I’m so excited to share this mini series about our recent kitchen remodel. Today is about the “why.” Inside scoop: it boiled down to realizing our family of four wasn’t going to survive with the current set-up.

First strike: the fridge. It was shrinking as we were growing. While searching for one that would accommodate a hungry two-boy home, we discovered the fridge “cubby hole” originally built into the kitchen wasn’t going to allow anything larger unless we started pulling out cabinets. Yikes.

Second strike: the sink. It was porous, which meant it showed any-and-all colors that went into it: coffee, wine, red sauces, berries, basically anything you fear would stain your shirt, we feared would stain our sink. I kid you not in saying it required nightly scrubbing or bleaching to ensure potential stains wouldn’t set. Adding insult to injury, it was a small double sink. The annual post-brine bath battles with Thanksgiving turkeys were actually causing me to dread my favorite holiday. A weekly showdown with our stock pot was becoming unbearable – filling it with water or cleaning it – thanks to sink’s size and faucet placement. And don’t get me started on cleaning cookie sheets. It was time for a change.

Third strike: it was turning into a luke-warm relationship. Like many families, we spend a lot of time in the kitchen and realized we were on a slippery slope. We were tolerating the situation, making small fixes and adjustments, and it was driving us nuts. As I already mentioned I dreaded preparing celebratory meals in it (not ideal considering what I do for a living). And in the far reaches of our minds, we’re always thinking about resale value. We have no idea when we will sell this place, but when the day arrives there’s no doubt we’ll need to make some updates beyond a new coat of paint. So instead of waiting until the end and thinking “why didn’t we do this sooner,” we decided to start making the changes overtime (within reason and budget) to help us be genuinely happy and proud with our nest.

You’re out. When we first talked about the remodel, and trust me on this, the ideas included taking out entire walls to open up our main floor’s space. OH! Glory Be! The Space! The Light! Then reality hit in the form of a dollar sign – or five – as we started interviewing contractors and scaled back. What about removing one wall? The Space! The Light! Then we got the bids. Mmm. Space. Light. It dawned on us while we wanted a new kitchen, we wanted a bottom line we were comfortable with since we worked hard saving up for this opportunity and didn’t want to go broke over it. That’s when we decided to stick with the original footprint but make it work. And work it we did… well, our kickin’ contractor made it work.

More on all this soon – including the final remodel! Hope you enjoy this little series!