A Work in Progress - Our Kitchen

Our kitchen is definitely the most used room in out house.  When we bought the house, the fact that it was so small wasn't really an issue.  It was just my Better Half and I and so the small space was fine. 

This is the kitchen shortly after we moved in 17 years ago.  At this point we had updated the counter top and added knobs to the cabinet doors.  We also installed the dishwasher.  I can't seem to locate pictures from before these changes.

This is a better picture of our pink counter top :)  Here we had upgraded to new Kraftmaid cabinets.  We live near the factory that makes them and at one point they offered the scratch and dent or returned cabinets to the community for a fraction of the cost.  We paid less than $500 for all new cabinets.
Since our family quickly grew from two to six, space became an issue and we began looking for ways to make our home appear bigger and give us more space.  We started taking out walls...sounds simple...not so much.  We took out the wall between our living room and dining room first and saw that it was very do-able (that's a future post).  So, we decided to try the wall between and dining room and kitchen.

If you look past my darling daughter and son you will see the wall that we are taking out.

This is demolition day.  Our walls were plaster so we were prepared for a big mess.  We really had no idea how bad it was going to be!!

There were cabinets mounted on this wall.  They had to come off before the demolition.

This is from the kitchen looking into the dining room. This wall is a load bearing wall so we had to replace the wall with a beam for support.  We built a temporary support wall until we could get the beam in place.

Check out all the dust in the air...ahhh, good times!

Gettin' Better!

 The beam is in place and that mess is cleaned.  The rest of the demolition and 3 months of chaos was well underway!!

We wanted a bigger door and needed to move it toward the dining room to accommodate the new kitchen layout. (the refrigerator is going where that cabinet on the right is now)

 Next, we gutted the kitchen.  We wanted to put new insulation in the walls.  It was EXTREMELY drafty in this old house!   This particular wall was not insulated at all!  The new insulation has helped our heating and cooling costs drastically.

After demolition, things started to get better.  The "putting back together" was promising.  I began to think that I may be able to quit washing dishes in the tub!

This is the placement for the refrigerator and the stove.  The stove is now where the sink used to be.  I can't begin to tell you how many times I have poured water on the stove...trying to find the SINK!
We laid new laminate flooring, hung drywall, and installed recessed lighting...which I LOVE!

 We reused our old cabinets but repositioned them for a more practical layout.

 

Repurposing parts from an old pantry, we neatly hid our trash in this DIY rolling, under the counter trash can.

While putting cabinets in their new place we ended up with about a 5 inch gap between the stove and nearest cabinet so My Better Half made some little shelves out of plywood. I found these jars at a discount store and I store my flour and sugars in them.

 We installed bead board on the lower half of the kitchen walls and I LOVE IT!!  It looks so clean, classy, and country.

The island was a factory, mass-produced island.  The top is made of 12 slate tiles which I hand picked and laid myself.  It was super easy and I am thrilled with the look.  

We did all the work ourselves.  From drywall to plumbing and electrical.  It was honestly one of the hardest times in our marriage because we were so exhausted, tired of the mess, and ready to be finished.  I never dreamed the work it would be.  I do love the results and am thankful we survived.  I'm not sure that we will ever take on such a big project again, but we sure learned a lot.  Take a look at the finished product...

 

 These are some of my recent changes:  Coffee Corner

 I love having everything right at my fingertips and I'm thrilled with the coffee corner sign.

It adds a lot to the kitchen.

As you can see in this picture the update of my new ReStore Buffet turned Island, increased the character of the kitchen.  

 Don't you just love it!?  So much better than the factory one!!

These are all the changes we've made over the past 17+ years.  What do you think?

Blessings,

Linking up to these great DIY parties:
Tuesday 
Sugar Bee Crafts

Tip Junkie

Today's Creative Blog
A Bowl Full of Lemons

Coastal Charm
Home Stories a to z 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Chef in Training
Wednesday 
We Are That Family
Raising Homemakers
The Thrifty Home
Wicked Awesome Wednesday
LiLLuna
Sew Much a Do 
Wow Us Wednesday 
Power of Paint
Gingersnap Crafts
Thursday
Somewhat Simple
The Shabby Chic Cottage
House of Hepworths
Just a Girl
Delightful Order
The Frugal Girls
Thrifty 101
Diaper Diaries
Friday

The Shabby Nest

Tatertots and Jello

Thirty Handmade Days

Life As Mom

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

The Frugal Girls 

The Grocery Cart Challenge  

While He Was Napping 

Miss Mustard Seed

Remodelaholic

Saturday

Funky Junk Interiors

I Heart Naptime

Be Different Act Normal

Young An Crafty

 Sunday

Nifty Thrifty Sunday

DIY Showoff

The Girl Creative

Homemaker on a Dime

Monday

Between Naps on the Porch

Crafts Keep Me Sane

Dittle Dattle

Skip to My Lou

Polly Want a Crafter

Craft-O Maniac

Sumo's Sweet Stuff