Oh, Christina What Have You Done???

So I need to fill you in on the latest saga of the Family moving drama…

We have purchased a 1960 brick ranch that is approx. 500 sq ft bigger than our current house but when we are finished with it will be about 1000 sq ft bigger. Its in a neighborhood we really like and in general its a great find. Of course it needs some work...the kitchen is circa 1960 and it has 3 bedrooms and we need 4. The Kitchen is first on the TO DO list and as we move in Dec 15th I want to get as much done to it as possible before we move in. So being proactive I am getting Contrators, Architects, and Interior Designers lined up and formulating a plan before we even close on it on Nov 23rd.

After much ado getting a new kitchen configured my interior designer and Home Depot got a plan that we were all happy with…

ENTER: THE ARCHITECT

I am going to trash her for a minute, but she is really good and knows what the hell she is doing…Lucinda Moore comes in-in the eleventh hour mind you- to draw up the plans for the Contractor. Lucinda looks at what we have come up with and she starts shaking her head and walking around the kitchen and looking at everything. After about 15 minutes of this she announces:

“This is all wrong…if you want to maximize the square footage of your house, have access to your back yard and create a positive flow in this house you need to move the kitchen to where the Dining Room is.”

Well halleluiah and break out the checkbook lets just spend 50K on a kitchen we planned on spending 10K on!! Is what I am thinking…but when I stopped hyperventilating and they got down to brass tacks its really only going to be about 5K more b/c we are tearing out everything in the current kitchen so its just a matter of moving electrical and plumbing and finishing out the walls where the cabinets currently are. BUT its going to add about 4-6 weeks construction time to this whole process that I was trying to get done by 2006!

Can anyone say “Shoot me in the head?” not having a kitchen for approx 2 and a half months with 3 kids under the age of 2 years old!!!!!!!!

So after some tears on my husband's shoulder and running around telling anyone who would listen what I have gotten myself into..I was over at my buddy’s house, Janet, who recommended Lucinda to us by the way, and telling her she is Number 1 on my top ten shit list and her husband pipes in…” Christina, this is the best thing that could have happened…why cant you use the current kitchen while they are constructing the new one and when the new one is ready you cut everything over and then demolish the old kitchen and fix that up…that way you will always have a kitchen through out this whole process!” Brilliant! Mike you get a gold star for the day!

So my emotional roller coaster on this project is back up….will keep you posted on this craziness.