Day 24

With the old house literally in the rearview mirror, the time to move forward and get to work had arrived. Packing and unpacking were getting to be annoying. We had a new house but weren't quite sure where we wanted to put everything, especially considering we were planning on getting to renovation work right away.

The house was in solid shape, but in desperate need of a makeover. Burgundy and green carpeting. The “gold” bathroom. Pink sinks. There were ample opportunities to update the house into modern times.

Based on the work previously done at the old house, we understood and valued the importance of a user-friendly kitchen. Plus, with “free” money gained from buying a house below asking price and selling one over, the kitchen would be the beginning of what became a rabbit hole of renovation.

My wife took on the job of project manager and made contact with a few different contractors to start getting quotes and timelines. Before we even really got going with unpacking, we were welcoming people into our home. 

A couple of contractors came by. After hearing her ideas, they responded with a generic representation of a kitchen design. These plans improved the kitchen but didn’t wow us with any real creative or unique aspects.

Finally, a third contractor came by. Right away, he pointed out intricacies and details that only a truly experienced worker would have known to point out. He gave us some information and prepared to create official plans and get back to us soon. However, when he did get back to us, he had an idea we hadn’t really even considered.

Move the kitchen.

An interesting proposal. We pondered it and realized that it opened up many possibilities, including having a usable kitchen while another was being built. Having lived without a real kitchen in our first house’s remodel, this was extremely intriguing so we decided to move forward with this concept.

We were informed that due to scheduling and potential supply issues, this project would not start for quite some time but it was best to get scheduled sooner than later.

Luckily, there was plenty of work to keep us busy until then.