And so it begins..

Starting yesterday, we have 22 days between the closing date on our new house and the end of our lease. 22 days to strip carpet, refinish hardwood, paint the interior, design and install a new kitchen island (complete with plumbing), make some minor changes to the footprint of the kitchen and finally.. actually move in! All without hiring any contractors. Can we do it?

Not to waste any time, we started work immediately. I began work on prepping the windows for paint - they had not been cleaned in such a long time that the caulking around the edges had turned black and were mostly water damaged. Scraping is the name of my game. Adam began the demolition of the pantry that is in the middle of the main living area. The house originally featured a fireplace in that spot (?), but the previous owners decided to change that into a pantry. My wish is to have a much more open floor plan where I can see the living room and breakfast nook from my perch in the kitchen so we decided to remove the pantry, build a bitchen island and rearrange other cabinets to create some food storage.

This weekend we'll be tearing up the carpet and prepping the kitchen for renovation.

Follow along as I share about our new adventure as second time renovators. I've also teamed up with a group of awesome bloggers who will be guest posting here - we have a great mix of recipes, family tips and DIY projects.