Farmhouse Kitchen // An Update: Electrical, paneling, and Decisions
THE FARMHOUSE
Before leaving on our road trip, Garrett and I made some good progress on the kitchen remodel. And it’s looking really good (if I do say so myself). Of course we still have a long way to go, but progress is always exciting. Let’s get into it!
pssst: you can catch up on all the previous kitchen remodel posts at the bottom of this post.
sources: paneling, drawer pull (4”), small cabinet latch
Video
Garrett put together another video update, which you can watch below. This episode gives you a look into our process and why we like to “make it up as we go”.
Our main progress these last few weeks has been in the form of rough-in electrical, wall paneling, countertops, the new gas service, and decisions. Emphasis on the ‘decisions’ part. Garrett and I make SO many decisions about our renovations while we’re working on them (we call it our “making it up as we go” process 🙃), and this renovation is no different.
Decisions, decisions
Anyone that’s ever renovated their house – either DIY or by contractor – knows there are approximately 1,000,000 decisions to make. Little things, big things, and things you never once thought about before they come up. I’d love to be one of those people that has most of the decisions figured out before starting demo, but I’m just not. We think through the big stuff - the look, the major materials, and layout - but the rest falls into place once we get a feel for the new space taking shape.
Thankfully we’re at the point now. Garrett and I have spent many evenings just standing in this space, going over options, ideas, and deciding what we wanted. Here are a few of the things we’ve decided…
we made a plan for the upper cabinets/shelfs - more to come in a later post
decided to leave the original wood floors - for warmth, history, and ease
nailed down the island design - and ordered a wall oven to fit inside it
nixed our marble slab backsplash over the range – it’ll be vertical paneling instead and marble (and we’ll use the marble for the laundry room countertop instead)
we’ll be adding a second sink in the pantry area!
Electrical & Lighting
We don’t have much electrical to do in here since the kitchen was wired within the last 20 years. But we did have to move some outlets, add/remove switches, and install new sconces. Gosh seeing those boxes for the sconces over the windows really gets my heart fluttering! The sconces were a compromise since we didn’t have the budget to replace these vinyl windows with taller, period-appropriate wood windows. Hopefully the lighting will fancy-up the area and make the height of the windows feel more purposeful.
Countertops
Since installing the marble, we’ve epoxied the seams and sealed all the marble with a matte sealer. We also picked up our walnut butcher block for the island and boy is it pretty!!! I’m hoping it’ll bring in the dark woodwork we have in the rest of the house into this light and bright kitchen! Stay tuned for pictures of that.
Paneling
Thankfully the paneling has been a breeze to install because there sure is a lot of it! We got enough to panel all 4 walls and the ceiling of this space. We’re maybe 1/3 the way through and I’m loving the look.
Gas Line
We got approval to fill-in our gas line trench from the gas company, maybe a month ago, which was really exciting! And while we are away on our road trip, we were expecting them to come out and pull the gas line through our conduit and install the meter. But instead we got a call asking for one more thing. So gas is still up in the air and our fingers are crossed that it gets installed before Labor Day (when we’re hosting 4 families for our local fair and rodeo…eek!).
Those are the big things we’ve hit in the past couple weeks. Can’t wait to get back home and make some more progress on this space!
