So I thought I would take the opportunity to chronicle my journey into and through a kitchen facelift, seeing as how it shouldn�t be TOO horrendously long of a process. Not too detailed lest this be mistaken for a misplaced blog, but maybe to give some ideas, log my mistakes and give perspective to a reno project even though it will be a (relatively) small one.

First, this is my home:

We bought it and moved in at the very beginning of February 2014 after a sudden job change for my Dear Hubby. We left behind a home in the location of our dreams, so I have had a hard time getting excited about or attached to this house. At around 2200 sq ft it is bigger than I want to have to clean, and is poorly laid out, but it is well-maintained and has the acreage we need to stay rural but close to work for DH and enough to run our dogs and keep my horse and chickens.

This is the kitchen and dining room as it appeared in the real estate listing:

And this is the kitchen a couple weeks ago:

We have not been here long, but we have lived in a lot of houses and one thing was abundantly clear from the moment I saw the ad: I hated that kitchen. We bought this house with my stipulation that I would get to redo the kitchen, and sooner rather than later.

Well, life happens and it looked like it was still going to have to be "later." I could hardly bear to work in the tiny space even with the island, since it is so far away from my cooking space. I started reading here at the Kitchens forum and immediately started learning. I learned renos truly are expensive, tastes run the gamut and there is a lot more than simply picking out my favorite counters and stone.

I also learned I could accomplish a whole lotta change on a much smaller budget by making sacrifices that really didn�t matter that much anyway. A forum member here (was it Ann? I�ll have to look) made the point that if we switched our fridge to the other end of our "L" we could move the range over, insert larger cabinets and gain a LOT more prep and storage space while retaining the open feel granted by the island.

Then I discovered that paint can be a miracle worker and that the stock unfinished cabinets at the big box stores actually had doors that matched my Merrilat doors, even though the boxes are a wreck.
Yikes.

So here, at long last, is my plan: we purchased a new, narrower fridge that fits (mostly) well in the space to the left of our dishwasher. We will pull out the 12" uppers flanking the range and the 12" drawer base (really???) beside it and slide the range down 24". This allows for two 24" base cabs beside the stove, a new 24" upper and a new 36" upper. We ordered quartz countertops for the cabs and my island cabs, and everything will get a thorough paint job.

If I can find a way to overcome the fact that the laminate floor was laid around the island we will also move the island two feet closer to the stove.

I planned to use beadboard on the backsplash, not only because it is inexpensive but I also love it. Then a funny thing happened, I set foot in a local art tile store and fell in love. Hard. Since my space is small, for minimal additional money I would have an amazing tile backsplash and DH said he would rather do that anyway.

Since we still had a lot of store credit at Menards we bought a new sink and faucet, too. Oh, and we are adding pulls to everything.

So, intro over, I will post about my first steps in a reply spot. Here are a couple more pics of the kitchen, please excuse the mess of moving and the stop-gap measures like the bakers rack that doesn�t fit but holds our microwave. Much of that crap has found homes elsewhere.