Apparently, Dennis and I are going crazy.

We’ve decided to remodel our kitchen. I actually should say”move and redo.” And we’re going to attempt to do most of the workourselves. As someone posted on Facebook this past week – “I’vebeen watching way too much HGTV.”

When we moved into our house nearly nine years ago, we did justenough remodeling in our kitchen to get us by until we had the timeand resources to redo it. Well, we’ve kept putting it off andputting it off because we knew it was going to: A) cost a lot, andB) cause a big mess in the house.

We live in an old Pearl River Lumber Mill house in the Pearlhavencommunity. A lot of the homes on our block are structured the same,but over time have been remodeled and changed to suit the owners’tastes.

Our original kitchen is at the back of our house and is separatedfrom the living room by our dining room. Keep in mind our house isa hundred years old and the rooms are all fairly big in size with alot of wasted space and 12-foot ceilings.

When we originally moved in, we took out the walls between ourliving and dining room, and then between the dining room andkitchen, so now you could see from the front of the house to theback. This open plan was much more convenient for modern-dayliving. Plus, you didn’t feel so cut off from the rest of the worldwhen you were in the kitchen.

We also built a good-sized eating bar and workstation in thekitchen. What we didn’t take into consideration when building thebar was that my refrigerator would stick out a couple of inchespast the countertop and that the dishwasher door, located in thebar, would nearly touch the facing counter when it was open. Longstory short – we made the bar too big, which makes it onlyconvenient for one cook in the kitchen at a time.

In today’s homes, the kitchen is the gathering place. Ours is nodifferent. When we eat at my house we all gather in the kitchen.Dennis is cooking, I’m cooking and we have dogs underfoot. Thekitchen is just too small.

So we’ve decided to swap the kitchen and dining room and take outthe big bar.

Are we crazy? Probably so.

We survived the remodeling when we purchased our house; hopefully,we can survive the kitchen “move and redo.”

When we sat down and started adding up all the costs involved, Itjust about blew our minds. This is why we decided we’d do most ofthe labor ourselves.

We may be in trouble though. Dennis and I tried to put up a gardenfence together last week and by the time we got two panels up wewere both thinking: “What had we gotten ourselves into?” He endedup finishing the fence by himself.

How do you think we’re going to fare when it comes to cabinets,flooring, plumbing, and well, anything else that may come up?

You know how old houses are. You fix one thing and find two morethings that need fixing. I’m hoping I’ll have a lot morepatience.

I’m sure this project will give me a lot to write about in thefuture. I’ll keep you updated.

And how was your week?

Lifestyles Editor Tammie Brewer can be reached at The DAILY LEADERat (601) 833-6961 ext. 134, by e-mail at tbrewer@dailyleader.com oryou can write to her at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven MS 39602.