Kitchen Reno: Days 1-3

And so it begins... four weeks of living in dust and chaos. What's going on? We're redoing our kitchen! Call us crazy, but we decided to tackle much of it ourselves (new kitchens don't come cheap!) and with the new school year just weeks away, we knew it was time to pull the trigger.

For those who need a reminder... here's what the kitchen looked like when we moved in. Very orangey and very outdated...

And here's what it looks like right now...

 But I'm getting ahead of myself...

We kicked off the renovation on Tuesday by tearing out our old drop in stove. It was easier said than done, as we took about 20 minutes to even figure out where it was attached to the surrounding cabinets. A few screws and a good yank later, and there was no turning back.

Then, on Wednesday, our new stove and dishwasher arrived. Unfortunately, the old one had been hard-wired in, meaning we had to wire our own electrical outlet to install beside the stove. I'll spare you the agony of details and skip to the happy ending. The outlet is in and it works! And I couldn't be more proud. Here's the new stove in all her double-oven glory!

Makes the cabinets look even more outdated, doesn't it!?

Today was Day 3. We took down all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts to begin sanding, and installed the dishwasher. Honestly, I was thinking the dishwasher would be an easy task (I watched lots of youtube videos and had the reassurance of my favorite Home Depot associate) but it was awful. Our old copper plumbing didn't align, we couldn't get things to stop dripping, and I ended up making two trips to HD before all was said and done. But now it's done (and said?) and there's a gleaming new dishwasher just waiting to be used. 

I'll admit, living in this dusty jungle is less than glamorous. I have trouble scrounging up meals when all our food is in a pile in the living room, and I have trouble sleeping at night if I start to think about just how much work is still ahead of us. But there are also moments that make me smile, like claiming victory over an electrical outlet, or catching this little stinker as she found the temporary home for our onions. Yes, she is sitting on a cutting board. And yes, my immediate response to watching her take a bite out of a raw onion (through the bag) was to first snap a photo. 

And just like that..we're up to speed! New appliances installed, cabinet doors down and boxes sanded once (still need another pass with a finer grit sandpaper), and baby eating onions. It's amazing to me how much has changed with just a little bit of paint on the walls, so I can only imagine the glorious scene that awaits on that final day when we can call this a wrap. These next four weeks can't go by fast enough!