Kitchen Remodel

Kitchen Remodel
March 31 and ongoing!

On conference weekend we finally decided to start our kitchen remodel.  It was a scary start because it began with Matt sawing through the middle of our laminate counter tops. Nothing like cutting a hole in your counter to make sure you don't turn back!  Matt had to pull our bar up from the floor and move it over to give us two plus extra feet in the kitchen area and rebuild the triangle cabinet to fit in the space that was made in the bottom.  I can't believe the difference the two feet makes to how the kitchen feels.  It seems so much bigger.  We also added a desk area with a granite top.  Matt did a lot of the initial work to cut down on the cost, (he really does seem to know how to do everything, and whatever he doesn't know he just teaches himself in the process!), and then we hired someone to put in the granite counters and custom make our cupboards to match our maple.  Then my friend Lisa was nice enough to help me do some redecorating in my living room and add a few touches to the kitchen.  I love how it all turned out, and as much as Matt wonders how the decorations are going to be functional to him, they function to make me smile, which hopefully is enough!  We still want to add handles for the cabinets, a back splash, and new floors, but we're at a good stopping point for now.  Here is a photo walk through the process, probably not very exciting though!

 Here is our kitchen before

 Here it is on that conference weekend in the middle of destruction mode.  Matisyn thought Daddy was crazy for taking a saw to a perfectly good counter!

 Putting in the new cabinet Matt built for the bottom.

 Cabinet in, kitchen moved out, waiting for new counter tops.

 Our new granite counters.  We would have been fine with the laminate, but if we had to replace it anyway because of the kitchen extension we figured we might as well put in this option.

 We were going to wait on a new dishwasher, but as luck would have it, the dishwasher started leaking the same week.  Here is the old one, and then the new one.  It really does clean and dry much better, and makes my job easier.

 Here is some of the damage Lisa and I did shopping together!

 My new look above the cupboards, with some pops of color.  I painted the background back to the main color in my house since it ended too soon when we bumped the kitchen out.  It really lightened it up.

 My new table centerpiece and decorations below for my living room

 We also changed some pictures around on the wall, and added some fun patterns with pillows and new curtains.  Thanks Lisa for making them for me!  We have so much furniture crammed into that room, and I just wanted to find a way to brighten it up.  I love the way it turned out. 

Here's our finished for now kitchen with our new cabinets!