Home Improvement

There are several ways to my heart.  Admittedly, most of those involve food.  Among the top finishers, though, is making progress on long ago back-burnered house projects.
I blogged about the history of our home renovations in 2009.  2009!  Yes, at that time it looked like the kitchen remodel would be coming up quickly.  I don't remember what happened exactly, but it didn't happen.
I think what probably happened is that we had a 1, 3, and 5 year old in the house full time and I was already living on the brink of sanity.  (Sanity is a very important quality in a mom.) Then we were expecting little miss Rachel and that was about 9 months of mom in survival mode.  After her birth, I made the proclamation that all humans living in our home needed to be upright first before we delved into destruction.  She started walking in February.
You know, what's not so great about comfort zones is that sometimes you (or maybe it's just me) can stay in them because they're familiar and functional, even if no longer comfortable.
I love our home and the history behind it.  BUT, our kitchen NEEDS to be remodeled and our family NEEDS to go through this messy transition.  I am ready and have suddenly become quite impatient about getting started!
The kitchen has become like the acne I used to battle.  I could ignore it for awhile, until someone asked me about the red spots on my face. 
Our kitchen has plenty of blemishes.  The sticky tiles we put in 8 years ago with a 5 year warranty lasted exactly that long and not a day more.  Our hand-me-down rolling chairs have worn plenty of holes in floor.  The cabinets are dark Formica--fully functional, but needing a much-needed makeover.  We have already purchased a temporary refrigerator and microwave.  We have already been told that there aren't many 13 year-old dishwashers working anymore.  Who knows when the range will die--could be tomorrow or next year.  The insulation is near zero.  I know that winter is here when the butter in the cupboard becomes hard to spread.  Yes, it is all functional, and we are thankful to have everything it has given us in the past 12 years, but it all needs a serious dose of Tetracycline.
Thankfully, my husband came up with a brilliant plan to make this all a little more feasible (and more likely that I will maintain my sanity, because he kind of admires that about me as well.)
We will attack this mountain in two phases.
Phase 1:  Renovating the former downstairs office (now vacant) into a bathroom and laundry room.  This will take a little work, redoing plumbing, etc., but we will handle the demolition phase of that ourselves . . . hopefully within DAYS!!!   (These spring snow storms worked in this house's favor.) 
After this phase is completed, we will be able to demolish the kitchen and move the kitchen cabinets downstairs to our present utility room.  Most of our appliances will also move downstairs, so we can cook and survive for the duration of Phase 2. 

Today I talked to a guy about renting a jack hammer.  I think it scares David a little about how excited I am to bring it home.  :)  Or, maybe he's always wanted a wife who can handle cement-crushing tools.  Maybe I will have a hidden talent there.  Can't wait to find out.