Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Heart Of Franklin

They say/I believe that the kitchen is the heart of the home. Franklin (our home) has a GREAT heart, err.... HAD a great heart.  What was supposed to be an angioplasty of sorts; same heart, just cleaned out and made to have better function, ended up to be open heart surgery.  Some might argue that it's a heart transplant.

Everyone has their own dreams and Lord knows I've had my fair share of unrealistic super big dreams. And we all know that my kitchen dreams are very *advantageous*. Sometimes this is what I thought my kitchen would/could look like, on a smaller scale and MUCH smaller budget:

Totally doable, right?

Maybe a little of this too:

 
Oh, I can at least say I DO have these floors.  Not in the kitchen, but I have em!

This wouldn't suck either:


Can we talk about the food that I would crank out in this kitchen?!?! 

Again, my budget and footprint is smaller.  And I am very okay with that.  We have ALWAYS felt "less is more" and that always spills over to our buying style. I love creating a room that evokes the SAME feeling, (on MY budget) that these rooms do... It's a whole "Oooh... Mommy likey!" type of feeling.

Back to Franklin.  He's the best.  We love him.  We I think that his kitchen BEFORE was beautiful. Not in the aesthetic sense, but in the "I know love went into the meals cooked in here." type of beauty. Memories are made in the kitchen, and this one is NO exception. For 40+ years the previous owner, a single mom of 4, fed her family out of this kitchen.  For the next 40 years we'll feed our family from this kitchen.

Franklin's heart looked like this when we moved in:


 This was Franklin when we adopted him.

Aw! Where did it go? Yes, the kitchen is behind those walls.

This is Franklin in more recent times:

It really was like playing peek a boo!  

Granted, there's been a few (hundred) changes to the kitchen since this pic, but all in all, that's it's current state! Minus some walls you see here, minus a ceiling, minus.....

So, we put our dreams on paper, we pieced it together to fit our budget; we've shopped at outlets, liquidators, second hand shops, ebay, back alley warehouses- all in the name of a good deal! And we've pledged to do 97.9% of it ourselves, saving thousands and thousands in labor.  Our only help will be with plumbing (moving laundry to basement) and with that, Kurt will be working along side of the plumber. We might enlist a neighbor to help with running the 220v for laundry downstairs. And of course our counters will be installed for us, other than that.. it's our baby.  And like all our babies, we're hands on and doing it ourselves!
  • Hang drywall
  • Install can lights
  • Install decorative *schoolhouse* lighting
  • Hang drywall
  • Tape, mud and texture walls
  • Open up a doorway, or two.
  • Install cabinets
  • Install new flooring (will it be cork or will it be wood? If it's wood you get to watch me struggle through sanding/staining old floors and installing/staining new floors to match)
  • Install trim/baseboards
  • A pluthora of other things........
Here is  a (rough) *rendering* of our plan:
There are a few things I should point out:
  • The fridge will have a finished piece/cab/something on top
  • Our ceilings are NOT that high. All upper cabs will go to ceiling of soffit.
  • The range/peninsula will have a wall behind it- no floating ranges in this kitchen. The wall will come up about 4 inches higher than counter tops to allow for a "periscope" vent to "pop up" behind the range for ventilation.
  • The "butlers pantry" has an upper and a microwave cabinet to the right of it and a wine glass rack below that.  
If this were an actual picture, I'd be standing in the dining room. The doorway to the right is to the front room, the doorway straight ahead to the right is to the powder bath and den. The doorway out the butlers pantry is to the backyard.
So, it's beginning. Like really starting.  Next week is finish up electrical work, move laundry to basement, drywall/tape/mud/texture, after we pull cabs/countertops/backsplash.  It appears that our kitchen will reside in the garage and office for a bit.  

Who does this?  With three kids? One who's returned to head banging, hitting, kicking, tics and rocking in corners by himself.  I won't name any names, but it rhymes with Mavin and this certain someone has the bluest eyes you've ever seen and holds my heart in one hand and my worry for him in his other. "Mavin" will also help with the construction of the kitchen.  It's kinda his thing.  The other two can care less.  Because of this personality flaw discovery we're ordering DNA tests. We're not sure they are really "ours".

Stay tuned for updates on the status of our marriage DURING the remodel, the condition of our children and how many times God's name is used.  Not in VAIN silly, just in prayer. They'll be LOTS of prayer.

 

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