Worth the Wait (maybe)

Drum roll…dun-da-da-dunt-da…the kitchen remodel is done! (Mostly)

OMG finally.

Here’s our “Before” photos, dated August, 2021.

Here we are, playing with computer-generated layout options in May of 2022. Yeah, over a year ago.

Here’s the photo of Utah that I saved on my phone to use as reference for the colors I wanted, as we embarked on the long process of choosing materials. June 2022.

Here’s the kitchen design I drew for our contractor, also June 2022.

By July of 2022 we had identified our flooring and our cabinets, but not the countertop or backsplash yet. Note how well they match my photo of the Utah desert!

Demolition started in August of 2022. That is one dang ugly picture!

We bought our countertop slabs sight-unseen from just an internet picture while vacationing in Seattle. August, 2022.

We saw the countertop in person for the first time in September, at the slab yard in Phoenix after getting home from Seattle. Wow, what a good match. Both the cabinets and the countertop have a subtle sage-green tint, and the terracotta floor tiles bring out the rusty veining in the quartzite.

The floor was in by the end of September.

The cabinets were onsite by early October. Most of them, anyway.

The kitchen was usable by November, although we just had boards set on top of the cabinets in-leu of countertop.

And the gas stove wasn’t connected. We did not host Thanksgiving that year!

By December we had a working stove.

In January of 2023, we finally got our countertop installed.

Inspired by the little bit of exposed brick over the window, I asked if we could use brick for a backsplash. That innocent question (or crazy idea, however you want to look at it) ended up delaying the project by months, but we don’t regret it.

Meanwhile, the hall bath was partially demolished in September

and further torn out in November,

And December

And was finally done in February of this year.

The kitchen brick backsplash didn’t get off to a very fast start. Our contractor had to figure out his technique. He ended up slicing the ends off of large burnt adobe bricks, because they would be far too thick otherwise. He used the ends and threw away the middle. The middle of the brick wasn’t natural looking because it had been cut.

A long time passed. By March, I was used to the kitchen without a backsplash.

My contractor had other projects. And a big overseas vacation to Italy. And more projects. Just as I was about to decide he was never coming back, he’d pop in for a couple of hours. Every week or two or three.

Suddenly, in May, I had the beginnings of brick backsplash. Now I was committed. Now I couldn’t just hire some random tile guy to put in something common and in stock at Floor and Decor and be done with it. We were indeed doing this experimental adobe brick thing.

More time passed. My sister and I traded pictures of our kitchens in progress. She has a very different style of house, in a very different part of the country, and is going with brighter, lighter colors.

My sister chose a clean, cheerful backsplash for her new kitchen.

Her kitchen is such a contrast to mine, it’s jarring to see the pretty pictures of her kitchen remodel right above this next photo of my thick orange brick and drippy thinset, ugh. Is this crazy project of ours even going to work?

At the end of May it was time to choose a grout color for our unconventional backsplash project, but nothing seemed quite right.

Our contractor tried several options. He would come by for a few minutes, put something in a groove, and leave. He would come back a few days later after it dried to see how it looked. He wasn’t happy with the results and we weren’t either. It was maddening.

He decided to mix some custom options himself. He added sand to give it a rougher, more authentic look. He created a mock-up board so we could see them all.

You can see the little purple tab stuck to the option I chose.

Here it is at the end of June, before the grout was in.

And here is what it looked like with the grout in, but still wet and unsealed.

Another week goes by. Finally it’s time to seal it. Here it is, done, today, July 6, 2023. Done!

What a labor of love! We’re calling the kitchen done, although we don’t have a range hood or a disposal yet. Minor details.

We’re done with the kitchen for now at least! We are not, however, done with the remodel. We have a variety of detail projects throughout the house left to do, as well as a significant amount of work we plan to do outside (roof, garden walls, shed, pergolas, solar panels, etc.). And the master bathroom remodel! Can’t forget that. That is scheduled for this fall. Stay tuned!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism