From the Heart: Inexpensive yet Priceless

I cannot begin to tell you how long Michael and I have wanted to “freshen up” our kitchen, and give it a mini make over.

After all, we spend so much of our time in there (especially me, as you can imagine), and it truly is the heart of our home, the bosom of our house that our little family always seems to be drawn into.

Our kitchen had a paint job that my mom and I did together (bless our hearts) many years ago that had, over time, become quite chipped and discolored in certain spots (and frankly, the color itself probably wasn't all that great to begin with); and we had not one but two refrigerators in there—one larger main fridge, and one smaller taking up the other wall to carry the over flow. (One too many!)

In short, it was time to a) get a new fridge and get rid of the second one; b) paint in a new, creamy and uplifting color; and c) add some cute and whimsical little bits of flair, such as new knobs on the cupboards and some new art on the wall, plus other little flourishes that would make it more attractive and feel more like “us”.

Michael and I had been pining for a vanilla ice cream/custard colored kitchen, with some French country touches, and had started talking about maybe doing a little revamp ourselves a while back, making it a kind of fun project to get our hands dirty with as a couple.

But as so often happens with plans, they got shelved for a while, and we simply continued to cope with our kitchen.

Until...

Finally, we took the plunge.

We turned on our music, ordered pizza for lunch, and slowly but surely made something quite beautiful and lovely out of our “mess”.

Around Labor Day weekend, we spur-of-the-moment decided to purchase our new fridge (nothing motivates a purchase like those holiday prices), and therefore put ourselves a good portion of the way into the “job” of our little remodel.

We both knew that once we got that new fridge, we wouldn't leave things as they were; we'd long to tie everything together, to make it all fresh and beautiful, and make it a space that we could truly feel great about spending so much time in.

So all that was left was to wait just until the extremely hot weather eased up on us here in So Cal, wait for a weekend when our son (a Marine) would not be coming home to visit with us because of his work schedule.

That weekend finally arrived.

Since it would be just Michael and I, the kitchen could be completely free for as long as necessary to finish the job; and with the weather finally cooler, it made for ideal working conditions.

Before the weekend of our “remodel” we chose our paints, our brushes, and our new knobs.

We had our French art poster framed (which Michael had received as a gift directly from the owner of a beautiful vineyard in Champagne while in France), and got all of our little necessary items ready to go. This way, on the big day, we'd hit the ground running.

And so it went!

It was on a recent Friday morning we got up, got the kitchen prepped (counter tops cleaned, everything taped up and covered, walls sanded where we patched things a little the day before), and went to work!

We turned on our music, ordered pizza for lunch, and slowly but surely made something quite beautiful and lovely out of our “mess”.

It was “hubs & bubs” (our silly pet names for each other) working together, putting our collective sweat equity into it all, twisting and turning and getting up on the step stool, then getting down, then kneeling, then getting back up, getting paint in our hair...

Boy, oh boy!

We were so sore at the end of it all, seeing double by 10:30 pm when we finally finished with the second coat, feeling like we had been hit by a truck. We literally hadn't one more minute left in us, with kinks in our necks and backs like you wouldn't believe (unless you've also done this type of remodel yourself, of course).

But it felt great, felt wonderful, felt like accomplishment!

...Let's move the couch and TV in here—I don't think I ever want to leave the kitchen...

We became partners in making our joint vision work, partners in seeing what we set out to do come to fruition, and partners in the physical pain we felt afterwards even.

It was what Michael and I did together by bringing both of our desires to the table, mixing them up, and getting to work...

Compromising, giving and taking when appropriate.

These were the things we experienced, the things that brought us even closer together as a couple.

And the next day, when we did our final finishing touches, and screwed those new ceramic, whimsical little knobs into the cupboards, and placed the newly framed art on the wall, and put the new hand towels up and the rug back and all of our little flourishes up... it felt amazing.

It felt like a new place, a new space, a fresh beginning, funny enough.

And it was done for so little, done so inexpensively because we made it a game to keep things within a certain budget, yet the whole experience had become utterly priceless.

When Michael and I stood there the next day, beholding our beautiful toil, we kept commenting how much we loved it; and I jokingly said, “Let's move the couch and TV in here—I don't think I ever want to leave the kitchen, it's so cozy!”

So now, we plan on living in the kitchen full time! (Just kidding...) 😉

Actually, we plan on painting more of the inside of the house—maybe not this month, but soon.

It was a truly memorable and wonderful experience, on both a physical and spiritual level; and we look forward to collaborating in this way even more, using our “sweat equity” to change our environment, together.

How sweet it is....how inexpensive yet priceless. And I couldn't recommend it enough.

Taste what's good and pass it on.

Ingrid