Home Renovation Part 1: Tear Down

So, life updates…we bought a house! More specifically, we bought and proceeded to complete gut a house.

The tulip-man and I were crammed into a small closet of an apartment for the first 2 years of me living here in Holland. Which is precisely 23 months longer than was comfortable. So when this house came on the market earlier this summer, we pounced (knowing full well that it would eventually need some work).

Well eventually is now! The tulip-man went H.A.M. on the tear down, transforming our outdated 70’s house into what could only be called the shell of a home. It’s a bit like camping in our own home at the moment (but exposed concrete is so in right now, right?)

For two food lovers like us, the kitchen/entertaining areas are naturally the most important. So we started there. The ceilings were partially wood panels and partially poorly done drywall, so the tulip-man spent a week tearing them out. It was a giant, dusty mess that resulted in no less than one near-asthma-attack per day on my end, but it had to happen.

We didn’t initially intend on renovating the kitchen quite yet, but at the advice of our all-knowing handyman (i.e. home renovation lifeline), we made it a priority. With the ceiling needing redone, it would be easiest to rewire and route everything in the kitchen straight away. So armed with a hammer and a drill, I went to work on gutting the kitchen.

Oh! But before I completely removed it, I tried out the stove, which turned out to be an induction stovetop. I. AM. IN. LOVE! Have you used induction before?

Let’s talk about dream kitchens….white. All the shiny white. I love the warmth of wood counters but not the maintenance that goes along with them (according to what the internet tells me) (am I wrong in thinking that?) So to cut the stark white, we’ll have some wooden shelves holding all jars with all the dry goods. The tulip-man also requests 2 wooden cutting boards to be set permanently on the counters (not 1, not 3). Are we compromising? Should we go with wood counters? Will white counters on white cabinets look like a dentist office? Advice welcome.

Things don’t get much prettier when you move upstairs. But as you can see, we have gorgeous wood laminate awaiting installation and a giant closet, so these rooms will come along in the next week or so.

And that’s all for now! Being up north, it gets dark real early now, which means I can only take progress photos when I’m home from school on the weekends (because, ya know, only half the rooms have lights and I’m still working on finding the light switches for the rest). Our lifeline handyman is hard at work installing the kitchen and laying in the floors, so more updates to come soon! Then even more updates when we’re done decorating in like 12 years.