Home Renovation Progress Report: Kitchen Updates

While everyone else was swimming at the lake, attending family BBQs and otherwise enjoying Labor Day, the husband and I were laboring away on the bungalow.

Laboring on Labor Day seems fitting, right?

Truth be told, ever since moving into the house a little over a week ago, the pace at which we finish various projects has slowed down drastically – not what we expected at all, but in retrospect it makes all the sense in the world. There just isn’t that sense of urgency anymore as there was when we still lived in our rental.

If you have personally survived a renovation of this magnitude, you can understand the frustrations that accompany living in the house which you are renovating. It has completely changed our family dynamics and our lifestyle. The daily dust, cleaning and the non-existence of furniture definitely takes its toll. At the same time, we realize we are fortunate to be doing something so incredible to our home; we try to remain positive in the midst of total chaos as we continue making progress in what is quite possibly the biggest project of our life. So thank you for hanging in there with us and checking in on the progress, even if things don’t seem to be moving along at a fast-enough or exciting-enough pace.

Last time I updated you with progress from the kitchen, we had just finished installing the countertops. So much has been done since then, and we are so, so close to bringing this room to completion!

Once you’ve seen photos, it’s no wonder that this little corner of the bungalow has quickly become my safe space; when I begin to feel overwhelmed by the chaos of the rest of the house, I pour myself a cup of coffee and go sit in my little corner. Nothing like a clean, functional space devoid of visual clutter to help you catch your breath and regain focus.

Speaking of coffee, pour yourself a cup, and let’s take a tour of the latest kitchen updates, shall we?

After being tragically destroyed by the countertop installers, the replacement kitchen sink was finally replaced and installed. (More on that story in a previous post.) It’s a 32-inch, single-basin under mount sink from Blanco that has proven to be one of my favorite features of the entire kitchen. The single basin is revolutionary, and its massive size is perfect for any task. At the risk of sounding completely insane, I cannot wait ’til we have little ones so I can bathe them in what is literally a mini bathtub.

For the constantly curious, no, I am not pregnant.

The kitchen faucet is still mid-shipment, where it has been for the last 10 or so weeks.

I know what you’re thinking; I can’t believe the long waiting period either.

The Pioneer “Motegi” faucet (in brass) is, apparently, a special-order item. When we first ordered it, we were told that shipment would take from 6 to 8 weeks. When around week 8 the faucet still hadn’t arrived, I got on the phone with customer service and was, unfortunately, told that the timeline had been extended to 10-12 weeks. So we continue waiting.

For the time being, we’ve installed a temporary, inexpensive alternative from Lowe’s that has proven quite functional although not the prettiest.

Save for the microwave, which will hang over the range, the rest of the appliances have also been installed. I have to take a moment to praise my dad, who has been so hard at work, helping us with everything from plumbing to painting to installing said appliances. If it wasn’t for him, it would likely be another six months before this place was in a livable state.

If you follow FOXY OXIE on Instagram or Snapchat, you may have seen our backsplash tile adventures. It took us an entire weekend to finish – from morning til night – but oh my, what a huge feeling of satisfaction it is to see the fruit of our labor.

The tiling project is a collaboration between FOXYOXIE.com and Wayfair, so if you’re looking to tile your own backsplash, head over to Wayfair’s Idea Lounge for a complete, step-by-step tutorial! Out of all the possible tiling projects you could tackle, the kitchen backslash is, by far, the least difficult.

The kitchen walls still need another coat of paint, but the trim and baseboards are completely finished. Now that I’ve spent a few mornings in the kitchen, I’m so glad we made the decision to install a window between the base cabinets and the peninsula. The morning light that streams through here is magical.

Next on the list of kitchen updates is the hardware, which we tackled in a five-hour undertaking over Labor Day. You may remember the brass hardware roundup from a few months ago… We have finally installed the Liberty Hardware “Artesia” knobs and pulls that I scored for a total steal at Home Depot. If you recall, I first found them on one website for $23 each, but as I continued my search, I found more reasonable prices – $2.74 for a knob and $3.45 for a pull. Can you believe the difference?!

We used a hardware installation template we found at Home Depot – one for the doors and another for the drawers. The drawers, unfortunately required additional measuring – but only because I wanted the pulls to be in the center of each drawer rather than at the top.

Last but not least is the lighting. I started brainstorming light options months ago – back in March, to be exact.

Brass and mid-century modern fixtures are two of my obsessions as far as lighting is concerned, so when I first discovered Pepe & Carols, immediately two things happened: 1) My heart skipped a beat at the variety of lighting options the owner makes with her own two hands – own two hands, I repeat! and 2) I was amazed at the affordability of her pieces. Natural brass isn’t cheap, trust me. To find brass sconces for less than $100 is nothing short of a miracle.

I’ll be sharing more gorgeous pieces from Pepe & Carols in later posts, so stay tuned!

The pendants hanging over the peninsula are from Wayfair and one of the very first fixtures I sourced for the house. I contemplated between two and three and decided on two; three seemed excessive, given the small square footage of the kitchen.

Inch by inch we are making this house our home, but if you’re curious, here are the kitchen projects we still have left: adding toe kicker boards to the base cabinets, installing the microwave and accompanying ductwork, adding crown molding around the top cabinets along with filler pieces in the gaps, painting the walls with another coat (or possibly two, since I have since changed the paint color…), installing the AC vents, sourcing and hanging shades on the window and installing the faucet when it (finally) arrives.

Oh, and there’s no furniture, so there’s that too.

I splurged on my birthday and purchased some leather bar stools for the peninsula. They were due to arrive earlier this week, but when I logged into my Wayfair account, I was unfortunately notified that they were backordered. So there you go: more shipping drama. But what’s a whole-house renovation without a few hiccups, right?

 

As soon as I can find a large white dining table and some pretty dining chairs to go along with it, I’m planning to host a dinner party to celebrate. That, to be honest, is the most exciting part of buying and renovating a home: blessing others with it.

Just for fun let’s take a look back at the original kitchen. It makes the progress just that much sweeter.

I’ll be back oh-so-soon with more updates from the magical world of bungalow renovations, but in the meantime, please keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for us to make lots of progress over the next few weeks. You can also follow me on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook for a more intimate look behind the projects we’re working on.

To see a glimpse of how the original bungalow kitchen looked, check out Home Renovation Progress Report: Floor Plan Design. To catch up on what we’ve renovated so far, you can browse the full “Our Bungalow Renovation” series.

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Thank you to the wonderful partners who helped us complete this space: Wayfair, Elite Tile and Pepe & Carols. Thanks so much to you all for supporting the companies that make FOXYOXIE.com possible.