Demolition
When Tate and I decided to move to Charlottesville we also decided it was time to buy our first home.
A combination of high rents in Cville, [relatively] low house prices, and a desire to put down some real roots after a decade of transitions led to our decision.
At first we thought we could do a ‘fixer upper’. But we were wrong. By the time we were on the hunt we’d been living out of backpacks for 7 months and sleeping in a different bed every few nights.
We looked at a lot of crappy houses that month. My heart sank with every purple carpet and smoke stained wall. Then we found our house.
It was renovated in 2008 and then sat empty with an inflated price and a housing crisis. The house is kind of odd. The original structure is from the 1920’s but several additions have been added, creating an unconventional footprint and a low roof in the dining room and kitchen. The renovation was also kind of shoddy; unskilled labor, lower-end fixtures, and several ‘cut corners’.
But honestly what I saw was brand-spanking new paint, floors, fixtures, appliances, three big bedrooms, and a great lot. A home! And a price that was below our budget.
There were some minor issues when we moved in (that we knew about going into it); the first few days in the house were spent without water while the plumbing was repaired from sitting empty through a hard winter. We’ve done a lot of work in the yard but nothing major to the inside.
Until now.
As we got to know our house we quickly realized that the weakest link (other than being situated right on a busy road) was the kitchen.
It’s a postage stamp.
I have managed to “make it work” for the last 18 months but seriously, y’all know how much I love my kitchen time!
Now that we are settled into life in Charlottesville and work it’s demo time!
We are moving the kitchen from it’s current location to the downstairs bedroom.
I didn’t get a before shot while it was still set up as the guest room but here it is mid-clean out.
The tape on the floor is the new kitchen plan!
We are tearing down the wall between this room and the dining room to create a more open floor plan.
Tate is doing a lot of the work himself!
I plan on getting my hands dirty too but my main job will be attempting to keep the rest of the house in working order during construction. I am so excited about our new kitchen, little terrified of the process, but mostly excited!
Any advice for living in a construction zone? How about things you LOVE about your kitchen or wish you had?
