All because of a stove...

Like many, I've put my time in with old appliances. Baking sensitive Christmas cookies became an exploration in scientific guesstimation, unable to peer into a window or know the precise heat of the oven. On the top side of things, having access to one large burner and two smaller ones was child's play- who really uses four burners at once, I pondered? No matter that we didn't have a circulation fan outside of an opened patio door for seven years- natural air, I speculated, worked just as well.

Upon noticing a fan above our range in our new home, I nearly jumped for joy until I learned that using it was akin to understanding what deafness might be like ("I can't hear you, darling... the fan's on!"). Yes, after a decade of marriage it was time to splurge on two appliances that see daily use.

The purchase of our new range, complete with four working burners and convection oven, was indeed exciting. After browsing the large inventories of every brick-and-mortar and online retailer imaginable, we settled on a new LG range with a matching over-range microwave hood. They looked gorgeous with the sleek and modern lines that we craved. Even better, we knew that cooking would never be the same again. We could nearly taste the sublime tastes that would soon ooze their way out of the kitchen.

There was, however, one catch. A minor, trivial dilemma that we hadn't anticipated. The microwave hood was not compatible with our kitchen's upper-hood cabinetry. After scratching our heads, moving them from side to side so that we could see every angle of the space necessary to fit the new appliance, we knew we were doomed. Our cabinets simply would not work.

True love, in the making for a dozen years, was suddenly slapped in the face. There was no way we were going to return the appliances, as shiny and new as they were, of course. Clearly, the only option was obvious: sayonara kitchen cupboards.

We had hoped to remodel the kitchen before we settled on minor fixes that would hopefully appease our desire to tear down the builder's special cupboards from fifteen years ago. I spent hours trying to cajole the grease stains out of the grain with oil. I carefully stacked food items in the small cupboard like a house of cards- god help you if you wanted those crackers in the right-bottom-back. Each time I pulled myself onto the countertop to reach into the upper corner cabinet, I was sure I'd fall and break a bone.

And so it was that our reluctance to renovate was quickly brushed aside by our dash to redo all of the cabinets... so that one single microwave could be accommodated.

As our remodel progresses, we will have updates, photo's and more for everyone to see. But mostly, this is a place for us to document what we've done, what needs to be done still, and to look back fondly (yeah... haha) on the experience of a kitchen remodel.