The Kitchen

HERE SHE IS!:

I really wanted to only do the big reveal of our kitchen when we were completely done with it. This is not going to work out for two reasons:

1. We ran out of insurance money, so the finishing touches are slow-moving, paycheck dependent.

2. We have been "forced" to start another home project. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, because I don't want that pressure this time around. But, I will say that Sari's comment on my first kitchen post, comparing it to "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." was so right on. That is so exactly what my projects turn into.

So, I just wanted to show you all the kitchen for now. When we do someday finish all the leftover details, I'll be sure to post a picture.


As a reminder, here is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in.

Here are pictures of the kitchen during our months and months of agonizing renovation.

Taped up and ready for painting.

Our painting contraption I set up for the cabinet and drawer fronts. 

Painting was horrific.  The sprayer produced great results and was super fast, but there was tons of overspray.  And we painted everything oil-based, so clean-up took more time and energy than anything else.

Painting was the worst part for me.

The countertops were also a huge pain.  It seemed so simple in theory, but the walls aren't a perfect 90 degrees and the countertops aren't all perfectly level.  There are some huge seams that look very unprofessional.

I built the peninsula out of MDF and then we covered it in a matching laminate sheet.  It was more intimidating than it was difficult.

Next were the floors.  Jakob did all the preparation.  He hammered out the entry-way tile, pulled up all the carpet and nails, and pulled up the laminate and staples.  He also had to replace the subfloor in a couple of places because it was soft and kind of rotting.  But what do you expect when you buy a 2001 fixer-upper? (Written with sarcasm.)

I laid all of the laminate flooring.  Not because Jakob isn't capable.  Because I am extremely, extremely controlling.  And we had a good system going where he cleared the way for me first.

After.

The color turned out a little creamier than I had envisioned.  But I'm learning to love it.  We still need to put up a subway tile backsplash.  And we still need to caulk all the seems in the countertops.

I got all the knobs and pulls off of ebay.  It was $50 for EVERYTHING! They were a Christmas gift from Dave and Judy.  Thanks, guys!

The molding is my favorite part.

My favorite changes we made are the pull-out trash can,

the tilt out tray that used to just be a dummy drawer,

the thin cabinet for baking sheets, and the lazy suzy.

I am super happy with how everything turned out. So much better than before, and the worst of it is over. I want to sew some curtains for the windows. And I would love to put in some recessed lighting. But that can all wait.

I'm off to work on the other project. No pressure, please. But I will give you a clue. We cut some copper pipes the other night. We are becoming home-improvement rockstars.