Look Away Now- Kitchen Update-Nothing to See Here

Forgive me bloggers- it has been two weeks since my last confession update.

We have been doing lots of final organisation-y kind of things and a little work. Things seem to be moving slowly but I guess that's because we haven't done any of the "Oh my goodness what a difference that made" work yet. Replacing your ceilings and pulling up tile doesn't give you the "Wow" factor I'm looking forward to seeing  at the end of this project. Assuming we ever finish. I'm expecting at this point to do an unveil for you all around Christmas. And so , because I don't have anything much to show you, I'm going to show you some of the colours we've picked out.

Walls

Bench tops

Kitchen cabinetry in this colour and style but I picked nicer handles. And I'm not having glass doors because I dont want to have to clean them.

We met with the kitchen designer (sounds impressive doesn't it ) last weekend and were informed that because we have requested some non standard stuff our kitchen components will take at least a week longer to be done than usual.   So we're now looking at an install date of around August 9th which is only 3 weeks away. The old kitchen is being ripped out in 12 days, so we can tile before the new cabinets go in.  Living here is going to be just like camping, which is not usually something I say "Oh goody" at the prospect of. Yeah I'm a princess. If I don't have a place to plug in my GHD as far as I'm concerned you're in the stone age.  So,  if you live close by you might like to take pity on us and invite us over for dinner. Or you  can save the favour for when we do the bathroom and need a shower. Those of you who don't live close- you can send  me dinners via mail.

With the exception of the ceilings and floors and the continual mess,  the kitchen doesn't look all that different at this point. The new ceilings are in. Mr. P did a load of boring putty-ing (I'm sure there is a technical name for this I'm just not interested)  on the ceilings to cover the seams.   This is one of those necessary evil type things. I'll get excited when we have cornices again and the ceiling is painted. And my light fittings are in. And the kitchen is finished.

I have ceilings ! Ugly ceilings...

There are currently  no lights in my kitchen because we are completely changing the configuration of the lighting for this area, which naturally can't go in until we have finished the ceilings   so we've been using a 500 watt halogen to see.  It's awesome because  I get to work on my tan, kill the environment with power usage and stay warm all at the same time. It's like having the Australian summer inside in the middle of winter.   The risk of blindness if I look directly at it is just an added thrill.

We have ordered our floor tiles. I went with an off white Italian ceramic. There are those among you who will tell me I am crazy for going with off white because it will show up all the dirt. Let me tell you it doesn't matter what we get it will show up the dirt, because we have two dogs the size of Shetland ponies who never learned to wipe their feet and I want off white. If you had lived with disgusting chocolate brown floor tiles for the last 8 years you'd want white too.  And just to freak you all right out white tile haters , we got enough to do the entry, hallway and computer room as well. This is them. Rustic and textured.

And this is what we pulled up...(I'm selling them cheap if you're interested)

And this is what my kitchen floors look like right now. Pretty isn't it? I have no idea why it's green. There are floor boards under that muck somewhere. Quick- cover it up with white tile.  I am seriously considering getting someone in to do the tiling at this stage and bugger the cost.

I have no splash back because I pulled it out already and I haven't decided what to replace it with. And I have no range hood either. This is the gorgeousness that is currently my cooking area.

I have ignored all the sanding I have to get done. I started doing something totally unrelated to the kitchen telling myself it's stripping and painting  practice before I tackle those  chairs, and the dresser  ...and the table. I have changed my mind over what to do with the table about 30 times and think I've finally settled on something but I'm not going to say what it is so I can change my mind again later and not look flighty. This is what I have been working on today. I have realised I despise painting which is unfortunate because I have stacks of it left to do.

And after two coats of primer I have this...(Miss Mustard Seed said I had to keep this piece and she knows what she's talking about so I'm making something pretty out of it )

I have worried about whether everything is going to come together. Will the walls match the floors? Will it be too much white ? Am I crazy for trying to match two different styles in one space? Will warm white REALLY go with stark white ? This has been my crazy thought process this week. I am driving myself and everyone around me INSANE. Poor Mr. P. I think he's thinking about the "till death us do part" bit of our marriage vows  a lot this week and not in  a good way.  

I am at a point where I think this is never going to be done, my life will never be normal again, my house will never be clean again , and I will never know where my plates and Tupperware have disappeared to . Conversely I am cacking my daks that I won't have things done before the installers  get here. When I mention the bathroom reno in 6 months can someone slap me in the side of the head and point me towards all my  posts about the kitchen.

Yours sincerely,

Princess whiny-arse.

P.S. I completely get that in the grand scheme of things this is so not a big deal compared to famine, terminal illness and world poverty. However I am a Virgo and we like order and cleanliness and predictability and control and I don't have any of those things at the moment. And Patty, I know you're reading this and all I can say is you'd better bring some good wine and some Valium next weekend. I need both of them.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is the sound you make when you have no ceilings and the only thing between you and the freezing outdoors in an inch of Monier tile. In the dead of winter! I have a new appreciation for the homeless because it was about as cold in my house last night as they have to endure night after night. I'm not joking.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh is the sound you make when you discover everything in your house is covered in an inch of dust and other stuff that fell out of your roof when the ceilings came down, including an unexploded fire cracker,  approximately 250 kilograms of dirt,  and  leaves from the deciduous tree outside that you didn't know was deciduous because all the leaves have been dropping into your roof cavity for the last 30 years.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh is the sound you make when you can't find your kettle to make a cup of coffee first thing in the morning and you sooooooo cannot function without coffee,  and then surprisingly realise  your bathroom is now a kitchen.  Actually to be accurate, I don't verbalise before my first cup of coffee...so I just thought "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh" very quietly.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is the sound you make when you discover your patio looks like a demolition site and you didn't have the presence of mind to order a mini skip to cart it all away. Now you're gonna have to lift it twice. After you order the mini skip...

