Kitchen Renovation: Out With the Old, In With the NEW!

After the walls were prepped in the dining room and kitchen, we also tackled the hallway. Every single little wooden stay was pulled out. Each and every crack was filled with sheetrock mud and sanded flat with the wall.

Once all the walls were prepped for painting, our focus went right to the kitchen. This is where we wanted to make the biggest changes. Our first change was to move the end island cabinet  and shorten the cabinet to the  otherside of the stove. This kitchen originally had a small 30-inch wide stove, so we wanted to replace it with a standard, full-size unit. Thus, we needed to move these cabinets to account for the 6-inch difference in size.

We also planned to replace the microwave so I started to remove it and encountered a real challenge! This old microwave was mounted unlike any microwave I have ever seen before. It took me several hours of wrestling with it to finally get it off the wall.

Once the old microwave and the old stove were out,  we went shopping for new ones. After looking around Lowe's, we found nice replacements for the old units. Before the stove could be installed I would have to put down new florring under the moved cabinets. Fortunatley the previous owners left just enough old flooring to make the necessary repairs.

Once the flooring was in I installed the new microwave which was a snap compared to taking out the old one. I will put in the stove later after we paing the cabinets.  Since we already had the walls prepped for paint we are ready to prep the cabinets.

So next we focused on painting the cabinets. After using ChatGPT to help us experiment and pick paint colors, we finally settled on a variation of sage green called clary sage. It took us about 10 days to paint all the cabinet doors because we had to first degrease them using TSP and then we sanded them. Next, becasue these cabinets aren't real wood they are partical board covered with wood film, we used two coats of shellac based primer since it was rated as the best to stick to them.  Lastly we put on two coats of paint on each side of the doors.

While the cabinets were curing we painted the trim white and the walls with using a color called agreeable grey. With everything is painted I installed our new stove after rebuilding the shortened cabinet. Next the focus will be on the windows, sink, countertops and backsplash.

Making Our Park Model Feel More Like Home

Closing day has come and gone, and we are now the owners of a park model at Towerpoint RV Resort!

While we're excited about this new chapter, it's no secret that our new place is showing its age. Built in 1995, the home has good bones, but there are definitely a few features that remind you of its vintage.

The good news is that we've never been the type to simply move into a place and leave it exactly as we found it. Even though we know this won't be our forever home, we still want it to feel like our home.

One of the first things we noticed after moving in was how much the interior still felt like a trailer rather than a home. After all, park models are manufactured homes, and some of the design choices from the mid-90s haven't exactly aged gracefully.

The wooden trim strips which appeared every few feet along the walls were at the top of our list for removal. They may have served a purpose at one time, but to us they just made the walls feel busy and dated. Another feature which quickly caught our attention was the decorative wall cornice above the dining room windows. Let's just say it wasn't our style. Both of those items were among the first things to disappear.

As we looked around the house, it became clear that the kitchen would require the most alterations. Not surprisingly, it's also the room we use the most. The cabinets were functional, but definitely due for a refresh. Painting them was high on our project list, and we decided replacing the countertops would give the entire space a more modern feel.

Of course, those won't be the only updates. Like most renovation projects, we'll tackle improvements as we go and see where our inspiration leads us.

One tool that's been surprisingly helpful throughout this process is artificial intelligence. We've been having a lot of fun using ChatGPT and other AI-powered design tools to experiment with ideas before picking up a paintbrush or opening our wallets. By uploading photos of our rooms and asking the software to show us different design options, we've been able to visualize changes that might otherwise have been difficult to imagine. It's a great way to test ideas, compare styles, and avoid costly mistakes.

We'll leave you with a few of those AI-generated images that show our vision for the space. Whether the finished product ends up looking exactly like the renderings remains to be seen, but they certainly provide plenty of inspiration as we begin transforming this 1995 park model into a place that feels a little more like home.

Stay tuned—there's much more to come as our renovation adventure continues on our road of retirement!