Kitchen - DONE!

I can just imagine Uncle George rolling his eyes... Yep, more kitchen photos! Last ones I promise! Colin came back and put in our last cabinet. I put up our few kitchen nicknacks, and I think it looks great! My best friend, Mary, requested a 360 deg. view... so here goes:







I don't think I've ever posted this view, out from the kitchen to the family room.

Here's our nicknaks... We must have our clock, and the picture that Jim's mom made for us.

We setup a whole coffee station on the small side of the sink.

Here are a couple of things I really LOVE! The pull out drawers in the pantry...

And the pull out shelf. I have to admit that I didn't think I would like it. The shelves are only 4" wide. So Jim and I had no idea of what we were going to fit in there.

Well, I put the canisters in here... coffee, sugar and flour. I can lift the lids off the canisters and scoop. I don't even have to take the canisters our of the drawer! It's convenient because now it's right under the coffee pot. I really really really wanted a spice organizer, and this was perfect! I can see all my spices!

As Jim's mom's picture says the kitchen is the heart of the home... We {heart} our new kitchen!

Kitchen Remodel - DONE!!!

All done that is except for the missing cabinet and the door with the handle going the wrong way... CalBath will come back in a couple of weeks to finish that up. But as of now, we have almost everything back into the kitchen; including the table and chairs! It's so nice to eat in the house!

Here are the much anticipated photos... Here are the BEFORE photos:




And HERE ARE THE AFTER PHOTOS!!! I especially love the first photo... it looks like something out of a magazine!







It was a lot of noise and mess, but it was worth it! The CalBath guys were GREAT. They finished the kitchen a week early! I LOVE the new kitchen!

Kitchen Remodel - day 16

I have just a quick post today... LOOK! We have a backsplash, the faucet is on the sink, and the dishwasher and microwave are back in!!! I took more photos this morning too, but they came out blurry. So, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see close up shots.

I'm so happy that I decided on the lighter backsplash tile combination. The tiles look darker grouped together on the wall than they did in the sample kit. Maybe it will look lighter when they put the white grout on it.

Colin is grouting today. He just told us yesterday that the kitchen will be finished tomorrow! YAHOO!!!

Kitchen Remodel - day 15

Deja vu! Does this post look like yesterday's? Except for one thing... We have a countertop!

It turns out that the guys that broke the counter were the countertop guys, not our regular kitchen guys. Well, the countertop guys left right away yesterday, started cutting another counter, came back this afternoon.... and look! COUNTERTOP!

I just love all the light! These photos were taken without a flash... look at all the light in the kitchen!

And here is the sink all cut out and ready for the faucet and whatever else that other hole is for o_O

It's getting there! I can't wait to see them put up the backslash!

Kitchen Remodel - day 14

When I told people I was getting a ceramic tile floor, they kept telling me that when I drop a dish or glass now, it will shatter! Well, I guess that doesn't just apply to dishes and glassware. It also applies to quartz countertops! Can you guess where this is going?... YES! The kitchen guys dropped our countertop and broke it! Kitchen remodeling is extended another week while we wait for a new countertop.

Here's our kitchen right now! If you look carefully, you can see the two small bits of countertop over the left and right cabinets. It's the large piece that goes along the window edge that is broken.

But look! We have a sink!

Kitchen Remodel - end of week 2

I missed posting a couple of days because of work. This is not my longest work week EVER, but it was sure close!

Anyway, back to the kitchen. Here it is after day 10. All the cabinets are up (except that one that needs to be reordered)

Day 11, was yesterday... All the handles are in! Jim called me at work and I was trying to talk kitchen handle placement and BCD character encodings in the same sentence. But look at the handles!
Don't they look GREAT? I started this kitchen remodel with nothing in mind other than, "I must have those bar pulls!" {{sigh}} More remodel woes... Do you see that door on the left? Lewis put the handle on the top of the door instead of on the side. Now they owe us a new door... It will be here in 4 weeks...

They ran into another problem... Look at the first photo. Do you see that blank side of the cabinet that faces the family room? We ordered two extra doors to cover the blank sides and make them look fancy. Well, they won't FIT! I'm not sure if they are going to reimburse us for the cost of the two extra doors... I think not. Too bad one of the doors isn't the same size as the one with the wrong handle.

That's it for the end of week 2! I heard that the new quartz counter is coming on Monday!!!

Kitchen Remodel - day 9

After working for 15 hours, I came home to this! LOOK CABINETS!!!

Someone is coming to measure for the counter top today! It's really coming along!

Kitchen Remodel - day 8

Today the kitchen guys, Collin and Lewis, finished painting and cutting the tile to fit around the edge of the kitchen. When I got home after 12 hours of work, I found out that I have homework! I have to pick out grout colors for the floor and the backsplash.

