Origins...

If you've read my last several posts since I've started my blog again, you've probably come to realize just how much my life has changed.

I'm busy right now trying to compile pics and notes of everything we have done in the past few years but I thought it important enough to first give you a brief backstory/ disclaimer.

I helped my parents build this house in 1993.  I grew up in it, graduated high school while living here, got married in the living room in front of the Christmas tree here!

Then my husband and I set about building our own life.
In 2009, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  It didn't take long for the family to realize that he couldn't live on his own anymore but we wanted to keep him in his native environment for as long as possible.

Right after Christmas my parents made the decision to move into my grandfathers home but they didn't want their house sitting empty.

Mr. Gem and I had owned our first home for a few years at that point and we had two little ones.

My parents knew that we were planning on selling our starter home and getting something bigger so they asked if we would consider living in their home so it wouldn't sit vacant.

Fast forward a few years and we've all come to realize how terrible that situation truly was.

My grandfather constantly treated my parents as guests who had overstayed their welcome; he never realized they were living with him.  If they would have moved him to their home, I'm fairly certain the results would have been just as bad, if not worse.

We ALL realized that we would never want to go through that again if given the choice.

So, a decision was made; I would buy my childhood home from my parents (they didn't need so much space anymore as empty nesters) and build a mother in law quarters on the property for them.

That way we would be close, I could care for them and when the time comes that they need daily/constant care, it won't seem out of place to them for me to be there all the time.

There was just one problem with this.  My mother and I have almost polar opposite tastes.

She likes light woods, I like dark.  She likes to have tchotkes everywhere and I prefer a minimalist look.  She likes a country rustic look, I like more sleek and modern.

The biggest issue by far though was her kitchen.  The kitchen I grew up in.  Even as a teenager (who loved cooking) I HATED that kitchen.

I hated the way it looked, I hated the way it was laid out, I basically hated everything about it.

Since we were going to be building a new living space for her and my dad and she loved her kitchen, it only made sense to take her kitchen out, use it in her new space and spend the money we would have spent constructing a new kitchen for the MIL quarters to get the kitchen I want.

So started the cataclysm which resulted in not just a kitchen remodel but truly, a whole house remodel!

My own mother now says that this house looks nothing like "her" house (the original one built) because we have changed it so much.

Stay tuned for the reveal....