The Kitchen Remodel

For those who haven't been in our (current) home, or those who can't quite remember what it looked like at first, the BEFORE pictures... Which, unfortunately, don't do justice to how awkwardly the cabinets functioned (non-adjustable shelves, no pulls or finger space to easily open the cabinets, and only two drawers in the whole place) or how very little counter space there was, or how difficult it was to access the refrigerator from the sink. Nor did I capture where the previous owners replaced the failing (brownish) grout with black grout that they did not seal so it was chunking out and turning everyone's feet black - in turn creating dirty paths on the carpet. Still, you can note the mis-matched tile (floor vs. counter vs. monster stucco hood). The third picture you can see the start of our demolition: removing the wall between the sink and the 'fridge.










So next we have DEMOLITION phase. Just a couple shots that don't remotely capture the amount of dust and chaos we created. But it was kinda fun, too. And it gave me lots of reasons to be grateful for my awesome handyman husband. (Okay, let's face it, the fact that he approved the kitchen being redone is reason enough to be grateful to my frugal husband.)





The empty space called "scratch" that we re-started from.
We had to do a lot of plumbing and re-wiring (because of removing the wall and the "sink peninsula"), wall repair (from removing the tile back splash), move a telephone line, and we had to lay two extra layers of sub-floor in order to make the height even with the rest of the house (since we expanded the boundaries of the kitchen flooring). We also had to install the "micro-hood" ourselves. Of course you know that all this "we" was really "Mark." I was the designer/painter/babysitter.

At long last, the RESULTS:
I tried three shades of green before committing to this one. We ended up with the super-cool under-the-cabinet lights because there were dangling wires (see above) that the sub-contractors said they couldn't patch over (despite that they'd been hidden behind the previous cabinets for 12 years). Over-all, the installation had more glitches and took a little longer than expected, but it was done by Thanksgiving... But, don't look too closely, you'll notice that we still haven't replaced the baseboard moldings. And, not noticeable to the naked eye, but certainly to the feet, we still need to create a heat vent at the sink toe-kick location. These things were bumped in priority because Mark began remodel project #2 - install the pellet stove. He laid the new tile (for underneath it) tonight! But I digress... We are really happy with the results (seamless counters and floors! drawers! pulls! counter space!). Fortunately this "we" really is a "we."

Phew! Posting with all these pictures was a lot of work. Hope you enjoy.