Bye Bye, Big Red: A Lesson in Contentment

 Well, who knew it would take a fire for us to finally make any improvements on this horrid kitchen of ours. In fact, you'll probably remember how we practically begged HGTV to help us out last year when they were debuting a new television show, Get HGTV'ed. Why was I so adamant about asking for help? Because for the last eight years we've been living on one income...that of my husband's {teacher} salary. We pay a mortgage and we've been working on getting rid of our college debts for about three years now. {Im thrilled to tell you we paid off all my loans last summer! What an accomplishment!} We each drive used(AKA dumpy) cars so we don't pay car loans and we live on a very tight budget overall.

 You would never know what house you're in when you see this kitchen. It just does not match the character of the rest of the house, not to mention my taste. My dad helped me paint it about six years ago and back then I loved the red. But Eric nad I were both getting tired of the dark color, especially with all the original woodwork in the rest of the house. It just felt dark and heavy.

 Enter the fire of January 2012. Since the fire IN this room, this was the room that sustained the most damage. It was mostly smoke damage but a portion of our wall near the stove had been burned through and was the source of alot of the smell.
 The first step was painting all the random, unmatching cabinets the same shade of white to make them appear more cohseive.

 Then we removed our ghetto cat door and replaced it with a fancy, brand new one after painting the door. And yes, thats a nasty old washcloth that was serving as the flap door. Im so ashamed to be showing this photo but this is all for documentation and it was the reality.

 This is our hidden pantry, under our stairs

 And this is the wall of original cabinetry. The only original thing left in the room(and in desperate need of stripping and re-painting)

 You'll notice we have NO upper cabinetry in this room. Its so bare.

 Enter new kitty door, before we repainted the door. Its getting better...

 The sink cabinet after I repainted it...

 The weekend that Eric was away at our winter youth retreat I primed the entire kitchen by myself.It took me a solid day to get it done. Then I ended up in bed, sick. yeah that was fun.Im noticing how nice the red actually looks in these pictures. But we were so ready for a lighter, brighter room.

 Getting primed...

 What a mess...

 Then I replaced the new hardware on the cheap cabinet next to the sink. This cabinet literally has plastic drawers that are falling apart. But for now, there's no money in our budget for new cabinets so new hardware at least makes it LOOK higher quality{and actually, Ive since swapped out this hardware below, for even better bin pulls that match the hardware on the original wall of cabinetry). Each of the handles cost $3.44 and I am thrilled to have such a wonderful update for so little money!

 Ahhhh, much better. Can I just tell you that I've cooked meals almost every single night since we started this process? Seriously, that's a miracle in itself. It's just so much fun to be in there now!

 So what's left to do? We still need to paint all the trim, and since we hate the textured ceiling(and need to install new lighting and a planked ceiling) we're trying to figure out when we'll be tackling that portion of the room. It'll be a huge project, not to mention messy. See the brownish area there on the ceiling? Yet another result of the fire.

 This is THE ONLY light fixture in the room and must be replaced. I'm insisting. I've requested recessed lighting and either two large schoolhouse pendants or chandeliers in place of this. We'll be saving up for that project for a few months but by doing all the work ourselves we'll save a bundle.

 But for now, we're off to a good start. And the Lord has been teaching me contentment through the entire process. A year ago I was desperate to get everything replaced. Now I'm totally OK to just work with what we have because that's our reality right now. We're making it work for us. And there's total peace in that.

So theres the beginning of the kitchen transformation. What do you think? Are you a fan of colorful rooms or crisp, clean white? Id love to hear your opinions.