The Miller Acres

We help young families pursue a simple, more sustainable lifestyle by planning purposefully with frugality in mind.

HOMESTEADING

Kitchen Renovation Progress

This post may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that I would use myself and hope that these resources are beneficial to you.

I’ve held off on sharing several of our home improvements because they aren’t completely done. It feels like we have a million half-finished projects and a long list of need-to-start projects. This is what we wanted, though–a house that needed love and time and attention to detail–but I also get impatient and want everything to be done now. But then, we wouldn’t have anything else to work on, so although the mess and never-ending to-do list can feel daunting, I think that the Lord will use this house to teach me a little more patience and to be a little more okay with everything not feeling perfectly put together.

When we first walked through our house, I couldn’t help but look past her current state and see the vision of what she once was and what she could be. I actually really liked a lot of things about our tiny kitchen before we did anything to it. The cabinets were in good shape and painted in calming colors. There was a window above the sink. There was a laundry room adjacent to the kitchen for extra storage, leading to a cellar that would be perfect for storing canned goods. But, there were also some obvious signs of work that needed to be done. The old vinyl floors were peeling, the garbage disposal was leaking, the dishwasher was portable, and one stove burner shot fire almost two feet up into the air. Well, technically it still does, but more on that later…

We decided to focus on changing a few parts of the kitchen with the hope that it would make a major impact. We are so happy with our progress thus far, and are looking forward to slowly adding other details to our cozy cottage kitchen over time.

We carried the hardwood from the first floor through the kitchen, replaced the countertops with white quartz, added a backspace, new faucet, and new sink, and purchased a new-to-us dishwasher. A plumber quoted us at almost $1,000 to install the garbage disposal, faucet, and dishwasher, so Carson learned how to do the sink and disposal on his own. We found a much more reasonable quote for the dishwasher and ended up saving over $900.
So our stove still shoots up fire on one burner, but it was going to be $300 to repair it, and we are planning on investing in a new oven in a few years. Spending $300 for one burner seemed a little excessive when we hope to replace this oven anyway, so we got the major repairs fixed and added a child’s lock to the bad burner to make sure we don’t ever turn it on.
We hired Mid America Granite for our countertops and cannot say enough good things about their company! They helped us choose a quartz countertop in the color we wanted that was within our budget. They spent a lot of time explaining the process and allowed us to do the tear-out to save on costs. We also got our under-mount sink from them, and it has been SO easy to clean! We looked into getting a farmhouse apron sink, but it would have been almost $1,000 extra due to the price of the sink, installation, and custom cabinet doors. Our faucet was bought secondhand for about $30, and it has been perfect for washing dishes. We are planning on installing an RO system and then adding some minerals back in because of the quality of our water and age of our plumbing system.
We hired SB Home Improvement to install our tile backsplash, and we were so impressed with their work! They also remodeled our bathroom (which I will hopefully be sharing soon!), and really appreciate their attention to detail. We highly recommend them if you live in south-central Kansas. I didn’t think that adding a backsplash would make much of a difference, but it really brightened up the kitchen and made it look a lot more finished. We originally wanted to use zellige tiles, but the price would have been over $800 for tile as opposed to less than $40 for subway tile. I am really happy with the simple, clean look of the white subway tiles and iron-grey grout–both which coordinate with our bathroom that is just off of the kitchen!
Because our cabinet space is limited and we don’t have a pantry, we use this antique cabinet that we found at a garage sale to store our most-used dishes. Oh, and of course our coffee. Carson surprised me with this espresso maker for Mother’s Day, and please don’t ask us how many lattes we have made since then. It’s gone up quite a bit in price since then, but I think the price fluctuates so you can watch for sales!
A goal of mine is to rely less on our microwave and more on our stove, so we decided to move our microwave to the laundry room and use the open cabinetry to store our dried goods such as pastas, flour, nuts, and oats. I collected different canning jars over time for both preservation of goods and visual appeal.
I found this little spice rack at a thrift store for a couple of bucks before we closed on our house. It ended up having just enough space for my spices. For some reason I have three jars of turmeric? I was either really craving curry or didn’t check my spice rack before heading to the grocery store on multiple occasion before our move.
My mom recommended this blender, and it has been just what we were looking for! Our previous blender broke shortly before our move, and we have been wanting to buy one for several months. I wanted one that wouldn’t break after just a few uses but didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars. We have already used it multiple times a week, and Lincoln gets so excited when we make “choc, choc” a.k.a. chocolate smoothies!
I think my favorite part of this kitchen is this little window. Sure, if I had designed the house 95 years ago, I would have chosen a much larger window to let in more natural light, but I’m sure they had their reasons! I love looking out this window when I am cooking–watching Carson play with Lincoln on his swing set and hearing him say, “Look, mama!” as he goes down the slide all by himself.
Our kitchen isn’t done yet, and probably won’t be for quite some time. She needs a fresh coat of paint, baseboards, drawer pulls, new light fixtures, and potentially a slightly larger fridge. But, despite all of the work to be done, I am so thankful for this cozy little space and to have a place to brew our morning coffee and cook for my family.

0

SHARE:

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Leave a Reply

Join the List

Join my email list and be the first to know when I publish new posts about slow fashion, homesteading, motherhood, and sustainable living!

LET’S CONNECT

© 2022 THE MILLER ACRES

THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS
%d bloggers like this: