Tuesday, 27 April 2010

And the reno begins...

Well, aside from the 1.2 layers of paper we stripped in the hallway before getting bored and moving on......

When we moved in the kitchen was sort of overwhelmingly yellow. And it had trult horrible lino 'tiles', not to mention the clashing lino in the dining room. Why on earth would they have not just chosen one pattern? Could they honestly not pick a clear winner from the two? Where they both favourites?!

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Before we moved in, actually, on settlement day, we started to pull up the carpet and lino. We tried to get in one piece, but really, who was ever going to reuse our manky carpet, with 40 years of dust embedded into it? (Side note: I am NEVER having carpet again!) Once we abandoned that plan, the carpet came out rather easily.

We found beautiful Tawa floorboards underneath, which in two places had been varnished previously. Luckily when our floorsander was finished, they came up a golden honey colour, not fake tan orange like they were under all that lino!

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When I look at this picture, I can remember why I fell in love with this house- crisp winter days with the sun streaming in. Bliss. And it also makes me want to jettison 2/3 of our 'stuff'. But that's another post.

So two weekends ago we went kitchen shopping, and the ball is definately rolling. We came home from Mitre 10, and took to that hanging cupboard with a crowbar, which we quickly abandoned for a hammer, when we realised getting the cupboard off in one piece was also going to bring down the ceiling, and part of the wall.

So disclaimer on this next photo- my life is a shambles, most of the time. And I'm going straight out to the kitchen to pull down those curtains for good. (They keep flying off the end of the rails, to the point where I just don't bother any more!) But it gives you an idea of the life-changing effect pulling down that cupboard has had.

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I can't wait to get the whole new kitchen in!

6 comments:

  1. It already looks likea new kitchen! So open and light now. And I LOVE that wooden floor! It's gorgeous and warm. Why did people insist on covering pretty wood with nasty carpet and lino?

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  2. he he, I actually quite like your kitchen as it is :)
    - check out that wallpaper! Is it flowers?
    (by the way I answered your question within my comments, just in case you didn't see it)

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  3. This is why I'm such a Nana, I really like how the kitchen is especially the yellow cupboards and the wallpaper. The floorboards are certainally an improvement though. I look foward to seing the end results too, I'm sure it will go from cute to STUNNING!

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  4. me too me too. I like it. esp the wallpaper. heh. guess we don't have to live with it. enjoy the planning.

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  5. OMG I'm loving your wallpaper please please please don't change it!
    BTW I'm Cat and I'm a blog 'virgin' (just over a week old now) I found you via Gillybean - so HI :)

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  6. That is very exciting. We have to do the bathroom first unfortunately as we need a bath with two littlies. Jealous though, I wish we were doing our kitchen too.
    Cute kitchen already now that cupboard is gone!

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