I was starting to do so much better with this blog. I felt like I had taken a step in the right direction. Then I became even more crazy busy than usual! Who in their right mind would organise an event with an international artist across multiple states and choose to completely renovate their kitchen in the same month? Apparently I am just crazy enough to attempt that! Needless to say I think I didn't get to bed before 1am then up by 7am for the entire month of July!
So what has all this craziness got me? A new (but not yet finished) Kitchen! We ended up going with an IKEA flat pack kitchen as it was a fraction of the cost of custom built kitchens. The down side of that is that we had to do all the work. They do offer an installation service but that would have cost an additional $3000 which we couldn't afford, hence we tackled this job ourselves. I should say, hubby did all the installations, but I did build the IKEA furniture for him.
So what did the old kitchen look like? I had to really search to find a photo that sort of showed what it looked like and this was the best I could come up with!
As you can see the fridge has never fit into the allocated spot for it. I put up with this for over 10 years. LOL! It did bug me EVERY SINGLE DAY! I would like to say that the kitchen was always cleaner than that, but apart from the fact that I was about to serve up dinner so there are bowls on the bench it is pretty much how it looked! LOL! No where near enough space for a large family. I also hated the grey from the time we moved in, but most of the plans we had for this house have not materialised yet so this is the first major renovation we have undertaken.
So we ripped out all the old cabinets and benches. Complications along the way..... the tiles were stuck on so tightly that they ripped off the wall while we were removing. Yes, loads of patching required to fix that up. One of many unforseen complications we found in this DIY job. At least the new fridge looks nice in the corner. LOL! Our dishwasher never fitted in the actual kitchen so it was on the other side of the bench and I had to walk around every time to load or unload it!
Hubby's handiwork begins! The next major complication we encountered was a lack of timber beams to be able to screw these cabinets into. Paul had to cut out the drywall and then screw in crossbeams of timber between the uprights all the way across the top of the wall as well as lower down for all the base cabinets as well. Our poor wall looked like it had some major truama with patching everywhere and our entire house was covered in fine dust from sanding back the flushing. We attempted to screen it into an area using plastic drop sheets used as a curtain but that stuff manages to get everywhere!
It took us quite some time to get to this point and then we had the dilema of how to do the benchtops. Both Paul and I wanted it to look professional and we didn't have the equipment to create the mitred masons joints needed for the corners of the benchtop. We could have cut at 45 degree angle, but decided to pay someone to come in and do the propper joints for the benchtop. That was the only help we had in putting this kitchen together.
Once the benchtops were on, it really began to look like a kitchen. Don't know if you noticed in the first image that there was yucky grey lino on the floor in the kitchen and timber flooring in the dining room. We put the floating timber floor in around 5 years ago, but didn't finish the kitchen as we knew we ultimately wanted to renovate and didn't know how it would end up affecting the flooring so didn't finish that area. Well they discontinued the flooring we used so we had to rip up ALL the flooring we had put in 5 years ago (which was basically through our dining and living areas) and change it over to new flooring. Another complication that we were not expecting and sooooooo much more work!
And this is where we are up to now. We still need to finish off the electrical, lights need to go under the over head cupboards and at the tops of the glass door cupboards. The oven needs its feet on it and that raises it up to the height of the benchtop and the flu needs to be installed. The splashback needs to go on (that got delivered today) and all the finishing pieces need to go on. When this is done I will share a picture. I now have sooooo much more room in my kitchen. It is the little things like having my dishwasher right by my sink, that makes life so much easier. So that is what crazy business can bring you! Need Paul to be on holidays again so all the little jobs can be finalised, but we work on it a little bit each weekend.
Then of course there were the fabulous classes with Jamie Dougherty at the end of July (and I also travelled to Western Australia to teach) to really top off a frantic busy July! The classes went so well and everyone loved Jamie so very much. She is such an amazing teacher and if you ever get a chance to attend a class with her it is well and truly worth it.
Jamie explaining the magic!
A bit of Prima Girl Goodness. We (Steph, Jamie and myself) were all on the DT at the same time.
It was a fully booked out class in Adelaide, every table was full!
A few ladies had left prior to taking this picture but isn't it awesome to see the different ways peoples art turns out. I loved walking around the room and seeing how amazing all the pieces looked.
So you can see that I have been a very very busy girl and it isnt over! I will be teaching in Melbourne at the beginning of Septermber at Artified. You can find details on their website if you are interested in booking in. Artified Thanks again for stopping by my blog and putting up with my very long breaks between posts!
