Kitchen remodel!

Here is the best picture of what the kitchen was before we started. I some how managed to not take many pictures that show the ugliness of the kitchen in the three years we have been here.

The first thing we did was take out the wall between the living room and the kitchen. We were filling a bit claustrophobic moving here. So we removed anything we could to open things up a bit. This was in Nov of 2008 and there has been a gap in the floor since that time.

The end of 2009 sometime we tore out a random cabinet on the right of the kitchen that was not attached to any of the other cabinets and really just weird.

If you notice the ceiling just above Karl is sagging. It wasn't too bad when we fist moved in, but then Karl was up doing something in the attic and stepped off the rafter right there and it was really quite bad for a while. Spring of 2010 we dry walled the basement. and the ceiling in the kitchen. At the same time we cut the wall on the right of the kitchen that separates the kitchen and the stairwell to a half wall. That nicely opened up the things too.

Monday December 27 Karl woke up and said, "what do you want to do? The kitchen or the bedroom?" Both of which really need help! I decided on the kitchen. We have been knowing that we want the kitchen redone since we moved in. It was just a matter of when. We had the kitchen drawn up by the place we wanted to do our cabinets and so all there was left was to pay for them and pick them up. I jumped on the idea because I didn't want Karl to change his mind. So after we all had our dental check-ups. We went and picked up cabinets and started with the demolition.

The next couple pictures are Tuesday morn. Since it wasn't real thought out we just went with breakfast and made it all work. We ended up not having to eat out the entire time. One night we went and got the kid's Book-it pizzas from Pizza Hut, but other that that it was breakfat lunch and dinner either cold or with the electric skillit. I had even signed up to feed the missionaries on Wed which worked out in our favor. We did pumpkin pancakes and fried eggs with cocoa. Picnic style in the basement. It was lots of fun and then they set up to come over and help with hanging the cabinets. What a life saver! I'm not sure what we would have done had we not had their help.

Once the cabinets were gone and the old floor taken out we started with what I think we would all say was the worst part. Preping the floor for a new vynil floor. We had never done vynil and had always been told to hire it out if we did, but we decided we're too cheap for the and took the plunge. It wasn't that bad once we figured out how to work the putty. I must say tht it turned out pretty good too. There is one cut of mine that I'm going to have to cover up, but once we get the base boards in it sould be great.

Basically this is the finished product! I need to put in some new outlets and put the spice racks up. Then a little touch-up paint and baseboard and we shoudl be good. It is so nice to have it done. I was't sure if Karl was going to kill me for making him do extra plumbing to put in a water filter. It took him a couple days to get it so there were no little leaks but he did it all. I was quite proud of him. All in all the Kitchen looks great. It is still small, but we have made good use of the space that we have and it functions and looks MUCH better.

There were a couple funnies that I should probablly add in here. The first night Karl was doing the water he went out to turn it on and I was watching it. There was a pinhole leak that I was holding a towel over so it didn't make a mess and then all of a sudden it was like a rocket. It shot off and water was fountaining all over. I laughed and laughed! The other not quite so funny, but maybe I will think it is funny later on. The end wall with the range either had to have a spacer of 2 1/2 inches or I had to shave a cabinet down a bit. With the size of my kitchen I chose the latter, which was not a big deal. I chose the small cabinet abouve the range because I figures less cutting gave me less room to mess up. It went well, but after I shaved it down I still couldn't get it to fit in. So we call Dave Clinkinbeard to come over and get the cabinet in. He did a fabulous job, but then I pulled the microwave out to try and install it and what do you know vent and above the range microwaves are built to fit exactly the area above the range which happens to be 30" typically, but now that I have shaved me cabinet downt here was only 29 1/2 ". Therefore we had to take it down tack the peice I cut off it back on and take everything that I had put away in the middle cabinet out and take it back downa dn shave that one down. In the end it all worked out and I was happy that I called Dave to do it!