From start to finish: kitchen!

After three crazy fast months the kitchen is finnnnnnallly complete! Going through the photos I barely remember some of the things! Lots of late nights and long days but it was worth it!

Are you ready for more pictures than you probably hoped for? 

First night in, Mike and Loren knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room! This was tough because the plaster just cracked and crumbled.

 

Little incident Loren had with the drywall :/ Exhausted boy with a busted lip. 

We ripped out the lower cabinets that held the sink with a bit of storage. They were pretttttty bad. The walls behind were gorgeous though :)

Adding a new sink base cabinet and planning the space for the dishwasher! It couldn't have worked out more perfectly.

It was a start. A huge, no turning back... start :)

Big day for Bryan, a family friend who did our electrical work. We are so lucky to have great family and friends that know what they are doing. He added a new electrical panel for the house before even starting in on the kitchen. (We had a fuse box type of deal going on). He got rid of the awful ceiling fan and added two drop lights over the stove with canned lights throughout. He's really great.

Next up is adding dry wall to frame out the two rooms! I can't remember what Loren's job was at this time but he took it very seriously.

Realizing we covered up the only vent in the kitchen! Loren added a new one underneath the cabinet to let the heat/air move through.

Dry wall is up!

The finished project after many coats of mud and many days of sanding. Mike did SUCH a good job! I kinda really like him.

Finally I can swoop in with the paint! I thought for sure I wanted to ditch the garden window, it looked so out of place and tacky. After a trial of white paint I was okay with it. After remembering that I had so many great pots for it I was happy. After my plants and herbs started growing like crazy I was pretty much in love. Such a great little window!

NFM came by for a little delivery in the middle of painting. We insisted they could drop the fridge in the middle of the kitchen, we could get it in the hall ourselves when we were finished. Two hours, one scratched floor and 4 tools later... the doors were off and the fridge was in the hall. Lesson learned.

Our first dinner in our new kitchen. We had a makeshift plywood counter top and Loren made my most favorite, grilled ham and cheese :) After eating out or at family/friends houses for a month I could have cried. Best ham and cheese ever.

My sister and Heather signed up for a big day of painting. Heather worked on the trim in the dining room (and then she painted the rest of the room!) while Sarah went to town on the kitchen cabinets. They needed a fresh coat of white paint inside and out. Loren and I added all new hardware throughout. I have a thing with hardware :)

Cupboard latches were a must. They're my most favorite. 

This next night was a great night, the boys were removing the rest of the laminate counter tops which meannnnnnt... the granite company was coming the next day!

They threw together a frame around the dishwasher to hold the weight of the granite and we were ready.

GRANITE DAY. We were beyond ready for counter tops!

We debated forever what to do with one set of upper cabinets. We really wanted to keep them open (and still may) but decided that glass doors are the way to go. So our ONE thing left for the kitchen is this little project. Soon :)

And finally? The dreaded back splash. It shouldn't really be called that, this was a super easy project but it was put off for far too long. Throughout the entire kitchen I made pretty quick decisions for being an indecisive person but the back splash had the best of me. We ended up going with smaller subway tile which was our plan all along and we just love it.

First up? Making that wonky wall as even as we possibly could. Lots of mud and lots of sanding went along with this.

An 8:00pm Lowes run and we started in! Anyone that knows me knows that when I want to do something, I want to do it right then. Who cares what time it is! This project would get finished in a night. Five hours later we called it quits and finished up the next night. We almost did it!

Next up? Adding bead board, trim and quarter rounds to the unfinished side of a cabinet and the dishwasher.

Things completed?

-opened up the two rooms

-filled a dumpster

-refinished the floors

-added new cabinets

-switched out the lighting

-purchased new appliances

-installed new hardware throughout

-gave everything a fresh coat of paint

-added counter tops

-added a drop in sink

-installed a garbage disposal

-added back splash

-added bead board

-added new trim/quarter rounds

{BEFORE}: 

{AFTER}:

What we learned: hiring someone to professionally clean your vents after drywall work is a must, bring home samples of counter top and look at it numerous times during the day and at night with different light, COVER your floors when working no matter how careful you are, splurge on a faucet (first thing people will notice), take your time lining up the hardware and the more lighting in the kitchen the better!