Kitchen Reno Updates – ORC Week Two

If you missed my kitchen design plan, find it here (I updated it to reflect my lighting choice).  I’m sharing this renovation as a guest participant in the Spring One Room Challenge, which is great motivation to share weekly progress reports!  You would not believe how many DAYS it took to pack up and empty the kitchen!  We also packed up the credenza, so I could use it to store a few basics while the kitchen is being renovated.

Renovation progress is happening, slowly but surely: the cabinets and counters have been removed, we took down the cubbies and panelling and – with them – the drywall.  New drywall went up and I learned how to drywall!  We’ve only ever had small drywall jobs to do, that Hubby did while I worked on something else, but this time I screwed in the sheets and did the taping and mudding.  This is the kind of DIY that does not really thrill me, lol.  I’m exhausted and not 100% done yet.  I’m starting to worry a teeny tiny bit, because I still have to finish the drywall, then paint the walls and ceiling, and then we have to install sub-floor and cut away some hardwood flooring before the cabinet installers come, bright and early on Monday.  I’m alone working on the kitchen until this weekend, and I’m just hoping I can do it all in time.

So far, we haven’t hit any major snags.  Just a couple of annoying little things:

We realized we can’t do a sconce above the window as planned – there’s a giant header there!  So we’re going to go with two more pot lights above the window instead.  Honestly, we chose a sconce because it was easier, not because I was especially committed to the idea.   So pot lights are fine by me!

I also had to skip under cabinet lighting, but I don’t know that I was fully committed to that anyway.

And I finally got quotes for appliance delivery.  We couldn’t get delivery from the store we bought them, because we live too far out (only an hour away, I was super annoyed).  So I got a quote from the company the store suggested and it’s going to be kind of expensive – $165 an hour!  And I figure it’s going to be a minimum of 4 hours – maybe more, if they take their sweet time driving here and back.  But they’re insured, and my biggest fear is damaging our new appliances if we try to deliver them ourselves (which is Hubby’s plan).  It’s all theoretical, anyway, the appliances still haven’t arrived in store…

So, as you can see, no major problems to report!

In happy news, I picked up my tile samples from Mercury Mosaics.  I love them all!  I can’t decide until we see the counters though.  Which one do you like?  I think they’re all gorgeous – especially the color called Lake Superior (the big scallop tile), which is the one I hope works.  I’ll share more tile details when I’m able to make my choice.  Right now, I have drywall mud calling my name…

If you want to watch this renovation unfold in real time, be sure to follow me on Instagram!  I’m sharing snippets in my stories.  I’ll have more updates soon!