Kitchen Renovation: Reveal!

Linking up with 
A Stroll Thru Life Inspire Me Tuesday!
Thrifty Decor Chic's Before & After Party! 

Hello, hello! and Happy New Year~!  And it's Martin Luther King day!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas and is starting out the new year with good vibes and some renewed energy :) 

We had a very busy Nov/Dec, probably like most of you.  It amazes me how fast those two months go by, like you're on a slip-n-slide flying down a hill then you reach the end and you PLOP with a thud right into January.. whomp whomp!  I'm always like, whoa, where am I and why am I getting a little verclempt as I put away all the pretty Christmas decorations?.. anyone else?  anyone?

One thing that made the holidays (and the clean-up after) much easier was the fact that we finished our kitchen!!  The range hood was installed just two days before we hosted Thanksgiving dinner!

When we left off last September (in this post) we had painted the upper cabinets and were in the process of painting the doors.

 

We got a LOT done in those next several weeks leading up to Thanksgiving:
finished painting the upper doors
painted the lower cabinets and doors
installed new hardware on the doors and drawers
built new wood trim around the sink window, caulked/painted it, and hung a new bamboo shade
installed the new vent hood
installed new under-cabinet lights
touched up wall paint around the cabinets and crown mould

We couldn't be happier with the results - I'm just going to stop talking now and bombard you with pictures....

 

We LOVE it! I swoon over it every day - like, seriously, it's a dream come true.  There are still a few things we need to do, like lower the little chandelier over the sink about 5 inches and install a "surround" around the microwave.  And in the big picture we want a new light fixture over the table and two cool hanging fixtures installed over the island, and last but not least we're going to take out the tile and carpet (in the family room) and run hardwood all the way through.

So, you know I must have some "before & after" side-by-sides ~~

So here is the list again - never thought I would see so many strike-throughs!

Remove old cook top, oven/microwave & cabinets
Move gas line/electrical

Install new stove

Reuse cabinets to build new island

Remove laminate back splash

Build upper cabinets/install

Build pull-out garbage can drawer
Add stainless steel back splash behind stove w/small shelf

Paint cabinets - white on top, black on bottom

New stainless vent hood

New hardware

New microwave

Wood trim around window

Install new under cabinet lighting

Touch up paint

New sink & faucet

Install new subway tile backsplash

New granite counter tops

New hardwood floors throughout kitchen/family room

To see the rest of the reno click below:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five 

Thank you to everyone for reading and following along - I appreciate it so much!  I will write a post very soon with source information for anything and everything I can think of!   Leave your comments below and let me know what you think!

Love,

Kitchen Renovation: Part Five!!

I think I said in Part One.. I hope I'm not here in a year posting Part 20 or something crazy like that..but we are going on five months since we started the renovation... Warning.. this post is "picture-heavy"

When we left off in Part Four we had finished installing all the new crown mold.  Hubby beefed up the chunky-ness factor using the crown that we removed in the beginning and by adding a couple more elements.  The first piece is basic base mold turned upside down.  Next he attached the old crown (also using some chunks of wood behind and out of sight for stability), then he cut a 1" by lengthwise and attached that to the top of the crown - coming out over the edge slightly.  Once this was caulked and primed it looks like one big crown mold!

Then the day came for the granite installation - I was blown away by the beauty...

It's called River White.  I was trying to find something as close to carrara marble as I could find. Hubby talked to his supplier and she knew exactly what to show us..  This is beautiful and has specs of ruby in it as well.  I'm so in love with it!

Then I started priming the upper cabinets.  I took off all the doors and we filled nail holes, caulked and primed.  See how all the crown/trim looks like one piece now?  Love it.

We also found these kick-ass corbels online for a great price. (sorry about blurry pic - I cannot hold my phone in my left hand and take a decent picture)

Kitchen Renovation: Part Four

Hello everyone - hope you are enjoying your weekend as much as I am!  We just had the best day yesterday hanging out with all of our kids - a rare occurrence!

When we left off last time (you can see that here) we had just finished creating the island and securing it to the floor.  Now it was time to build it out with some finish carpentry.

He wrapped it with primed luan and used 1 x's for the trim/edges

Next he ran the electrical and put an outlet for the microwave behind the cabinet next to the stove.

