A Kitchen to love

Where does one start about the maniacal adventures of a home reno, but through the kitchen!?!?

We knew we needed to update our old and tired kitchen and it just never seemed to fit us. After the cruel winter, the burst water pipes, the decision to make a coffered ceiling in the space... we went looking for advice and was told that what we had on our hands was the ultimate space for a kitchen.

Doing a kitchen with kids in the house is an utter nightmare and if I never have to see take out again I'd be beyond happy. So many little details make the kitchen the most grand part of our reno and I plan to share it in multiple posts.

But our kitchen is the feature room of our house; I like to call it the jewel of our home and my prized possession.

Renovating with Love

We decided to renovate our house... we decided to take the leap to renovate while living in the house pregnant or with a newborn. 3 othe kids 7 years old or under and a million items to deal with.

The start and catalyst of our renos was our old living room which we wanted it to become our new kitchen. Meaning figuring out Gas and water even electrical.

We took on this project as a full time job. We put a lot to the side. We had to balance family and renos. We had to stay married. You make joke but Huffington post published an article stating that 12% of couples doing home renos get divorced or separate. And this isn't the only source  of such stories. Type into Google: Divorce and Renovations... and you'll get things to avoid to save your marriage to numbers and figures about divorce and house renos.

We are slowly coming to end our renos and I can attest it's not easy. I know I'm fairly one of the most laid back easy going person I know... and if home renos can set me off a few times; well a lesser patience person probably would snap.

Living in the reno means:
     •Dust everywhere humanly possible. Ohhh did you just wash that basket of clean clothing, its now covered in plaster dust, wood dust.
     •Ohhh did you want to eat on this surface, its become a makeshift bench for the rest of the day.
     • Everything is packed in boxes either in storage or not in the room in needs to be.

While I am relishing the renos and how much I currently love my home. It has taken a toll on my impeccable patience and my poor husband has way more grey hairs than he did last year. And I can happily report we are still very much in love and married.

Decorating for your family.

Last year I endeavored to renovate my house with my whole family still living in it. It appears I figured it would be totally acceptable to lose my mind, my sanity and my better sense of judgement.

Did I mention, I envisioned myself going full tilt in my renos with baby #4 in my belly?

We had a huge burst pipe in what was our living room ceiling and that sprinted us into completely changing the whole house. In what I could only describe as a labour of serious love and style we created something that both and my husband can be proud of.

Actually mixing our personal styles to create the ultimate designer first floor was fun. Adding girly touches, adding intricate craftsmanship and infusing our everyday business into our home was important.

It truly was an adventure and many said I should have moved out, truth is I totally should have. But we live, we learn. It also taught my children to not expect things will always be perfect and while something was here yesterday it might not be here today.

So I'm pretty excited to show you every room in the house that was fixed and bring you on our journey of fun home renos.

MMmmmm Pine!

They are here!

I had bought myself solid wood pine doors for my upstairs rooms... all 4 doors. Matching unstained highly beautiful pine doors; but they had been at my dad's workshop for over a year. Broken arm and all... the doors are back, the doors will be going up this month. Still don't know if we are painting or are we staining them??? Who knows... all I know is my girls will have a door for their bedroom (they don't have one)-- we have a cheesy plywood door on our room. We have a very old house with huge 7 in. mouldings... so we needed real doors.

I am soooo excited. I will share the progress as it comes along.

Cheers!~