I'm going to go ahead and put some pictures up even though our kitchen isn't 100% complete. Update: The kitchen is now complete! Click here to see updated photos. We have a laundry list of smaller tasks that need to be completed, but have had trouble setting aside the time/energy to do them. Now that the big stuff is out of the way, and it's functional again, we've chosen fun activities in our spare time over home improvement projects. I guess you could say we are burnt out and just want to enjoy having a sink, stove, countertops, cabinets, kitchen floor, and dishwasher again.
First are some pictures taken during the process. We had some great help knocking out the wall between our old kitchen and old hallway. The old plaster walls were a bear to deal with. Each one of those squares you see below was at least 20 pounds.
There were 2 layers of linoleum on top of the subfloor. Whoever laid the linoleum did NOT want it to come up, as there were more nails and staples than I've ever seen used before.
HOURS after laboriously trying to get the floor up left it looking like the picture below.
My little brother helped us rip out the old countertop and cabinets.
Our sparse kitchen.
Before
After
About the photo above: We kept the cabinets on the back wall, but did get new knobs and Peyton did some splicing and dicing of the cabinets to make them work. We still have to make a drawer for that spot where you see the hole. We also have a really cool, stainless steel hood vent (from the Peddlers Mall) to put above the stove, but we need to buy and install a window first. While a gas, stainless, double oven sounds fantastic, we are sticking with what we have. There's no way we could justify making that splurge right now.
Before
After
We knocked down the wall between the hallway and the kitchen. Peyton built the island which is composed of two cabinets from the Peddlers Mall, beedboard, 2x4s, and some trim pieces. There was also quite a bit of painting involved.
Before
Unfortunately the following picture is still sort of 'during'...but i don't have another picture from this angle right now.
Below is a picture of the pantry Peyton and my dad built. I LOVE it. :) They did such a great job. It actually houses our microwave as well.
AND it has a broom closet!!! :) The door on the broom closet is recycled from our old pantry. We sanded and painted it. The entire pantry still needs another coat of semi-gloss paint. Like i said...we've struggled getting motivated to complete the last of the 'to-do' list. ;) Peyton is convinced that if we ever put the house up for sale, we are going to advertise that it has a broom closet in the kitchen. You should have seen how excited we both were about it. I know. We're big dorks. I think we were so excited about it because when sketching out the pantry originally, a broom closet wasn't in the works. It was just a last minute add-on because we had extra space for it and a door we could reuse from our old pantry.
On the left wall, seen below, we raised the chair rail and cut wood strips which we nailed into the wall vertically. Then we smothered everything in semi-gloss.
There will eventually be a door on that hall closet you see below; also on the to-do list. And we will be adding 3 pendant lights over the island.
We also snatched our sink at the Peddlers Mall when we were there looking for cabinets. So far we have LOVED having a single basin sink!
We appreciate everyone who helped SOOO much!!!!! A special thanks to my mom and dad. There were many Sunday nights my dad was over here until 11:00 at night. I am also so grateful for my hardworking husband who made this happen. I truly feel so blessed.
Update: We tried several different kinds of pendant lights and nothing looked right. We ended up choosing the simplest lights available and they are perfect!
Click here to see an updated kitchen post!
The kitchen looks AMAZING!! I am absolutely blown away by the before and after pics. Well done! So beautiful :)
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