And it begins...

There has been lots of work going on at The Hotzoglou house (as usual...) TV's being mounted (yes, Greg got a new TV), new furniture being delivered and old furniture sold, and the best part- a new fridge. The kitchen renovation has officially begun. A couple weeks ago we started researching appliances figuring that was the best place to start since everything would be built around them. So of course on a "let's just go look" trip to PC Richards we left with a new fridge. But it was exactly what I wanted so of course we just had to get it. Stainless steel, counter depth, no water/ice dispenser on the outside. Love it.

Greg had to take the cabinet down that was above the fridge to make room for the new one (and of course, spackle/sand/paint)- here it is in all it's stainless steel glory.

It's so exciting to get started- the kitchen is really our last BIG inside project for the house which is even more exciting. I have been saving and pinning pictures for awhile now and we are pretty set on what we want- white cabinets, some kind of white counter top, dark tile floors, some open shelving and a whole added wall of cabinetry. I get so giddy just typing about it. It has been our plan for awhile to tackle the kitchen this year and originally we thought we could do it during the Spring but now it is upon us and we far from ready. It's definitely a process and I want us to take our time and make sure we find exactly what we want- while also staying on budget. So the new plan is to spend the next couple months picking out all of our materials and then start in the Fall so we can enjoy our summer. Greg is going to being doing a bulk of the reno himself and this baby is getting demo-ed down to the studs and subfloor so the plan is to have everything in house before we actually start the demo- that way there is minimal time without a kitchen (a girl can hope, right?)

We did give the kitchen a face lift our second year in the house- here is our kitchen on move in day-

It's so weird looking at it now. Within the first couple weeks the (very old) oven in the wall and cooktop came out replaced by a stainless steel stove my mom found on Craigslist for a steal. Greg built cubbies for the microwave and my cookbooks where the oven used to be. It stayed like that for awhile until we were ready to paint the cabinets (white) and walls (super dark gray)- just to hold us over until we were ready for the big reno. Of course painting the cabinets was a much bigger job than I anticipated (isn't that always the case?) but Greg did an awesome job as always. Notice how I say Greg and not 'we'. Not sure if I mentioned it  but I'm not really 'allowed' to help on such projects. We are both much happier that way.

Some during pics, oh the fun...

And how our kitchen looks today...

 The white cabinets brightened the room by leaps and bounds and it has definitely made it more livable the past couple years while we worked on the other rooms. We've been talking about it for almost 4 years now so it's exciting to start seeing it come to life.  More to come on our plans and inspirations.