It's Wednesday, so I decided to join Kelly and Victoria at Design Ties for Rewind Wednesday. Kelly and Victoria understand how busy the summer months can be, so they are hosting an event where we can be lazy, er, more prudent with our time and re post a favorite from our blog archives. Not only is this a big time saver for me right now ( work has NOT slowed down an iota)
but it allows us to share an older post with new friends who may not have seen it. This post was originally a Metamorphosis Monday post that ran in January. Hope you enjoy our kitchen renovation.! And when you finish, make sure to stop by and visit all the other participants in Rewind Wednesday at http://design-ties.blogspot.com/.
If you haven't visited Design Ties before, what are you waiting for? Kelly and Victoria have a fabulous blog with some amazing design ideas and tips. You may remember Victoria from the late lamented Micasa Style web site. You will love their rooms and ideas. And besides, they are just fun! And wait until you see their new blog dress - it's divine!
In July of 2008, we returned from a wonderful and relaxing week at the beach. When we arrived home, we noticed a distinctly "musty" odor. Thinking that it was due to the house being closed up for 10 days in the Texas heat, we ignored it for a day. The next day, I went to pull an appliance out of a lower cupboard and discovered lots of wet and (horrors), the beginning of mold. After the initial screaming meemies, we set out to discover the source of the water. At first, we thought the washer had leaked as it was on the other side of the kitchen wall and we found water under the machine. Our trusty appliance repairman came out and gave the washer a clean bill of health. So we pulled the cabinet out (it was at this point totally useless) and discovered that the water was actually coming up through the concrete slab! So, away we went breaking up the concrete around what we thought was the source. Lo and behold, one of the pipes in the slab was set too close to the rebar, and a hole was eventually rubbed through. Apparently whoever built this house knew it was too close, as they had wrapped the pipe in - can I hear an amen - DUCT TAPE! Our plumber came out and repaired the leak, we repaired the concrete and then set out to renovate the kitchen. Our homeowners policy would not cover the repairs, as there was a sneaky little Texas clause in our policy that did not cover "leaks under grade". So, what now? We had been trying to decide what to do with this horrible, dated, UGLY kitchen for years. We just decided to rip everything out and start over! These are some before and after pix. We did all of the work ourselves, with the exception of the new drywall and the quartz countertop installation. It took us about 6 weeks from demo to new kitchen, during which time I discovered 3 important things: 1) It is no fun washing dishes in the bathtub 2) It's hard to have your kitchen and dining room in your living room (except DH loved having the frig next to his chair) 3) You know that you've been eating out too much when the man behind the counter at Wing Stop greets you by name when you come in! Hope you enjoy the change as much as we have. Stop in anytime for a cup of coffee and a chat.
The culprit
After demo and installation of new window
Old, low ceiling and everyone's favorite, a fluorescent light box
New raised ceiling and track lighting
Old high pass through and little used cabinet. We originally planned to remove this wall altogether, but it contains a large plumbing stack and alot of wiring. We (our budget) chose to remove the cabinet and lower the pass through to give a more open appearance.
The best part of any kitchen, the coffee area! Open shelve where cabinet used to be.
Old stove and pantry area. Lots of wasted space, and just ugly. Notice the lovely formica backsplash. The different paint colors were our attempt to get it right the first time. My husband swears that the rest of the house is held together by layers of paint.
Detail of the new backsplash, as well as the new stove/pantry area. We gained 15 inches of counterspace and a pot/pan organizer cabinet by getting rid of the old pantry "closet" and installing a new, narrower pantry.
The much more appetizing new view from our dining room.
Now stop by and say hey to Kelly and Victoria! You'll be glad you did.
It's hump day! Time for another blast from the past so graciously hosted by Kelly and Victoria at design-ties.blogspot.com/. This fun weekly event lets us repost something from our archives, allowing us more time for gardening, decorating, putting our head in the freezer to escape the heat - you get the picture! If you haven't been to visit these gals, you really should. They have a fantastic blog chock full of great decorating and great humor! And since this post is about our little fur person, I'm also linking to Gayle's Pet Parade at http://planetmfiles.com/. Be sure to stop by and visit all the pets being shown off. Everyone loves a parade, right? This post originally appeared in February. So without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the queen of our house, Sax the Cat!
This weeks theme is "Furry Friends, Real and Faux". I know she looks stuffed in this picture (the cat silly), but our little Sax is very real indeed. When our daughter was in high school, she worked part time at the veterinary practice that I manage. We had lost our 3 dogs and 2 cats within 2 years, and just could not bring ourselves to get another. DH and I thought that it would be best to hold off on any pets with Cait getting ready to go to college. It's a big responsibility to care for one of these little creatures, and we assumed (and we were right!) that we might be taking alot of weekend trips for football games, recitals and the like. One day, Cait came home from work and was acting rather odd. I asked how her shift went, and she would not turn to look at me. It was February and she had on a heavy coat. As she turned to go to her room, I saw a little fuzzy head pop out of her jacket! "But Mom," she pleaded. "She was laying in a rain puddle next to the dumpster at work, I couldn't just leave her there" Of course, at this point we had not had a dog or cat in the house for over 2 years. So, we had no cat food, litter, litter pan, or any of the kitty "necessities" I also did not want to get attached to a stray cat that had not been checked out first. So I told Cait to take her up to the clinic and put her in the isolation room, and I would have one of the Doctors check her the next day. If she got a clean bill of health, and Cait purchased the basic cat necessities, we would keep her on a trial basis. The next day, Dr. Webster checked her over well, tested her for all the nasty kitty viruses that are out there, vaccinated her and gave us the thumbs up to take her home. We also discovered that she had a spay scar and was declawed! Sax has turned out to be the best cat we have ever had. She is very social and loves nothing better than laying in our lap or on our chest, attempting to con us into a nap! Turns out napping is the thing she does best, she is the QUEEN of naps! I have read that the average house cat spends 13-18 hours a day sleeping, I think she is trying to beat that average. 
This is her "pout pose" when I remove her from my lap to use the computer! DH says I bought the new sofa because it matched the cat - hey at least the hair doesn't show as badly!
This is Sax pretending not to be asleep - she's just "resting her eyes"
She likes to hide around the corner and pounce on your leg when you come through - she thinks you can't see her!
Staring out the window at her neighborhood boyfriend - Romeo, oh Romeo! She's not allowed outside, daddy is very protective, and remember, she's been declawed. Besides, we have some wicked mockingbirds in our yard! And please, please, please forgive the holy mess in this room - this is Cait's room (I promise you Barney purple was not my idea) and until we redo this room it has become a storage shed! Notice the unframed art on the chair? The glass table top leaning against the window? You should see the other side of the room, or no, maybe you shouldn't.
This is Sax saying so long, it was nice to visit, but she needs her beauty sleep! I hope you enjoyed meeting our little fur person. Please remember that stray and shelter pets need a home too, and they usually make the very best pets. It's almost as if they understand that you saved their lives, and the unconditional love and patience they offer is beyond compare!
