I finally snapped today.

After living in a big mess of dirt, insulation, and tools I had a melt down. For a month and a half now our family has been living in a house with no kitchen, an out house like bathroom situation, and ( up until a few days ago) no washer or dryer. I had been doing pretty well reminding myself why we are doing this and how wonderful it will be to someday have a cute farmhouse with no debt, till I made the grave mistake of looking at beautiful kitchens online. All my reasoning and tough girl attitude faded away when I looked at the spacious, clean, and pretty kitchens.

Here is my adorable hubby suited up to remove the five different layers of kitchens we found. The first layer on the walls was the 1970’s wood paneling, under that was 1950’s faux tile linoleum, next 1930’s followed by 1920’s style wallpaper layers, and finally we got to the original layer of rustic planked wood walls. The hole you see near Michael’s head  is an original stove pipe entrance to the chimney, for a wood burning stove. It was cleverly hidden behind the metal 1950’s cabinets.

Here is how the kitchen looked when we first moved in. The cabinet doors fell off if you tried to open them and the whole place had not been cleaned in years.

We actually found cooking school invitations and farm equipment catalog dated March 10th 1955 behind the cabinets.

Here is what the kitchen looked like as my sweet dad and husband peeled away the layers.

This is basically what my kitchen looks like right now.

The plastic is covering the doorway to the dining room.

Notice where the planks change color revealing an old doorway that was filled in.

The blue room beyond the kitchen is the bath we are currently using.

Gorgeous, right?

After I had time to think about it I realized:

1.  I shouldn’t be looking at designer kitchens right now.

2.  I am thankful that my husband and family are willing to spend their precious free time working so hard and saving us money.

3.  I know I will appreciate my kitchen so much more than someone who quickly made all their design decisions and didn’t really take part in the labor aspect.

I know I’m gonna love my new kitchen someday. God is really working on developing patience and thankfulness in me.

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