Spring Break Part 4 - Construction

My mom, me, and my sister, Tanya, enjoying our "new" kitchen:)

Well, it finally happened.  And it only took my family driving all the way from Missouri to Idaho, in order to help me, for it to happen.  We finally took down the cabinets that separated the kitchen from the dining room.  It totally opened up the space and it looks so much better!!  Now, I know most of you have never seen our kitchen, so you probably will not be affected that much by this:)  But, trust me, our kitchen looks better.

It was kind of a mental struggle to get to the point of taking them down.  When Chris and I first bought this house, we agreed the cabinets needed to come down and we were eager to do so.  But, then time went on and worries with our inexperience in home remodeling started to set in; It's not hard to take down the cabinets, just a few screws here and there, but what if something does go wrong?  Because we're not sure we could fix any problems (at least not without paying a lot of money to a professional to come and fix our mistakes).  And what about the extra storage we would be missing with the cabinets gone?  Would we miss that tremendously?  And the "what-ifs" just kept going on and on.  So, we kind of let it go for a while.  A few times here and there, I would bring up taking the cabinets down again to Chris.  But the longer we went without taking them down, the more Chris started to "be ok" with the cabinets and to not want them down.  Well, long story short, my family arrives last week to visit, we're showing them the house, and the first thing my mom and sister bring up AFTER saying how much they love our house is... "If I were you, I would take down those cabinets."  I know, right?!!!  So, I explained to them how I wanted to, but Chris really didn't want to, but he used to want to, and now we're worried about the issues that could arise, etc.  But, their interest completely renewed my interest and desire in wanting to take down the cabinets.  So, after a few conversations with Chris of trying to convince him how it would look so much better with the cabinets gone, he finally gave in.  So, we went to work one night and took those suckers down.  And I love it!!!  I say "I" because Chris is still indifferent to the whole thing.  He says he likes them down, but he also didn't mind them up... whatever:)

I forgot to take a "before" picture, so I found this one.  This is a picture the realtors took when they were showing the house, before we bought it and moved in.  This view is from the dining room.

And here we are, with the help of my mom and niece and nephew, taking the cabinets down!!

Our niece and nephew, Farah and Connor, modeling the big hole in our kitchen where the missing cabinet was.

Ta Daa!!  Now, I know my picture taking skills are not as nice as the realtor's, so this picture does not do the room as much justice as the "before" picture.  But, you can definitely see how much more open the room is!!  Now, I look forward to getting some bar stools to put under the counter top.  Thank you to everyone who helped, and renewed our desire to make it happen!!