Death of a Kitchen

After 14 years in our house, we are finally getting a new kitchen! It couldn't have come at a better time either. It is like our kitchen knew it was time to go. To be fair, it probably should have gone shortly after we moved in. If you knew us when we bought the house and saw the kitchen, you know exactly what I mean. I really blame the improperly cut, mustard yellow laminate counter tops. What could possibly match that? Nothing. That's what. However, that didn't stop the previous home owner from painting the walls mint green and all the cabinets white with doo doo brown paint to make it look like wood. Yeah, it was bad y'all. That's okay. I was watching A LOT of Trading Spaces (remember that one) at the time and knew I could make our kitchen look amazing in only two days!

I was wrong.

It took longer than two days. We ended up hiring some guys. Really, I just kinda made a bad situation less bad. (My most excellent grandma made me some valances to help.) It was livable, so we lived with it for 14 years.

Then last year I just couldn't take it any more. It was either a new kitchen or a new house. Guess which one is cheaper?

Like I said, the kitchen knew.

I'd like to say it understood, but I think a small part of it was hurt that it wasn't good enough any more. It quite literally fell apart. It started with the cabinet doors.
Then the oven stopped heating all the way as it separated itself from the wall.

The final revolt was when the refrigerator quit on us three days before the remodel began. That's right. That fridge wasn't going to hold out a few more weeks. No sir. It heard it was getting replaced and gave us the big, middle finger.

Currently, we are two weeks in. I only had one anxiety attack while shopping for appliances. Our interior designer only had to redo everything once to keep her sister from needing a padded room. Cabinets have been the hardest to nail down (pun intended). We received five bids. The lowest was $6000, and the highest bid came in at $35, 000. Huh?! Yeah, we have learned a lot already. 

By the end of the July, I will either have a fabulous summer bash to show off the kitchen or be heavily medicated to deal with the fact we are still without a kitchen. Either way I promise to check back in with progress.

For reference, here is was it started as: