Kitchen Update

We have now completed the majority of the upstairs of our house...

Since no one probably wants to see a ton of construction pictures here are a quick before and after, as well as a list of things that we fixed. We will start with the kitchen and keep posted here for more and more updates!

Before:

In Progress:

We are in love with the way it is turning out!

The kitchen by far has been the most time consuming of our renovation. 

But has become one of our favorite rooms...and now....the list

• Cabinets removed, painted, painted painted (painting cabinets is probably the worst and most time consuming portion of the kitchen. I hated me.) coated with a gloss, and rehung.
• All walls were torn down and put back up with new sheetrock. That means mud, tape, texture and paint for our new kitchen.
• Replaced subflooring
• The warped wood floors in the kitchen were taken out and J laid down our slate tile and grouted and sealed the floors.
• We had a bar built and a custom cabinet for a wall oven. 
• New Sink
• New Faucet
• New Stovetop
• New Oven 
• New Fridge
• Installed Butcher Block counters (and have loved everything about them)
• Recessed lighting and installation of pendant lights.
• Installed floating shelves above the sink

Still left to do:

• Install the remainder of the cabinets and put the doors on.
• Install the microwave...it is still in a box. That's right.
• Install hardware (handles on cabinets)
• Add trim on cabinet bases 
• Add molding to the top of the cabinets

Our kitchen was always going to be the biggest challenge. It is considered a galley style kitchen and offered limited space. We at first decided that we were going to move the kitchen altogether....that idea got old really fast. We then decided to add a bar to offer a little more of a seating option and a lot a TON of counter space. Once we had decided the layout, we considered having someone come and spray our cabinets...our one and only quote...$7,000...yeah that is so not happening. So we removed the cabinets and decided to DIY. We had a few extra cabinets built for the space, but other than that used what we had and painted our little oak cabinets a clean, glossy white. We opted for the white to make the space seem a little larger and lighter. Painting cabinets can be described in one word. Hell. That is all i will say about that. 

At first we considered keeping the wood floors, because lets face it, that was one of the few bonuses that came with our little 75' beaut. The wood floors in the kitchen had endured a little bit-o water damage. I'm sure the fact that the sink and the dishwasher were on opposing sides of the kitchen? Smart. After a little deliberating we decided to rip out the wood floors in the kitchen and lay down a slate tile that would contrast with the pretty white cabinets. After the floor had been tiled and was about to be grouted, we had discovered that the kitchen floor was bowing in certain areas, and the subfloor needed to be reinforced. Luckily it was only in a few areas and it was able to be adjusted with only removing a few of the tiles. The room was taken down to the studs, and was put back together again. There are still a few things left to do in the kitchen, but is becoming exactly what we wanted.


Attached to the kitchen is a large dining space. The house thankfully came with the big skylights and they are before one of our favorite features! This room is still a little bit of a work in progress, but before i get to that here is the before.... 

and the after....

This room basically needed a paint touch up and a removal of the "kitty condo" that the previous owners had kindly installed for their hoard of kitties. Basically if you look above the bar counter there was about a 3 ft by 3 ft hole in the wall that was lined with a nice urine infested carpet. Tasty.  We had that quickly removed and covered and hope to never see another kitty cat room again. Pleaseandthankyou. Recessed lighting and a sassy little light fixture make me squeal when i see them. The electrician added an art light as well to light up our favorite picture. We feel fancy sometimes. Pairing that with the mustard wall makes me happy beyond words. Go ahead and judge the mustard...cause' we are in love! As for where we got most of our things in our home....we have become VIP members at the following stores:

Ikea- The as is section makes me wonder why i pay full price at any time at Ikea...yes i am aware that Ikea is already cheap....but even cheaper Ikea items are just as amazing. YES!

RC Willey Outlet Center- Our stove-top/range is a five burner touch screen little number that we got for a killer deal, and makes me feel high tech...and a pretty classy cooker. We also got our dishwasher here....and are so grateful to have a dishwasher!!!!!!!

Lowes and Home Depot- We got an amazing deal on our fridge in the as-is section at Lowe's...there happened to be a small ding in the back of the right hand side of the fridge...this = 50% off....yes please! I promise we really should have some sort of membership card to the HD. I can't even count how many runs to home depot we have had....i should have kept track, but needless to say there will be countless more as we continue to reno our house.