Fixer Upper: Kitchen Edition

In February 2016 our family was given the opportunity own a 10-acre farm. This had been a dream of ours for years, but with our giant student loan debt we weren't sure if it would ever be possible. We went and looked at the property. The acreage was beautiful, mostly fenced, with a large pond in the big pasture. The barn was PHENOMENAL. However, the house was, well, it was probably on the verge of being condemned to put it nicely. The home consisted of a mid-1800's two story log cabin that was added onto in the late 1800-s and then added onto again in the early 1900's making it a "salt box style" house. On the outside you'll notice that you can't even tell there is a two story log cabin underneath that siding. Well, the addition that was put on in the early 1900's was poorly done and most of that area needed to be completely redone. We gutted the entire house down to it's "bones" and the back addition got gutted beyond the bones.

The original kitchen was the size of shoe box. Not literally, but let's just say that it was so small two people couldn't fit in there together. And you know what else was "great" about it? The POWER BOX was inside one of the kitchen cupboards because, you know, that's a safe place for it. We took the original kitchen and turned it into a pantry. The picture you see here is of a bedroom that was falling off the back of the house. We decided to "fix" the structure and turn it into our kitchen!

Due to torrential rain it took us a couple months to be able to finish putting up the wall on the back of the house. We lived in a friend's camper on our property during this time. I can't tell you how elated I was when this wall went up!

It finally started coming together after the wall was on. We have some excellent auctions near where we live, which is where we were able to get much of the materials needed for our project. The boards used for the walls to create the "ship lap" look are actually trim boards that were "scratch-n-dent" that I picked up at auction for $100. Yes, for $100 we did ALL the kitchen walls! I had so much fun cutting and hanging these boards! The floor is tiling that is designed to look like old barn wood that, again, we bought at auction. I paid $325 for an entire pallet, used what we needed, and then SOLD the remainder for $300. Yes, my kitchen tile cost us $25!

I designed my kitchen cabinets and my step dad, with the help of my husband, built them for me! I can't tell you how much I love my DEEP counters!

I stained the countertops white and then coated them with poly-acrylic. I will say that as much as I love the look of them, if you do this please do several extra coats of the poly-acrylic. I will likely be sanding them and re-staining and coating them in the near future using more coats so that it is more durable.

The day my kitchen sink was installed was so exciting. I hadn't had a kitchen sink in MONTHS. We didn't have running hot water, but I was content with having a faucet and the ability to wash dishes without hauling water! The sink is a vintage red cast iron sink given to us by some dear friends. It had been sitting in their back barn for quite some time waiting for a place to be used. The faucet I scored at auction for about $20.

I picked up these lights at auction for $5 each and really like them. We had planned on our house being completely off-grid, but figured for re-sale purposes it was wise to wire it up while we had everything open.

Since this picture was taken we have trimmed out the kitchen windows and done more finishing work. I've also downsized even more (I am such a minimalist) AND reorganized. I realized as I was loading pictures that I don't have a FINAL kitchen photo. I am in the process of canning in the kitchen, but when I am done I will take a photo for y'all.

Oh, and a bonus picture for you! How do heat our home, heat our water, and heat our food? Well, here is your answer. This stove sit between my kitchen and dining room. This picture was taken right after it was installed before we painted the walls. If you look to the left side of the picture you can see the dining room is still torn apart being worked on. It took us just over a year to do most of the work. We still have trim work to do upstairs, a few small projects, and then we have to address the enclosed back porch at some point (which I am hoping to convert into a summer kitchen).