Dear D'Arcy

Hello Beautiful’s and welcome to our kitchen!

This huge remodel took 4 years! Yes… 4 years! (we started when our oldest graduated High school and finished when he graduated college!) But hey… we paid cash for both, so we say it was a sacrifice well worth it!  I am sure your asking your self, how did we cook? We’re lucky to have a second kitchen downstairs or we would have never been able to undertake such a huge remodel, specially for that long of a period.

Now, that you know a little of the back ground, heres some of the details you don’t see. The kitchen was closed in and very small, with a in kitchen dining space. We also had a formal dining space on the other side of that closed off wall (dumb…you had to walk clear around through the living room to get to it!)  Our first plan of attack was to gut the kitchen and take it to the studs including the floor to the joist’s, then remove two kitchen walls and the formal dining wall. This allows us to open up the space for an open floor plan, with architectural arch details. We chose to add more arches (we had 1 in kitchen and 1 in dining room already) and I didn’t want to remove those because we loved the Architectural element and we didn’t want to raise the kitchen ceiling (that would have opened another can of worms!) This gave us the in kitchen dinning space to double our kitchen space. Our 2nd plan of attack was relocate the water lines, gas lines, central vacuum system and all the electrical, to fit our new kitchen floor plan. This was not an easy task and was more involved & costlier then we would have liked. (remember I have a contractor hubby and is good with a budget) After accomplishing all the rewiring and plumbing, we were able to put in the new flooring and had the Arches built, our Friend Billy is a talented wood worker & owner of Studio H matched our existing arches perfectly!  NO more dust and now we have one hell of a large dance floor! 🙂 That was our budget and some of our budget for the next year! With going over budget and having a kid in college, (that I was determined he would graduate without having a single bill!)  This meant 2nd year had a smaller budget, so we started to purchase our appliances 1 by 1, ( did you know most warranties on Appliances don’t start until install date?) then we purchased the lighting and came up with a plan to attack the cabinet issue. I had really wanted European inlaid cabinets and their about double the cost of regular cabinets. Inlaid cabinets are a frameless cabinet which creates full access cabinetry because it offers greater accessibility by eliminating the face frame. Inlaid fit flush with the cabinet, not on top of the cabinet.  This is a very precision process and no room for error. European cabinet is becoming more popular among American homeowners seeking simple, more contemporary cabinet design. I love the full access & the flush sleek look of them, no bar in center of doors and the concealed hinges are attached directly to the sides of the cabinet box. I also wanted real wood, even thought I wanted white cabinets, I love the feel of real wood and the weight of it. Another must, was soft close drawers. With a house of boys, this eliminates scratches and slamming!  We decided to wait on doing all the custom cabinets in one full sweep, and came up with a 4 section stage. Our Cabinet guy (Billy)priced out each section (4 sections) Island 1, Island 2, fridge wall and stove wall, broken down by purchasing each section 1 at a time. knowing I could fit sections into the budget for the remaining years instead of 1 large payment. We squeezed in Island 1 into year 2….oops… on the budget!

We had an estimated budget set for each year and I knew going in what the total project was estimated to cost and that it was going to take us 3-4 years! I wanted what I wanted and would rather wait then to cut any corners or change the quality of the kitchen. Now, do I wish I didn’t have the gift of always picking the most expensive of anything….Yes! Yes I do!!!  Telling myself “great things are worth waiting for!” 

Year 3… Cabinets…. Goal is to get the last 3 section built and installed! We did it…Boy it looks like a kitchen and we’re so close!   Life get’s in the way…. our down stairs kitchen appliances all need to be replaced, our washer and dryer broke….You named it, it happened…. Kitchen is gonna have to go into year 4… Bright side, our kid is on track to graduate in four years and with no debit!  

Year 4…Our lighting is all installed, all the hardware is installed, counter tops installed thanks to Galaxy tops and Tile, faucet & pot filler have running water, back splash is installed (hubby and I up until 1am installing it for this shoot!)  Don’t mind the one wall….it didn’t get done in time for this photo shoot but I can proudly say we got it done that weekend!   It’s done…It’s really done and it was worth the journey! I have tears as I write this because it now feels real, I have sat and stared at my dream kitchen… while having a cup of tea and I couldn’t believe it was really mine and it’s done it’s really done!  (I had more tears, when my baby boy graduated with honors on the deans list!) Yes… He did it:) Graduated from the University of Utah, both goals accomplished!  

As for what’s next? For me I’ll be cooking in my kitchen and sharing some of my favorite receipts with you. As for Hudson, he’s finishing up his summer class and then he’ll be looking for a career…He wants to cook in the new kitchen! (maybe i’ll let him!)

I hope you enjoyed my kitchen journey and can be inspired in some way. I also hope you take away from this, that not everything has to happen overnight. It can be a process & a journey if you have a dream, a goal or even a remodel, plan & budget and work towards it every day until it gets accomplished! Yes, you will have set backs, you will have hoops to jump, you might even have tears wanting it to be over but let me tell you when it’s accomplished, it’s all worth it! (sometimes I would just stare at my kitchen plans wishing it was done and I would tell myself “it’s gonna be beautiful and worth the wait!” 

Warning: I will be posting a ton of photo shoot’s in this space…. So get ready for kitchen over load!

If you have any budgeting questions or design questions leave a comment i’ll be happy to help. OX, D’Arcy

This post was a collaboration with Galaxy Tops and Tile and may contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own. I only promote brands that I truly love and believe in! Thank you for your support!