Part 2 DIY Kitchen and Dining Total Remodel
Join us on a “How To” DIY Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation where we remodel a 1929 Craftsman style kitchen and adjoining rooms with a complete Kitchen Makeover, flooring, and cabinets with Shaker Cabinet Doors.
We will take you through our before pictures, demo days, kitchen design, and rebuild!
This post will detail the beautiful transformation of a small traditional and closed kitchen/dining space to a fully renovated open farm-style space suitable for large gatherings of family and friends.
In this series, I want you to know the history of our Harvesting Home renovation, of purchasing a wonderful historic 1929 Craftsman style house and transforming it from a traditional segmented floor plan into an open, farm-style decor to meet our busy 2020 lifestyle and family needs and loves! We are in the process of making this wonderful old house into something that fits our family without destroying the history and character of this home.
In this series, we will share the following:
1. Part 1: History and Why We Bought It The History of Our Harvesting Home
2. Part 2: DIY Kitchen and Dining Total Remodel
3. Part 3: Harvesting Homes Practice Hospitality!
4. Part 4: Front Porch – Clean, Character, and Colorful!
5. Part 5: *The story is still being written!
“We are eating out way too much!”
We knew that we wanted to remodel the kitchen as soon as possible. But having gone from a spacious kitchen to an older kitchen with extraordinarily little cabinet and counter space, the easy thing was to just eat out and talk about what could be one day. Finally, after a few months of planning and dreaming, we went for it!
A Small Stumbling Block
As we prepared to begin the demo of the existing kitchen, we enlisted the expertise of an engineer in our church and one of his construction managers to assess what we could do structurally. We were glad to find out that only one wall which we wanted to remove was load bearing, and that could easily be addressed with a header.
It was time for demolition! Demo Day as ChipGaines on Fixer Upper calls it, was not what we expected. My husband decided to have an accident and fracture his C-2 vertebrae (which is a story for another day), so that took him out of all but observation!
It is Never Hard to Find Men that Want to Demo Things
But not to worry, my brother and our friend Shawn came to the rescue! Armed with sledgehammers and crow bars, the work began as they disassembled and tore down old kitchen cabinets and began to take out walls. It was a hot Texas summer and they were working hard! They would soon be followed by Carl from Open Range Engineering, who oversaw the removal of the load bearing wall and adjoining walls. Our son and two high school students got busy and demolished the other walls.
Throughout the demo we tried to salvage as much original woodwork as possible including base-molding, crown, and door-facings. Some original doors were removed and are being stored for future use.
Five Rooms Minus Seven Doors Minus Four Walls = Two Rooms
The original house floorplan, built in 1929, was very small, closed and choppy, with many smaller rooms in this portion of the house. The original floor plan contained the dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, mud/utility room, and a half bath. It contained access doors from the dining room to the breakfast room, from dining room to kitchen, from breakfast room to kitchen, from kitchen to basement stairs & pantry, from kitchen to mud room, from mud room to half bathroom, and from mud room to outside. SEVEN DOORWAYS! If you were not careful, you would meet a swinging door when going from one room to the next! That works well for small amounts of traffic, but not for providing access to large busy gatherings and constant activity. Some walls had to go!
We removed walls which left the large dining room, and a combination room which included all the others. Oh yeah, the bathroom had to go away!
All the walls were removed down to the original framing studs. And to further describe the mess created, the original walls were plaster and lathe. Have you ever torn out plaster and lathe walls, complete with dust from the Dust Bowl? To say it was a dusty mess is as much as anything can ever be understated. We put plastic sheeting to close off that area from the rest of the house, but I think that was just to make us think we were helping the situation. It was dusty . . . everywhere!
Exposing the Brick!!!
We knew it was there. We had seen multiple chimneys on the roof, but only one fireplace was exposed in the house. That rough unfinished brick chimney chute ran right through the kitchen!
Maybe the most exciting part of the remodel was pulling off the plaster and old double ovens to expose what was underneath. And much to my delight, it was everything I hoped it would be!
There was no question that we wanted to leave the brick exposed and to build it into the design of the new kitchen cabinets.
Pencil sketches
The remodel video shows you our finished product! We are very pleased with the outcome. We are forever grateful for friends and family members who helped with a lot of the detail work while my husband was recuperating. God blessed us immensely.
Harvesting Home is not just a title; it is a purpose. Our desire is that our home be a place that is purposeful, firmly planted in God’s truth, and ultimately yielding fruit in the lives of many people.
In some tough months for our family, many of you invested in us. The pictures show Bible verses written by our family and church staff members, who are amazing!
We will touch on some specifics of the products used in future videos. But please check out the products linked below and feel free to share with any friends who might be considering remodeling their kitchen. It definitely is some work, but can be much more affordable than you might think!
Don’t miss the full remodel linked in the video below!
Referral links for products we have used in this video and our kitchen are provided below for your convenience. Please see our full disclosure statement here:
Feed on the Word Dinnerware is one of my favorite sets of dinnerware ever! I have found the set to be high quality and the white/black colors are a beautiful addition to any seasonal decorating style. You can find several purchasing options in the Feed on the Word store on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2FFfAzx
Shaker Cabinet Hardware:
Polished Chrome Knobs: https://amzn.to/2Ymz5Dy
Polished Chrome Cabinet & Drawer Pull: https://amzn.to/2YqIlGZ
Overstock.com Tess Office Chair: https://bit.ly/2YrU47T
KitchenAid 48 in. 6.3 cu. ft. Smart Double Oven Commercial-Style Gas Range with Griddle and True Convection in Stainless Steel:
We purchased our major kitchen appliances through www.Build.com and have been very pleased! Their customer service was great, delivery was FREE and right on schedule, and the best part is that we saved $$$$ over retail appliance stores.
I have found the KitchenAid smaller appliances very reasonably priced on Amazon.
Kitchen Aid 6 Quart Professional Stand Mixer: https://amzn.to/30hUcZa
We are often asked where we bought the chalkboard in our basement hallway, as seen at the end of the video. I found this specific chalkboard at an antique store, but there are now many similar styles on Amazon! Check out this one linked, and then search for farmhouse style chalkboard to see a variety of sizes and styles.
Farmhouse “Feed and Seed” style chalkboard: https://amzn.to/39LRbDs
Shop the Harvesting Home Boutique for our pink speckled Harvesting Home Mug and other products currently available and coming soon!
Please email [email protected] or comment below if you have questions about other specific products you see in the video!
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