We're not done yet, but my Dad mentioned that my Grandma wanted to see pictures & I realized that it was time to write everything down. If you've been on Facebook, I've tried to post pictures of the various stages.
We have been in our house for 5 years now, and over the last 5 years I have lived with a small kitchen. I love cooking & baking so I've truly looked forward to opening up this space! Before we moved into our house, I had never heard or seen metal cabinets. And after 5 years of saving, plotting & waiting, we ripped out everything & started building something we would love.
We decided to rip out the wall separating the dining room & kitchen. It just made sense. We went with cabinets from IKEA, because they were in our budget. And boy, I am not dissapointed. Those cabinets are tough cookies & are not flimsy at all.
James took off a whole week of work-that's all we could do. So in a weeks time we were able to: gut kitchen, tear out floors, build cabinets, lay tile, paint, grout, install cabinets, & install the hardware.
There have been a couple of hickups, which we knew would happen because we live in an old house. But luckily it hasn't been anything horrible {although dropping a whole can of paint down the stairs seemed horrible at the time}.
In the end, James & I survived {with only one meltdown}. I think we did a good job remembering to communicate & love one another through this whole renovation.
So here are some pictures I've taken through out the whole process:
*This is the wall that separated the two areas.
*Another view
*A basic glimpse of my working space
*Our old pantry. We had an electrician come in and move our electrical box downstairs. This was one of the hiccups in that it took him longer than he thought to move all the wires. But it was a good thing we were fixing this problem because we found out that some of the wires had fused together. Not good.
*Friday, August 3rd, we started demo. Michelle & Derek, plus Josh & Brooke (James' partner) came over to help us out. The boys had fun hitting the wall with a sledge hammer.
*We all had to use our muscles!
*By the end of Sunday, we had the entire framing out, the start of the electrical work done, and the plumbing done. Sunday night we headed out to Paul & Samantha's house to drop the kids off for a couple of days. The kids would be out of the house that entire week. We thought it would be easier for them, plus it gave James & I the freedom to work.work.work. By the end of the week though, everyone in our family was ready to be reunited; our kids were missing Mommy & Daddy.
*While James worked on various things at home, I took over my parents' garage & put together all the cabinets. Once I got going, I could put one together in 20-30 minutes. Installing the cabinets brought on it's own challenges. We wanted to make sure it was done right. I mean, I don't want anything to come falling off the walls! So we worked hard in making sure everything was level & secured right; the best time to let my OCD take over.
*The drawers were easy to put together & install. I love the fact that they all have dampeners; you can't slam anything! The doors in general were easy to install. Some of them are still not perfect, but it's one of those things that I can work on later; sort of like taking a step back, re-focusing, and then tackling it.
*These next pictures are showing where we were at as of last week.
*We took out our banister & installed these shallow-depth cabinets {so we could get rid of the bookcase by the front door}. One holds all our cookbooks, and the other one holds all our church stuff.
* It's been interesting putting stuff back in their new spots. But I do love all the new space!
These cabinets hold all my baking stuff. One of these days I'll borrow my Mom's cricket and cut out vinyl for all my canisters.
*I was going to make a spice rack, but after looking around, I decided to put all my spices into one of the drawers. We'll see how that goes. I did decide though to put all my spices into glass jars {some I had found at Ross's, the other's I got at the Dollar Tree}.
*Since we've been done with the basics of the kitchen, I've been working on decorating, and putting other aspects of the kitchen together. This is one of those spots. The wall that you see going downstairs, and the first thing you see when you walk in the back door, is this wall. I decided to put our name up {which was a fun challenge, hence the crooked G's}, the canvas print is what we got from Kris, and then I put our anniversary board underneath everything.
*This last friday, we finally got our countertops. There was almost another hiccup with that. And it's all to do with the corner sink I wanted.
*I am most excited for this space...6ft of working space!
There's a lot of finishing touches that need to happed:
- Plumbing finished-sink & dishwasher installed; water line for the fridge
- Electrical work finished-all the outlets & switched need to be installed
- Kick plates-we have them all, we just need to install them.
- Ceiling needs to be painted another coat
- Chair-rails & Baseboards need to be installed
- Back splash needs to be installed
- New ceiling fan needs to be installed
- Counter for the bookcase cabinets-haven't figured out what I want
- A small kitchen island-a little somethin-something for various things
- Dining room table-I haven't found one that I like, but it's not a priority.
I am very happy with what we've done. It'll be even better when everythings done. I love the brightness that we've created; it's great! It's also great to know that we've paid for everything with cash.
That's it for now. I'll post more later as we work on other things.
1 comment:
Holy cow!! So much work with such a great reward! It looks awesome!
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