Okay, well it started in January... My friend Michelle had some work done at her home. I mentioned that I needed to update a few things in my house too. You see having wonderful cooks in the O'Connell clan- 2 working burners on a range just don't cut it. The oven cooks slowly and unevenly due to drooping elements. (uh... I'm talking about an oven here-). The dishwasher is so loud we have to time it to run at just the right hour after drifting off to sleep or it will WAKE YOU UP! One floor down even!... and the other little annoyance of the thing where you have to WASH all the dishes BEFORE you actually load them in the dishwasher. My oversized island is well, over sized and topped with matte grey 6 inch tile. The counters are formica. Everything is 21 years old. Nick and I talked about redoing the kitchen so many times and came very close to doing just that before he got sick
.
So my friend Michelle gives me the number of her most awesome contractor. And he is awesome. When you find a good contractor you must do anything you can to keep him.
Have you ever done any work around your home that you hired out?
We have and it hasn't been good-ever. People do really crappy work, charge you lots of money and then run. My deck needs to be rebuilt because of one such unscrupulous contractor: Craig Lee. Don't hire that dude.
So now that I have the opportunity to work with someone who has integrity I feel like I have to seize the day.
Even though it's not the easiest time in my life to undertake this sort of stress. And at moments, very many moments I have thought ' what's the point if Nick isn't here to share it with? You know?
Lot's of things in our home have needed attention since the beginning, but we sort of learned to live with quirks. Broken tile, squeeky floors, the front door sticks, the bathroom faucets ae backwards in the master bath tub and my shower door leaks.
A few things we did right the first time: A white kitchen with stainless sink and range top. I loved it 21 years ago and I still do. A good flow with a basically open floor plan. Lots of windows and doors to the outside.
The basic problem is that we were yong when we built this house together and at the end we ran out of money in the budget. So it was always-'You can upgrade that later'. Well you could, but you most likely probably won't. Children and life take priority. Hence 21 years of ugly.
So, for the past 2 months I have been trying to make decisions and figuring out how much ugly I can trade in at this time in my life.
Finances are scary right now. Nick was our breadwinner. I think we might qualify for food stamps on my salary. None the less, I have a severe mental illness. I am not sure what the name of it is but it has a terrible symptom whereby I think I am a millionairess and should live in a beautiful palace with beautiful furnishings and a lovely white kitchen with cool stone and warm light and a HUGE over sized range hood over my Wolf range with big RED knobs.
So, do I give in and pick out boring affordable finishes and live another 21 years with stuff that feels like hand me downs from grandma or splurge on the one thing I have always wanted for my house: A beautiful kitchen. But that means not doing things like repairing the deck and replacing the old LP siding...or any number of things that total $127,000 !!!! Yes, that is the figure I was given to transpose the ugly to lovely.
Granted that does include a steam shower.
Oh heaven you are just a small few decimal points away!
I am going crazy trying to make decisions about the final product and I have driven my best friend Linda crazy with it all. She is a saint for sure.
So, I will keep you posted. A lovely kitchen cabinet fairy godfather from Hayes custom cabinets is coming Friday to measure one last time before he starts building my beautiful kitchen.
I hope Nick would be proud of it.
XOXO,
Kimberley
No comments:
Post a Comment