Finally, A Kitchen Update!

Thank you all for your patience as I gear myself up to give you a kitchen update!  (Or are you all just so scared it's going to be another picture of the plumbing in my walls?  Ha!  Believe me when I say I hope we never have to speak of them again.)

So, because it helps me when I feel like our remodel is C-R-E-E-P-I-N-G along, I will go back to a photo of the old kitchen before we moved in.

And here is where we are today!  Most of you who have been here with me know that we ripped out that wall between the old kitchen and dining room.  And when I say we, most of you also know that I mean my husband.  :)

So the perfectionist in me really wants to wait until all the details are done before I show you an update.  Even when people come over and see it in person, my knee-jerk reaction is to start yelping But wait!  Someday we'll have a pretty planked farmhouse backsplash!  We're covering all those wires up with crown molding, I swear!  And I really meant to finish sanding that bit of drywall.  But I told you a few months ago that things were going to be a little more real up in here.  So I present to you the other side of my kitchen:

I don't think I've ever mentioned on here that I am married to Dave Ramsey.  Well, not really Dave Ramsey, but someone equally committed to not going into debt and paying out of pocket whenever possible.  I say that with some wifely sarcasm, but in all honesty I love that Brent is such a financial planner and he takes great care of our family.  However, in matters of a major kitchen remodel, this manifests itself in the following way: Carrie wants kitchen done now.  Brent wants to save up for kitchen and complete it in phases as money becomes available.  

As you might have guessed, the phased plan wins!  So we have finished cabinetry on one side of the kitchen and the other side is patiently waiting for a pantry and some open shelving for cute dish displays.  :)  In the meantime, you would not believe how much stuff you can fit on those gorilla racks!

Phase I of the remodel still gives me so much to celebrate!  I am obsessed, for example, with these brass knobs.

And I spend a bizarre amount of time contemplating how cute this vintage brass rod looks on my antique butcher block.

But to keep it real, I will now show you my open electrical box and tape on the walls.

I will show you my favorite cow painting, which I hung on the side of the cabinet next to my kitchen sink window.

And then I will back up a little bit and show you more exposed electrical and unfinished drywall behind the sink.

Pretty bin pulls on my drawers.  My dream stove. (Still quite frightened of it, to be honest, but we are becoming friends!)

And more exposed wiring that eventually will be hidden by molding.

But somewhere cute to put my grocery sign, which I made years ago just hoping it would find a home like this!

We've definitely asked ourselves if we did the right thing by taking on this huge project!  It's been a challenge to live in the mess instead of finishing it all right now.  But it helps to look back and celebrate how far we've come since Mother's Day weekend when Brent turned to me and said "I think I'm going to rip that wall out today."  (By the way, that was one of the awesomest things he's ever said to me.)

Beauty with imperfections...kind of like all of us, right?  Thank you for going on the ride with me!