Reno me this

I am sure every time my husband sees me flipping through, yet another, design magazine he rolls his eyes in anticipation of what changes are next. In the extended 20 year plan(I may be exaggerating but one never knows) to renovate our house I have changed my mind on design features to the point where in almost every room there is a sign of my husbands rebellion. Whether it be a hole in the sub floor, a counter a little higher than normal and the butcher block that someday will appear as if from outer space...otherwise know as the workroom.

Thus far the back of the house is mainly complete, but just as we (executive we) finish a room, I think of something I would have done differently. Causing my husband, which he has never verbally said but one can imagine, how much longer before he will have to make it happen.

I blame this renovation itch, like the good daughter I am, on my parents. I cannot remember a time in our lives which we were not in a renovation mode of some sort, and when the projects were finished...we moved. One time I went off to university and they sold the house and moved into a motor home for the summer....they say it is because mom didn't want to live in that house anymore...but it seems awfully convenient that it occurred when I moved out...hmmmm.

So it only took 5 years of complaining and one frantic pull of the wood drawers with wood slides to cause my husband to finally concede to the fact we needed to redo the kitchen. My mind was dizzy with excitement over what we would do. How we could rearrange things and how quick it would occur. Remember all things are relative as the basement took three years and still has a couple of things left...so after this anything is fast.

We went to several big box stores to get quotes and ideas. I flipped through magazines to see what was new in kitchen design, until one day I finally conceded to the fact that what I wanted wasn't possible unless we decided to put a 20x20 extension on the back of the house. So back to square one. A galley is a galley and there is nothing I can do about it. So it is better to go with it than fight it. So the floor plan would remain as is and I put my foot down insisting that if we were doing the kitchen then I was getting a dishwasher.

It took me no time to decide I wanted white cabinets with as much storage as I could possibly get in our tiny kitchen. So let the reno begin. We (yes actually we this time) started the demolition. We gutted the kitchen back to the studs and then surveyed the damage we had done. The easy part was over. Rebuilding would take awhile since my husband wanted full wood cabinets but we didn't like the price that came with it. So the option was only one...he would have to build them. Wile already working two full time jobs. After only 6 months we had a kitchen that looked mostly like a kitchen. It wasn't until the summer of weddings that we put the final push on to get things finished. We (meaning he) laid the floor, built the cabinets and painted them(this was me). I would also like to acknowledge that my husband then took me to see a beautiful counter top which I completely approved of...and it turned out to be the most expensive part of the kitchen. First time for everything, normally the most expensive thing is my job.

Then after it was all put back together I realized I didn't have a wall colour, so after two months of hemming and hawing I picked out a colour that is somewhere between brown, purple and red. Then I thought ...oh god!...what are we going to do about a back splash. I swear I looked at every tile place from here to Toronto and ended up ordering an"in stock" tile along with a special order tile. I am telling you right now....the words special order are words to back away from. After waiting five months and paying a small fortune the tile arrived... only it was suppose to be 7/8x7/8 like all other sheeted tiles but instead it came in as 1x1. Needless to say we only used a small section of them. Which caused us (me) to once again change the design plan for the back splash. Yes I agreed to it, yes I laid it out, yes I signed off on it...but not a moment after he finished the 8 hour intensive labour job did I turn to him and say "I don't love it". I think if we were to ever get divorced...that was the look of my (still) husband gave me.

Over time, I have learnt to accept the back splash (as really..what is my alternative) and move on. It has been a couple of months since our last reno..which means the itch is occurring again. But for anyone who can live through it...the end results are the best as I happily work around in my little, built for me, very pretty kitchen.