For three years I have planning our kitchen remodel. When we bought our big old house I had no idea how expensive kitchens were. At all. As in I almost fainted when I went to the first kitchen designer. Then I proceeded to take item after luxury item off the list of must haves.

"Doors that open? Nah, I don't have to have those!"

Thus we became DIYers.

Kitchen planning books, kitchen remodel magazines, catalogs that sell kitchen related products were the books I lovingly poured over at night. I kept them in a pile next to my bed. My kitchen porn. I am embarrassed, almost, to admit to the lavish, lovingly constructed journal I put together for my kitchen. My youngest child might not have a baby book, but my kitchen does.

This past weekend I ordered my built-in refrigerator and freezer. One decision down. I hope to be able to move forward without waiting 3 more years.

One of the things that I love about reading other house renovating blogs is that I get it. No detail is too small or too mundane to share. I can read about a discussion weighing the options of an ogee edge versus a bullnose vs a squared edge. And actually care. Thus my family and friends are spared from my endless talk and in turn I am spared the glazed over look in their eyes.

One Woman's Cottage Is working on aging her newly installed brick backsplash.

Cottage at Wit's End shows off her vintage stove. I love vintage stoves, or vintage looking stoves. They are a nice break from the stainless steel. So says a woman who is getting stainless steel in her kitchen. I suppose people who actually know how to cook like them for their cooking capabilities, but I am not one of those people.

The folks at West End Bungalow are my kind of people. It only took them 4.5 months to put their kitchen drawer pulls on. I took the latches off the cabinets in our butler's pantry to paint the cabinets three years ago. So I win, or something.

Chris is in the process of rescuing her historic old house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She blogs about her life at Notes from the Trenches