I Love Lamp: Kitchen Renovation Begins!

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Once upon a time, the kitchen in our house was the commercial kitchen for the Schwarzenegger's Sunshine Valley House. 

Which sounds super cool in theory. Big, shiny, stainless steel appliances, easy to clean surfaces, right?

Riiiiight. More like, busted yellow 1950s linoleum, a giant but haggard stove that works only about 60% of the way, and no heat. Because who needs heat, this is Florida! To be fair, Maria Schwarzenegger certainly didn't for the 50 years she had the oven on as she served up three meals a day for dozens of people. Which is not at all what we're up to now, so it was high time for an upgrade.

This is what it looked like the day we moved in, back in December 2013:

I swear we were WAY more happy to be here than Steven's shocked face suggests. 

And once we started moving a few things in, trying to sort out what exactly was going on amidst all these layers of wall:

We painted a whole bunch in the beginning. First all white, then we added some black. (Good lord, the painting of the inside of drawers and cabinets; it's three times the surface area you think it's going to be!) We removed a few of the built-ins. And when the new siding went up on the whole house that first spring, we popped in new windows and doors at the same time. (You can relive that with me here.)

So it's looked pretty much like this the whole time we've lived here:

We had a few failed improvements along the way. Like when we tried to paint the awful linoleum with porch paint which promptly scratched right off.

My favorite improvement by a mile was the addition of the barn door. I also like our sweet little bar.

But now it's ALL GOING! Well, everything but the barn door actually. We're bringing the whole thing down to the studs, we're vaulting the ceiling, installing all new appliances... And by "we" I mean the royal we of our kick ass contracting team. This shit it is WAY above our DIY skills. 

Steven and I spent all yesterday removing absolutely everything for the crew so it'd be ready to roll for their 6:45am arrival today. Et voila!

I'll show you pics of our "jail house kitchen" currently set up in the living room next because yes, we are of course going to have no kitchen during the two month-ish process, way out here in the middle of nowhere where absolutely nobody delivers Chinese food or pizza.  That said, we've lived in way stranger and more sparse set ups around the world. For example, when we lived in an old radio station above a bus station in Mail where there was no kitchen at all! Or private bathroom for that matter. Or shower. 

And you thought we were nuts for moving to the Catskills and opening a hotel. Pshhhht. 

I'm not saying this is going to be easy, but I am saying I'm going to try to remember we've lived through weirder when the inevitable renovation frustrations fall.

But look! Already, they've been here hardly three hours and there goes the stove!

BOOM! Oh my gosh, demo is so freaking thrilling.

I'll be updating here with pics and such, so come on by again soon for more renovation tales! And send frozen China town dumplings. PLEASE.