Kitchen Reno

Jim and I spent quite a bit of time house-hunting before finally buying the home we live in now. As we searched I always seemed to be drawn to the houses that needed a little bit of “help,” and the one we ended up buying (and live in now) was no different. When we looked at the home I immediately had a plan for it.  Here’s how it looked the day we first saw it and my corresponding thoughts:

And another image from that first day we saw it. This is the old kitchen behind the partial walls that separated it from the living room and dining room:

Here’s the old dining room, which is now the location of the new kitchen:

Moving a kitchen was no small task. Here’s a small peek at some of what was involved in our DIY kitchen reno:

One of the first tasks was to get a smaller window in the space where our kitchen sink was going to be. Though it felt like a serious sin to replace a big window with a smaller one (losing a little bit of natural light), it was what we needed to do to be able to put cabinets and a sink/faucet in front of it. Here are Jim and his Dad framing the window for the new one. Jim’s dad also spent a week or two helping us move all of the electric (THANK YOU!), which was one of the most time-consuming parts of the project. No photos of that though…

Next we busted out the 1990 fireplace.

Then it was time to take down the wall that hid the old kitchen. There was one night I just didn’t want to wait for Jim to come home from work to get started, so I got to work and took down the first part of it solo.

At this point of total destruction/chaos, tired of inhaling drywall dust, irritated with walking on sub-floor, accustomed to tripping over power tools strewn over our “house,” sick of pizza/fast food dinners, and living with a barely functional kitchen, I’m pretty sure we were standing here saying to each other, “WHAT! WERE! WE! THINKING?!?!” 🙂

Here I am fixing up the wall that was missing drywall from the window replacement:

We put together tons of Ikea kitchen cabinets and got them in place and the countertops installed.

Grouting the tile backsplash–almost done!

All finished!

While we were in the middle of the three-month renovation I had plenty of time to research products and find the best prices on everything we needed: a range, refrigerator, dishwasher, sink and faucet. I have a tendency to read way too many reviews and research things to death–and kitchen products were no exception.  If you’re interested in any of my kitchen product recommendations, check them out on the Home Products I Love page.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This was definitely the biggest renovation project we’ve ever done.  It was lots of work but 100% worth it. I love our kitchen!