We don't do boring.

We don't. Like, ever. I mean, why NOT kick off 2018 by completely gutting our kitchen. Like. Barebones gutting. Also, FYI, this wasn't PLANNED. I mean, it was sorta planned....but not like THIS.

So for years I've begged Jason to open the wall between our kitchen and dining room. I've always felt like I was back in a dungeon doing "wifely" things, while he and the kids were in the opposite end of the house doing their thing. Let's face it, when we bought the place 10+ years ago, it had a door closing off the kitchen from the rest of the house. Servants quarters, what?!?

 Well, when he got his dream (our dream, but his big dream) of a garage, and we attached it to the house, we always questioned WHERE the entrance from the garage into the kitchen would land with the current cabinet configuration. We racked our brains and finally decided that maybe just opening the wall between the kitchen/dining area, and moving a few cabinets would suffice. However, with a little push from some inheritance money, and further research, new cabinets all around is where we opted to go. Little did we realize what that would bring....

January 20th we began the process of knocking out the wall that I'd always dreamed about...

Let me stop here and talk about how GREAT of helpers each of the kids were. They were all three all in, and such a big help. So fun to embark on this journey as a family....speaking of family, I'll also interject here that Uncle Jacob gets ALL the credit for that beautiful exposed brick chimney that for ten years I didn't even realize was there. I guess I didn't put two and two together that an old chimney would be brick. Regardless, Jacob was over for dinner one night, and Jason was barking at me about just dreaming and not having a plan and not knowing what to do, and when I turned the tables and asked him, and HE didn't have an idea, I think Jacob could feel the tension boiling up....so he interjected: "What about just leaving the chimney exposed"............best ice breaker/marriage saving suggestion ever!

So that went okay...and we landed here:

See that little patch of green in the back, by the window? That's where we'd "imagined" the new door going to the garage. The problem, it was only about 30 inches, and with a laundry room right off that opening, we wanted plenty of room to be able to haul laundry baskets, etc. So, we just kept slugging along....and moved out all the cabinets...

Which brought us the next fun issue....the floors. We always knew there was a thicker floor in the kitchen....layers of linoleum over ceramic tile, because so many of you have probably stubbed your toe going into our kitchen....but little did we know just HOW thick and gross that floor was until we started chipping away at it...

If you know Jason well at all, you already know what's coming. After two days of digging and chipping and breaking ends to a rented piece of equipment that was making ZERO progress at chipping away, it was "Screw this" and the next thing I knew, my kitchen was like this:

Mind you, these last photos were taken on January 28th. Recall the first were taken January 20th. Eight days friends...that's all it took to come to the conclusion of gutting and starting fresh!
So, fresh start we did -- Jason threw down new plywood, and we met with Fred Pearson's Cabinetry in Monticello.

This is what we were dreaming up...

So, we set to framing things back in, planning to replace that back bathroom with a walk-in pantry area.

 We also replaced the window in the back entry near the new door to the laundry room.

Again, if you know Jason, you know his motto.....why stop there? I mean, if we're opening this up, let's open it up! So, we did...by February 20th, one month from starting, we had a completely open concept floor plan!

Here's the view from the laundry room door area, to the front door, after the beams were placed!

Of course, now this open sunroom area would become our living area, so all those sunroom windows had to go. 

Next came replacing and rehanging drywall...

In the midst of this stretch of home renovation, Keaton and I really got to know Chip the electrician, as he fought about 10 days of diarrhea. It was awful and wonderful at the same time. Awful for him, but wonderful to be home with him! :) Drywall really started making it all come together....

 Oh, you may be wondering where we kept everything in this portion of the reno.....but perhaps you hadn't looked in our living room! Which, by the way, Jason and I decided when opening up the sunroom to turn into our living room, why don't we just make the living room a first floor master bedroom? So this room was our living room/dining room/bathroom/kitchen at one point. Just beyond Colton's chair, you'd find the microwave where we cooked! It was a hoaders dream and most normal tidy people's (read: Brad & Jacki Stockment's) nightmare! BUT, we survived it! Notice the easter eggs....this was on March 30th. 2ish months into the project.

But then, it all started moving VERY quickly from there. How grateful we are that Jason's got so many friends in his line of work. Friends to come in and do the drywall hanging and mudding of the drywall at a fraction of what we'd pay a contractor to do it!

My birthday is April 3rd and on that day, I came home from work to find freshly painted white ceilings and the start to color in our new space. WHAT a gift!!

On April 7th, one month before our "final deadline" day of May 7th, Emmalyn's 1st Communion, Mom, Jacki and I swept her away for a day of girly shopping for her 1st Communion Dress. The boys were farmed out to Uncle Trent and Uncle Matt for the Spring Game, and upon return, we found this:

I wanted to cry. We made it. We could finally see it all coming together. A week later, Jason had hired a few guys who had done some work at Bouma Betten, to come out and do various odd jobs around to help finish things up in time. Fabian and Renee were LIFE SAVERS. Not only did they do great work, they helped give Jason that final umph to make it to the finish line. Oh Saturday, April 14th, in a SINGLE DAY, they laid all the floors in the dining/living/kitchen areas, which by now, is 3/4 of the downstairs.

This got me so excited and antsy! On April 15th, I got the go ahead from Jason to have a semi-move in party (needless to say, we were ALL OVER hoarderville and ready to spread out!)

 On April 23rd, while Jason was away on a guys fishing trip, our appliances were installed, making everything feel that much closer to completion....

By the weekend of April 29th, Jason was home, and things were settled to a place where I could start hanging some decor...thankful for a mother and sister in law who have the patience and vision to make my home Chip & Jo proud!

 And then Jason went ahead and topped my dreams by agreeing to while tile backsplash, which, honestly, brought the whole thing together. I'd be worried about the darker cabinets, the lighter countertops, the white island, the darker appliances....but boy did the tiles just bring it all together....

And alas, the final pictures.....the after pictures....taken May 5th at 10pm......not a moment too soon of Emmalyn's 1st Communion. Just a short 3ish months from that day when our kitchen was completely gutted down to floor joists!

We've been enjoying our new space since early May, and it still feels like a dream some days. I enjoy washing dishes, and being in my kitchen because I'm not just in the kitchen making supper, I'm making supper while visiting with my family or watching Keaton play tractors or while watching Jason and Colton work calves out my front windows. It's a dream come true, and I am SO, SO thankful to everyone who helped put in blood, sweat & tears (okay, I provided most of those) to make this dream come true!!