Hello friends!
I am back today with exciting news! After two long months of signing papers, sending requested documents, and late night phone calls with our agent (and blood, sweat, and tears somewhere in between) I am so happy to announce that Franco and I are officially homeowners! We are so excited to share this milestone with all of our close friends and family, and you guys! Everyone around us has been very supportive and encouraging and we feel very blessed. The day we got our keys was the day our home makeover started.
I feel very lucky to have found our contractor. He’s very pleasant to work with and likes to get things done very quickly (which Franco and I absolutely love). We had been living with my parents for about 6 months, so we wanted to move in to our new home as soon as possible. Franco and I are avid HGTV watchers and when we found our house, our dream of renovating a house to our liking was actually going to happen.
Let’s get started.
We initially and obviously wanted hardwood floors, but financially it wasn’t in the books for us. So, we went ahead and asked our contractor for samples of laminate instead. Not a bad substitute! Originally, we wanted to go a with something a little warmer, but ended up going with the gray wash knowing I can warm up the house with wood and gold furniture pieces.
Everybody’s ideal kitchen and bathroom is bathed with marble, but again, it is a heavy financial load. Quartz it was! We looked at what seemed like hundreds of different types of quartz until we were about to settle for something we weren’t 100% in love with. That is until our contractor showed us this large piece of breathtaking beauty. It was definitely love at first sight. The best part of this particular countertop is that it comes in prefab form. PREFAB is the best. Prefab is cheap. Prefab is a dream come true.
Let me just say, I am so smitten with myself. Granted this is not my absolute dream kitchen, but it is a smaller version of it and I am just so happy my choices came together pretty well. Can I go on?
We kept the shaker cabinets because they were still in great shape. The only thing I would change about them is the spacing at the ceiling. Not sure why the previous contractors who ordered the cabinets didn’t just make flush top cabinets. Boo.
Our fixtures are brass. Yes, brass fixtures. Can I die now? Since we decided to keep the cabinets, we wanted to change the pulls to brass as well. The measurement of the pulls were not a standard 6 inch, it included 1/4 of an inch, which is a little odd. Thankfully, we found beautiful brass pulls in that exact measurement! I remember our contractor was telling us, “Before, everyone wanted gold, then they all wanted silver, and now they want gold again.” Lol.
These are the pulls we found. I just love the subtle geometric base. They are called Berenson Swaggers and you can find them here.
I remember the first time I ever saw a farmhouse sink on Pinterest, I knew I needed to have it in my future home. Neeeeeded. A farmhouse sink does cost a little bit more than a standard sink, but hey, YORO (you only renovate once)…hopefully.
Hubby and I had a slight difference in opinion in backsplash choices. I wanted to go with monochromatic patterned tile, but it was too fancy for his liking. So, I had to settle for simple. Gray subway tile was the answer. You can’t go wrong with subway tile.
The faucet is made by Delta. You can find it at Home Depot or Lowes.
One more highlight of our kitchen…the island! My husband wanted a larger island with more space and an extended counter so we can have breakfast on it. He requested a waterfall style island. I was skeptical at how overly fancy it would look. Boy, was I wrong. Seeing as we didn’t have much walking space on one side of the island, our contractor suggested a one sided waterfall. It turned out so beautiful! He did such a wonderful job. Good call, babe!
What do you guys think? How did we do for our first kitchen makeover?
We’d love to hear your thoughts!
P.S. Stay tuned for another makeover post of the rest of our house!
hello, i'm vicky 