Diary of a Kitchen Remodel – In the Beginning

For the past six weeks or so I’ve been working on making decisions for remodeling my kitchen. And the decision making has been hard work!

I’m good with function but not good with design. I can visualize how organized and efficient the kitchen will be. I’m struggling with visualizing what style and color the floor should be, which granite I like best, and what color and style I should get for the back-splash. At least we’ve narrowed the cabinets down to a style and color (white). Now we have to figure out what kind of handles and knobs will look good.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

There have been days where it has felt so overwhelming I’ve thought about cancelling the whole remodeling project.  We haven’t ordered anything yet but the contractor is scheduled to start in about 2 weeks.  We have an appointment this Saturday to order the cabinets. Would you say it’s crunch time?

Over the last six weeks I’ve spent so much time and mental energy on this project that I’ve completely neglected writing on my blogs. There have been other reasons for that too but I won’t get into it now.

My house is in complete turmoil as I plan for creating a temporary kitchen in the craft area of my finished basement.  I’m starting to empty cabinets and drawers in the old kitchen. It’s almost like packing to move except some items will be packed away in boxes for 8-10 weeks and some will be moved to the temporary kitchen as soon as the contractor starts.

Of course, I first have to pack up all the craft supplies out of those cabinets and drawers so I have room to put the items I plan to cook with.

Here is the corner cabinet that has a deep hole.  It will be replaced with a much more efficient corner cabinet.

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Here are all the contents from that cabinet (excluding the mix-master). Now I have to decide what to pack up in boxes and what will be moved downstairs to the temporary kitchen in two weeks.

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Right now I’m not going to make many decisions on what to keep and what not to keep.  My brain is already too overwhelmed.  I’ll pack it all up for now.  When I unpack the boxes in the bright, new, clean kitchen I’ll be much more capable of making good decisions on what is clutter and what is not.

Anyway,  for the next few months my blogging will probably be more focused on the process of the kitchen remodel than on other areas of cutting clutter.  I’ll share any lessons and tips I learn. I welcome any suggestions you may have that can help me to navigate this journey of a kitchen remodel.

To a lighter load along the way.

Janice

2 thoughts on “Diary of a Kitchen Remodel – In the Beginning”

  1. Had a forced remodel of our kitchen earlier this year due to a leaky pipe. Our kitchen is quite small and I actually had a lot of wasted space and had been storing a bunch of long unused items. After cleaning out and reorganizing I ended up with an uncluttered and more efficient space with less cabinets. The whole process took about a month, still don’t know how I did it especially since we had to rip out two walls due to water damage.

    1. Susan, I can’t even image having to deal with a forced remodel. We’ve taken our time with the planning and shopping but I’ve still find it very stressful. It sounds like you did a fantastic job of creating a much better designed kitchen even when having to make decisions under that kind of stress.

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