Kitchen...Before and After!

Lacking in ideas for posts this week, I thought it'd be fun to recap our kitchen renovations that we've done over the almost three years that we've lived here. I did the dining room not too terribly long ago, but the kitchen was a much bigger undertaking.

The first two pictures were taken the first time we ever looked at this house. We toured it in May 2008 (I think), made an offer on it, and it was rejected (actually, we were told by the realtor that she wouldn't submit our offer because she didn't want to offend the bank that owned it with our low offer...ha!). We obviously got a bad taste in our mouths (it was a foreclosure that had been on the market for a while...NOT owned by a family) so we moved on and looked at other houses. We made several offers on various other houses (and actually thought we were going to get two of those) but everything else always fell through. Eddie literally told me the week of our wedding that one of the inspections on another house came back with some problems. He told me on our honeymoon that that home owner wasn't going to pay for fixing any of the problems and we'd have to let go of that house. SO...all that to say that when we got back from our honeymoon and started commuting an hour to work each way (and I had to be at work by 7am), this house started looking GOOD again. I made Eddie swear to me that we'd fix the things that I hated about this house and so far, he's been pretty good about doing that. If you don't know him in real life, I am married to a pretty darn good man. There are a few more things I'd like to have done, but overall we've been very pleased with our "starter home" purchase! The location couldn't be better!

Okay, onward. The first two pictures are what I hated most about this house. The maroon/purple counter tops and the yellow-ish flooring HAD to go. Also, notice how the fridge is in a weird place and there's not any large countertop area. I am so glad we did the adjusting that we did in here!

One of the very first things we did in the kitchen (or the whole house, really) was to remove the cabinet above the sink (it's in my laundry room now) and cut a window from the kitchen into the den. I wanted it to feel more open than it did. This is one of the very best things we've done in the house! (The molding in the picture below was removed as well...)

Next, we ripped out the flooring and moved the fridge. You can see the very edge of the fridge in the bottom right of the picture below. The cabinet doors were removed for painting. (Sorry the pictures are blurry...I guess that's the price of copying and pasting from Facebook!)

Then, we put down new flooring (which we're not huge fans of...it doesn't match like we thought it would, it shows dirt and FOOT PRINTS and drives me nuts!, and we're not 100% sure it's even what we picked out...if you live in Middle Georgia and need a flooring place to avoid, let me know!) and got new appliances. We also painted the walls. Notice that they were off-white to begin with. I think they're called Brown Tepee now. (Behr paint maybe? We actually used what's in my brother's room at my mom's house and just had the Porter Paint people make it for us.)

The next step was to replace the countertops. We used Lowe's for that part. (We have some sort of Lowe's addiction. I actually emailed Eddie just today a list of things that we need from there.) To be honest, we're not crazy about the installation job that they did. The drawer immediately to the right of the stove is sort of messed up from their installation job. However, I love how they look. FANTASTIC. They're called Pecan Mosaic, I think.

Among other things, we still need rugs for the floor, new chairs, and curtains above the window. I'd also like to put something on the wall above the breakfast table. The rugs are proving to be the biggest challenge. I want a jute (or similar style) rug for the large part of the kitchen that is rectangular but I want a matching one that is round for underneath the table. That is tricky to find. So far, we've been unsuccessful. (And I know that I could go with another rectangular one underneath the table, but it's sort of a weird area with not so much space and the table itself is round anyway...) I actually have had some curtains for about four years (I bought them for my house in Tifton) but we've just never hung them. They came from Lowe's (go figure...) and it's just a valence that is a mustard-y color and a red-ish color barn toile with a gingham underneath it. I have all of the hardware to hang them, we just haven't. Maybe in the next week we'll get that done and I'll post pictures of them.

After we get those few things done I think I'll feel like the kitchen is 100% complete. If only I could keep it clean!!!