just couldn’t figure it out ourselves. Back in the first picture you can see the soffit covered the space above the sink. When we took it down it left a big ugly hole with no ceiling tile. We puzzled over what to do there for months. Finally we called in the experts he came up with the solution the big reveal picture you see. I’m so happy with the final product. It looks like it was planned. You can see their work in the pictures above.

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through our remodeling project. Our shoestring budget, and willingness to get dirty paid off handsomely. We love the way it turned out!