Arghhhhhhhhhh is the sound you make when you discover your lounge room is now also  your dining room, except you can't prepare any food because you no longer have a kitchen. Or any electricity. And you don't actually know where your plates are living these days. On the up side your bedroom is relatively untouched so at least you can find clean underpants.  (That's my positive thought for today taken care of)

Four weeks and counting....at this point I think this is the worst of it, so I'm entitled to lose my marbles slightly. 

P.S. Yippeeeeeee will be the sound I'm making tonight when I can legitimately claim we have to get takeaway for dinner because I can't find a damn thing to cook in. I can probably spin that excuse out for the next month ..at least.

Dining Room Drama

Buckle up for a long , meandering post about renovation and indecision. You can give me your two cents worth at the end. That's why I'm posting. I need help. And you're all smart and will tell me what you really think.

We're reaching the point where I have to make some definite decisions about the kitchen renovation. The kitchen cupboards are going to be plain white and the bench tops black marble etch. I've  chosen plain cupboards because  I don't want the cupboards being the focal point.  All the appliances will be brushed stainless steel.  Our dining room is connected to our kitchen and I want one big flowing space why is why we're ripping out a bench that currently divides the two rooms.

So these are the before and after shots

After 

 Disclaimer: That may not be the actual view I see outside my kitchen window

The dining room is now my biggest headache. Until yesterday that was all sorted out in my mind  and now I am second guessing myself.

The original plan was to take the top off the kitchen dresser  leaving me with  a three drawer cabinet. I planned to buy  some 3D moulded french looking furniture appliques and stick them on the front of the dresser doors and paint the whole thing warm/ antique white and change the handles to something french looking. The meat safe to the right of the dresser was going.   I've been auditioning tables and chairs for a while and  decided on this oval pedestal table. (I have a better picture of that coming up) The plan was to strip it and paint it white , along with these antique colonial chairs and plonk the re-vamped blackwood chair in the corner where the meat safe used to be , with my circle quilt draped over it.

Enter this piece of furniture which I saw a couple of weeks ago after months of looking for something like this for the dining room and finally giving up and coming up with the plan above. I took it as a sign. I called my Dad and asked if I could ESP this piece, prime it  and paint straight over the top in white, because my Dad is the fountain of all knowledge.  I did a happy dance when he said I could. So we bought it and picked it up yesterday and this is what it looks like in my dining room. Notice please that my awful cedar wall is history.

And here is a better picture...because I want you to see the detail in the cabinet.

My question is ...would it be a crime to paint this dresser white? I'll lose a lot of the parquetry door detail if I do. Would having a kitchen table , chairs , and dresser painted white with a black and white kitchen be too much white for these rooms. What would you do?  The alternative is to keep the furniture for the dining room pretty much as is, get black and white chair pads for the chairs and white crystal beaded tassels for the handles of the dresser to tie it all in and put all my white dinner ware in the top of the dresser. The floors will be a light tile by the time we're finished and I'm wondering if I go to town painting everything in sight white I'm going to go snow blind.

OK, so  hit me with your two cents....

And So the Madness Begins

If you are a regular reader of my blog , you'll know I barely made it with my tenuous sanity intact through the recent  laundry renovation, which took what felt like 3 years but in reality was around 12 weeks. (which was 120,960 minutes of pure hell- see,  I'm still not quite over it  ) I'm sure at one point  some of you were planning a "stop-whinging" -intervention for me. Thankfully we completed the laundry before most of you had the chance to buy your plane tickets.

Lest I alienate my blog friends I have decided not to post blow by blow descriptions every time we put in a new screw or touch a paintbrush for the kitchen reno. I can hear many contented sighs from blogland.

With our new cabinetry being installed in around  8 weeks barring unforseen delays and other misadventures,   I wanted to announce that today is the day the kitchen renovation  officially commences. In honour of this momentous occasion, for which I have been waiting approximately 8 years people, I'm posting  some  pictures of my currently very ungorgeous kitchen, so you can all be amazed, stunned and blown away when we finally get to the end. (which is months away, but let's not focus on that)

By the time we finish there will not be one thing left in this kitchen that is there now. That's going to include the gorgeous cedar panelled wall and pelmets you will see in the following pictures. They're coming out this weekend. For all you recycling people, we're planning to make the cedar panels into an outdoor table.  In around 2016.

So without further ado:

Cedar wall...dark in here much?

I'm sure some people could make a blue kitchen look  pretty and stylish. Unfortunately I'm not in that creative class.

Those vegetable and fruit tiles on the splash backs are probably collectors items now. And yes that's a beaten copper rangehood. We can probably sell that to fund the kitchen renovation.

Cedar pelmets? What were they thinking?  I guess we're about to find out what's behind them. I bet it wont be pretty...

So that's my starting point. I kinda figure no matter what we do from here  it can't look any worse.

I should probably wander off and start sanding  a chair or something now....