So now we had a working microwave and a fully functioning island with a painted wooden top... just waiting for the granite..  and the next day he took off the ugly, green laminate back splash!!!!

That was the happiest day!! Even knowing it would be a couple of months before we would have the tile up, I didn't care.. the torn drywall looked BETTER to me than that green.!  Hallelujah!

Next up - build two new cabinets to go above the stove.  We had lots of discussions about what to do above the stove.  We wanted to be able to center a cabinet above the stove and use a 36" stainless vent hood, but the cabinet above to the left didn't come over far enough..  Originally we were not going to use the shelf pieces that were there before, but we realized we needed them to fill the gaps.

Hubby reused a 1" strip of oak (once again) on the right side of the cabinet on the left, added the old shelf, added the new cabinet, then the other old shelf, and the larger new cabinet... and bam, nicely centered!  It's coming together :)

Over the next few weeks we painted the island, built a pull-out garbage can drawer, and put a nice crown on top of the cabinets - of course using the crown we took down way back in March.

So much more going on in the kitchen, but this post would take forever to read if I put it all in here - heck, it's kind of too long as it is!  Can I mark anything off the list?  Well, I actually need to ADD to the list so I can mark it off - building upper cabinets, garbage drawer, and crown mold were not there, but really needs to be, right?

Remove old cook top, oven/microwave & cabinets
Move gas line/electrical

Install new stove

Reuse cabinets to build new island

Remove laminate back splash

Build upper cabinets/install

Build pull-out garbage can drawer
Add stainless steel back splash behind stove w/small shelf

Paint cabinets

New hardware

New microwave

New sink & faucet

Install new subway tile backsplash

New counter tops

New hardwood floors throughout kitchen/family room

Thanks again for reading!  Next up will be the new granite counters and we'll start paining!  Yay!

Love,

Kitchen Renovation: Part Three

Oh boy.  It has been a while since I have shared anything about the kitchen.  WOW. March 15 was the date of the last post!  We have done a LOT since then.. and I take tons of pictures!  But finding the time to sort through and edit the pictures, and then actually write words to describe what we've done...???  I'd rather spend that time actually working on in there, (or going to the pool) so it's a catch 22 :)

This is where we left off way back in March - (you can read that post here)

In April, our next step was to build the island.  We had the tall cabinet that held the old oven/microwave that we were going to reconfigure for the island, and we thought we would just add it beside the cabinet that we were currently using, but it made it too long.  So we had to rethink it..  We moved this cabinet back to be a part of the island...

...and we took the top of the old tall cabinet to use beside it...

Hubby did a lot of carpentry work on it to make it the right size.  We lined them up where we wanted them to mark the floor...then had to cut away the tile floor from under where the island would permanently live - our old island had never been secured to the floor.  This one would be.

I helped by holding the shop vac while he cut.  I had on a hoodie because the little chips of tile were flying!  I really could have put on long pants too, but that would make too much sense.. Hubs could care less if he gets hit by flying tile chips!

Asked my son to take the pictures..  found this on the camera later - haha :)

He put plywood in the inset and shimmed and got them all level and perfect - note, that is same cabinet from above the old oven!  He reconfigured it for a floor cabinet.  That is what really amazes me most about this renovation - he has reused so much from the old kitchen!

The apron that we took off the cabinets that was over the kitchen window has provided much of the wood for these "new" cabinets - so glad we kept it!

He also took the bottom of that old cabinet, made the drawer smaller, and reworked it for a future new microwave.  That's the piece that will go to the right of the stove.

He made shelves from a sheet of plywood to hold my pots and pans, and cut the rest for a temporary top for the island.  We put the cabinet next to the stove.  I sanded and painted the island top and we called it a day!

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sure you've seen that a LOT more has happened in the kitchen - I will get the next post up as soon as possible (maybe tomorrow..??) but until then I can mark one more thing off the list, and that always make me happy!

Remove old cook top, oven/microwave & cabinets
Move gas line/electrical

Install new stove

Reuse cabinets to build new island
Add stainless steel back splash behind stove w/small shelf

Paint cabinets

New hardware

New microwave

New sink (apron front?) & faucet

Install new subway tile backsplash

New counter tops

New hardwood floors throughout kitchen/family room

Next up:  building out the island and removing the ugly green laminate black splash! Thanks for reading and following along! (EDIT:  You can read part Four here!)

Love,

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's August Before & After Party!