I never thought there were so many colors of grout!!! I worked so late that Jim had to go to bed soon after I got home. I couldn't have picked out the colors without the kids' help. It was so hard to pick with just those itsy bitsy little sticks.

The color for the floor is called "Light Smoke." It kind of matches the darkest color in the floor tiles.

The color for the backsplash is called "Canvas." It's an off-white leaning toward the pinkish side. (As opposed to a grayish-off-white, or a yellowish-off-white, or a greenish-off-white).

I hope we did good! All these decisions are making me a nervous wreck! Even more of a wreck than I am with all the overtime I've been working the last 4 weeks.

I'm ready to curl up with a good book!
Good Night all!

Kitchen Remodel - day 7

I was wrong and Jim was right... the first thing they did was floor, not cabinets. Here is a picture of the old linoleum floor. Yuck, right?

And here is out new clean tile floor! HUGE 18" tiles. They look amazing! No grout yet... that comes tomorrow.

That's all for today... Good night to all!!!

Kitchen Remodel - end of week 1

So, on day 5, the mudders came back and sprayed knock-down on the walls and ceiling to match the family room. Do you like all the construction buzz words? I learned another one too... receptacle is another word or outlet.

Anyway after all that activity, two of the ceiling lights don't work anymore.... ah, the fun of construction!

No workers are coming this weekend, so that is the end of the work for the first week! I would expect there to be paint and maybe the cabinets going up next week!

Kitchen Remodel - day 4

The mudder came yesterday at 8am and was gone by noon. He filled in all the holes in the walls. Sorry, no photos this time... I didn't get home from work last night until after 8pm. {{yawn}} then it's a quick turn around and back to work again at 7am!

They asked Jim what color to paint the kitchen, and he told them to paint the kitchen white. Maybe they'll be painting today!

Kitchen Remodel - day 3

Cheryl came home and said... "Nothing changed!"

There was just more behind the scenes work... a new light over the sink.

He moved the telephone jack and the lower outlet to up behind the cabinet.

There was also plumbing work today... He replaced all the lines and knobs under the sink.

... and moved the water line for the refrigerator to be, {gasp} behind the refrigerator! Totally BRILLIANT!

AND LOOK! The lights work! They aren't as bright as our old light which I think is disappointing... but Jim said that once they put the reflectors in there that they will be brighter.

That's it for kitchen remodel day #3... the mudder is supposed to come tomorrow!

Kitchen Remodel - day 2

Day #2 of kitchen remodel day is electrical day...

BEFORE:
The soffit is back and the new lines have been run through the walls for the under cabinet lights. The under cabinet lights will be controlled by a dimmer switch next to the sink. The holes are all sealed up too... sort of....

AFTER:
The old florescent lights have been removed. We were going to replace them with 4 can lights.

BEFORE:
The can lights were supposed to be in the florescent recess, but Jim thought it looked funny, so he had them seal over the hole and mount the lights on the outside.

AFTER:
AND our cabinets and tile have arrived! That's a lot of boxes!!!

Hmmm... What's wrong with this picture?...

Other than the fact the arrows are pointing down, we didn't order anything made of glass.... What could be in those boxes?

Kitchen Remodel - day 1

After months of planning and waiting, the kitchen remodel has started today. Here is a BEFORE picture of our kitchen.

After much pounding, crashing, and barking (Jena didn't like the kitchen destruction at all!) Here is what it looks like... Good-bye OLD kitchen!

Have you ever wondered what the side of your free standing stove/oven looks like? UH, YUCK!!! That was the first thing I cleaned today!

Do you want to see our NEW kitchen?


Hahaha... as you have already guessed, it's not our new kitchen, but our interim kitchen. Jim setup one gas burner and a microwave. Cheryl and I are making orange chicken, egg rolls, chicken lo mien, and rice... it's so nice having the day off...

Here is what our kitchen looks like at the end of the day...

It looks so much BIGGER and BRIGHTER without the cabinets.

Well, here it is only Day 1 and we have a problem... several actually...

Problem number 1: We were going to have the soffit removed from over the sink. You can see the problem in the picture below:

We can't remove the soffit because the ceiling would run into the eaves.

Problem number 2: If we have to leave the soffit in, the cabinet that we got to fit in the spot, is too tall to fit in there. We will have to buy a new cabinet, and it would not be done for 4 weeks!

Problem number 3: We were going to have the over sink light replaced with a fluorescent can light. They just called and they can't find a can shallow enough to fit over the sink. (I have no idea how they were going to get a can light up there if we take the soffit out.)

So that is our remodel day #1... Stay tuned for more adventures in kitchen remodeling...