Wow! What a year! What a time to be alive...am I right? Peter and I got married in February and barely made it home from our honeymoon before the first quarantine in the US brought life as we knew it to an abrupt halt. We both started working remotely on March 12th and it has been an interesting first year of marriage seeing so much of each other! The silver lining is the pandemic has given us plenty of time to work on the house without experiencing major FOMO (like we did in 2019) and it has slowed us down and allowed us to spend time in the space and really be thoughtful about planning our future projects.

Perhaps the biggest (and most costly) project we finished in 2020 was replacing all the old knob and tube wiring throughout the house. This was a tough pill of a project to swallow because it involved the electricians having to open up walls and ceilings in every single room, which in turn, committed us to painting every room and ceiling (and lets not forget plaster repair!). Each room now has what I describe as track marks running up, down and all over the place. The electricians (they are a local Philly company - Your Electric Now), did an amazing job keeping the project clean and organized but it was still intense seeing the final, ugly result. It’s hard to enjoy what you can’t see given the updated wiring is hidden inside the walls. The only comfort is knowing we won’t have any issues when we come to sell the property or any electrical issues due to old wiring.

2019 and 2020 were two years we spent working on many jobs that produced little to no “wow” factor. I am excited to finally dig-in to putting my hours of pouring through design magazines, podcasts and social media posts to the test in 2021! I have held back sharing pictures of certain parts of the house because they are not in great shape. Between the electrical work, old and random paint colors/ wallpaper and our general neglect, the rooms are not very pretty to look at.

This year I wrote blog posts to document all the projects we have completed and now I would like to begin sharing some of our projects that we have planned for next year! I read a gardening book recently and the author wrote, “taking pictures so I can look back is the quickest way for me to move forward”. This really resonated with me and inspired me to create this post.

The mybigdumbhouse project for 2021 will be the kitchen and dining room renovation which we hope to start in early spring. I have started contacting contractors and a few design companies and we are currently in the process of getting quotes for the work. The job will also include redesigning the old breakfast nook, laundry room and pantry. To be honest, we are very overwhelmed by this project. My only kitchen reno experience is when I replaced the tiny galley kitchen in my old Fishtown house by ordering a kitchen from IKEA and tiles from Lowes. There is nothing wrong with doing either of those things - IKEA has some great affordable kitchens! I am just hoping to step it up a little this time around and be bold and more creative with the design decisions. We will also be removing a load-bearing wall that separates the dining room and kitchen so we will have to think about how the new transition between the two rooms will work, including the flooring. I think the flooring will probably be the most complicated aspect—particularly because our floor is not level! I attempted to pull up a corner of the linoleum to see what is underneath but damn, that stuff is STUCK ON THERE.

Peter is a graphic/ web designer and has taught himself how to use SketchUp which has been super handy for us to visually brainstorm and see a 3D rendering of what we are trying to design. The renderings of the kitchen are our preliminary plans and I am sure they will change once we start getting numbers back on how much everything is going to cost!

I’d really like to put a little desk and some storage in the old breakfast nook and turn it into the home’s “command center”. You know, a landing pad for receipts, masks (ugh, COVID go away!), mail, keys, and all the odds and ends that just pile up in random places. We toyed with the idea of stacking the washer and dryer in the pantry and putting a toilet and utility sink in the laundry room (there isn't a BR on the first floor of our house), but I think that is a little out of scope per our budget. I think an important piece in designing a new space is listing out everything you want, and then slowing scaling back to fit your budget. This is where a lot of creative thinking happens and some really exciting decisions are made. How can I afford to do this and still afford to do that, how can I fit this here and still put that there etc. It’s where you get thrifty and all the fun and magic happens!

As you can see from the pictures below, our pantry is completely chaotic and unorganized. It does have a fun little window in there from way back before the laundry room was closed-in and was probably just an open porch. As the type A, OCD neat-freak that I am, this pantry gives me little heart palps every time I go in and I am definitely going to prioritize a better solution. There are also 3 doors all within this tiny area–the laundry room door, the pantry door and the swing door that opens into the dining room (my fav door in the whole house). We will be eliminating the laundry room and dining room door (the swing door will be repurposed to somewhere else), which should help with a better flow throughout the area.

The laundry room is tough because there is a giant radiator and a partial wall with the old windows. This room also has another glass door that leads to the dining room that we will be eliminating. My thoughts are to keep things simple in here and just replace the flooring and old washer and dryer and add some better storage. Removing the glass door will allow us to build some cabinetry for storage on that wall, which the room desperately needs. Also, I hate having the kitty litter in here so that will have to move to the basement.

The removal of the load-bearing wall will be the most impressive change to the whole area (that WOW factor I am so desperately in need of!). The kitchen is one of the darkest and coldest rooms in the house so the light from the dining room will help brighten it up. Peter is currently working in the dining room since we are still working on the third floor. I cannot wait to have this area become more communal and dining friendly. I’d love to keep the arch, nix the sideboard (it was left by Peter’s parents) and repurpose the amazing mirror to somewhere else in the house. I’d love to add some cabinetry and shelving in this alcove.

We are still undecided on whether we will have an island built or just buy a nifty vintage farm table or something of that nature. These are all decisions I am hoping will come once we start picking colors, cabinets and light fixtures for the space.

So many decisions to be made. I hope you’ll follow along and watch the project unfold and morph into something (fingers crossed), spectacular! Use the comments box below to leave any suggestions or tips that have helped you with your design projects or kitchen renovation.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year and may 2021 be everything 2020 was not!