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I have told my hubby that all I want for Christmas is a kitchen for three years now! Though working on the structural damage on our farmhouse is not fun, we can finally see that our kitchen project is gaining traction! I probably won’t get a completely finished kitchen this year, but check out all the progress we have made in the past few weeks…

Before

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After all the rotten joists and sill plates had been replaced.

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Fixing the water and termite damage caused by neglect and quick fixes drained our already tight budget, but we were glad that we caught the issues hidden beneath the vinyl before it was too late. We actually hired a few guys to do the structural repairs because we felt that it was out of our DIY comfort zone and skill level. We left it to the pros and decided that while they were at the farm we would have them enlarge a few of the openings between the kitchen, dining, and living room.

Before

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During

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Now

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Opening up one side of the stairs is really exciting to me. I can just picture the girls coming down the stairs for breakfast. This will make the kitchen feel bigger because your eye will travel to the wall beyond the stairs. You can also see the stairs when you walk in the front door now that we have removed that little bit of wall where the entry table once stood.

This is our improved layout

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Once we add a newel post and railing to match what is upstairs, climbing the stairs will feel much safer. We are also looking forward to being able to get furniture up and down the stairs more easily. Can you believe my husband, brother, and dad got our large cast iron tub up these stairs? I wish I had a picture of that!

Before

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This is a shot from my design software so at least you can get an idea of our vision for the space.

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Right now we are busy exposing the living room ceiling to give a bit of height and texture. An added benefit to doing this to the ceiling is that we save all the money we had budgeted to cover the crumbling plaster ceiling and can use the money somewhere else.

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I will share more about that next time…

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