The Final Result - Our Finished Kitchen

This is what we had as our cute kitchen for nine years...until cabinet doors started falling off faster than we could fix them and countertops started peeling away.

 And here is our after!

I still am working on the fun details like a roman shade over the sink and the fun knick knacks.  

It will come.

For now we are grateful to have the working kitchen and that we lived to tell about it!

 

Picking Out the Granite

I finally went to Dal Tile in Salt Lake and found these beauties...Yellow River....they were in stock and were just what I was looking for.  A little more than what I was hoping to spend but at this point, I didn't care. 

Dan had not been along for the ride on these shopping adventures.  He HATES things like this.  We work like this on large purchases:  I shop and pick things out, he takes a look at it and then says "Whatever you want baby." 

 He did look like a very convincing inspector in his orange vest.

 

We picked out the two slabs we needed and placed our order.

  

I love it!

I also ordered this beauty of a faucet from Amazon.   

 The Bellevue Faucet in brushed nickel.

I Left You Hanging!

We have a fully completed kitchen, I promise!  I realized that I haven't blogged in a long time (does anyone really blog anymore?) but I should at least post pictures of our finished project!

We finally got all the cabinets in and the doors were being finished. 

 I then had the thrill of appliance shopping. Not my favorite thing to do so I made it easy on myself and hit Lowes.  We knew we wanted stainless steel and I knew for sure that I wanted a double oven, a quiet dishwasher (with our open floorplan that is a must!) and I went from there.

I ended up with a great deal on an LG suite.  I chose the French Door Refrigerator with Dual Ice Maker.  Don't let the sleek design fool you, this fridge can pack it in, it's HUGE!

I love the three separate drawers and the large deli drawer underneath.  The doors hold a TON and the shelves slide in and out to make room for different items. 

For the stove I went with the LG 30 inch 5 burner Double Oven with Gas Range.  I love that I can cook two things at once!  It was really the only way to get a double oven into this space and I've been really pleased with it!

We were really excited to finally have appliances back in the house and a semi working kitchen again! 

 We saved the old kitchen laminate counter to set on the top until the counter tops came in.

Doesn't it look classy?

Next up? 

THE COUNTER TOPS!

Also known as, the entire reason our project went over budget and seven weeks past our time frame. 

In Go the Floors!

 For our cabinets...I worked with this awesome guy named Cory at MC Mill & Design here in Utah.  He was recommended by the lady who does my hair and I was sold instantly when I got his bid. 

 He was very nice and professional.

His bid came in less than half of our home improvement store quotes... but for fully custom job 

 I poured over Pinterest and magazines for months, but ended up using a design from a magazine that my sister in law happened to send me.  I love seeing all the painted cabinets but I was really just going for simplicity.  We know this isn't our forever home and I wanted to keep things prefect for me, but also perfect for anyone who happened to buy it in the next 10 years.

 The floors were going in and the kids talked us into hanging stockings and putting up the cheapy tree. 

 The big boxes in the living room are the best things we purchased....TOTO Drake toilets from Home Depot.  

NOT kidding.  

The ones we had before were horrible.  As in, the boys plunged a toilet weekly upstairs.  So gross.  These had a review that stated that "Al Bundy couldn't even clog this thing up."  

Even at $256.00 each,who could resist a review like that? 

Besides, toilet shopping is not very fun and I wanted it to be quick. 

I am happy to report that after 6 months, we have not used a plunger ONCE in our house.  

That alone has made that money well spent.

 Floors!

 Floors!

 Front room - floors.

Then the exciting stuff started to happen...Cory and his crew started to install the cabinet boxes.  We had the island extended by a whole bank of cabinets to give us some extra space and storage.  

SO glad we did this!

 We chose taller cabinets that would extend as high up as we could with the slanted ceiling.  This gave me another shelf at the top of each cabinet for storage. 

 

Dan pretending to look happy that this is moving along.

Gutting the Kitchen

In November,  because apparently I thrive off of chaos and I am stupid, we all moved downstairs.

Walking on plywood in the winter isn't that cozy.

 

 Torn out pantry.  Good job boys!

I sold all of the appliances...we got about $800 for everything so that was awesome.

 Packing up the crap...

 And starting to remove the flooring.

We Remodeled Our House

I've been wanting to write about what has been happening here for awhile now - so here I go.  We remodeled our house. 

We GUTTED it.  The only thing that really stayed put were the bathtubs and walls.  We lived in our basement, all five of us with our dog over Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I ended up moving with the kids to my mom and dad's house around the corner because it was easier for the kids while they were in school.  

It was AWFUL and WONDERFUL at the same time.  

Dan and I are still married.  

So now that we have come out the other side...I'll show you what we did and why.

Our house was trashed.  Gross.  Disgusting.  

I didn't even want people coming in anymore.  My couch was ripped, the carpet was beyond cleaning, the linoleum torn, the cabinets falling apart.  I think my house is so cute, but all the builder grade finishes we had chosen nine years ago were worn out. 

 We weren't ready to move, and even if we wanted to, no one would buy it the way it was.  

We couldn't replace the cabinets without doing the floors.  Which led to replacing baseboards, and blinds.  Painting.  Staining.  

The list was really long.  

We started on a Saturday and I shocked Greg beyond belief when I asked him to help me rip out the pantry.  Give this boy some goggles and a sledgehammer and he was more than happy to help. 

 Funny how DESTROY the pantry goes over much better than CLEAN the pantry with an 8 year old boy!

 Even Lauren wanted in on the photo shoot.

 Taking out the door frame. This pantry was just a small closet and very dark.  

You can see the original pantry space here. 

Totally useless and had tons of wasted space up at the top and in the bottom. The new kitchen plan called for tearing this out and moving the refrigerator over into this space.  So we had to rip things up!

This was the first day we did anything.  That is the only reason Dan is smiling, because he doesn't realize what a huge pain this whole project is going to be. 

Home Organization 101 - The Kitchen

I LOVE the idea of being organized.  I used to be organized.  When I was single.  Now I am just a mess of piles just trying to survive.  I really dislike this about myself but I really do try.  

(Mom, I know you read this...really, I do.) 

Kids are now back in school and our routine is back - so I signed up for Home Organization 101 and this week's assignment was the kitchen. 

 

 You all know I was in serious canning mode last week, right?  Because when I was done, my kitchen looked like this....

 

 Uh...yeah.  Horrible, right?  

So I emptied out every.single.cupboard and started all over.

Before

 After

  

Before

 After

This might not be my kitchen for too much longer.   Dan and I have decided not to move but we I do want to upgrade the crud cabinets.

 My heart is set on white cabinets, but with three kids I am totally scared of them not looking pretty for too long.  

Any thoughts?  Who has white cabinets with kids and has lived to tell about them?  I would love to hear!

 I would love to make the ones by the sink have glass doors so I can put some pretty things in there.  Not just bowls and multi-vitamins! We also want to expand our island out at least 12-18 inches.  Right now I just have wasted space and not enough shelves.

 Dan's reply to this is "People in Germany live with kitchens half the size of ours."  

True..but last time I checked, no one in my family has lived in Germany since the 1700's. 

 And I added a new addition to the cupboards to balance out all the junk I threw out...my perfect fall treat.  Let me get a little closer for you...mmmmmm!  I love this stuff and now Wal-Mart has it!  

 Hello! I'm so excited to try it!

It's not too late to join in the party...come over to A Bowl Full of Lemons - see her darling kitchen and start to get your home organized!

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