Kitchen/Dining Reveal!

It's time!!!

(I'd like to apologize in advance for the quality of photos in this post- our camera charge-cord pulled a houdini during the move, so all of these were captured with my phone :)

In the fall-out of selling our house and putting a down payment on the new one, God provided just enough extra for us to pay off the remaining few years of our school loans (woot!) and update the kitchen at the new house. When we bought this house we knew the kitchen needed help... we just didn't know quite how much help we'd be providing! 

C'est la DIY!

To refresh your memories, this is what we started with:

 

Tile counters with crumbling grout in a dark, dingy kitchen not your thing? 

Mine either. 

However, I did love the size, storage and layout, (with the exception of the Seinfeld-style overhead cabinets), and could even see potential in the chipped, sticky, solid-wood cabinets. 

So, I healed them :)
Every chunk of missing veneer filled with wood epoxy and sanded level. Every inch of grimy surface sanded clean. 

A week of prime, sand, paint, repeat, plus five hours installing cabinet hardware later, and we had achieved this:

YAY!!!

However the rest of the kitchen still looked like this:

When we removed the tile backsplash, we found who ever had installed it had opted for glue instead of mortar, meaning when the tile came off most of the plaster wall did as well. I won't bore you with the details of that repair, let's just say it was messy and frustrating. 

Anyhow, next step was demo- Paul's favorite part :)

...FREED FROM THEIR PRISON OF UGLY OVERHEAD CABINETS, OUR HEROS COULD SEE THE OUTSIDE WORLD!!!!!!...

{insert angel chorus here}

Countertop demo was next. Unfortunately, when we removed them a previously inaccessible portion of the cupboards was revealed
and we found this:

Which caused me to hyperventilate. 

(See those brown spots in the upper right corner? 

Those would be poop. IN THE CUPBOARDS!!!)

It's clean now. It's fine. 

It's clean now. It's fine.

Fortunately, it was long abandoned (probably due to the abundance of 5-10 year old mouse poison we found) and filled with cobwebs. 

Also, the turn-off for the kitchen sink was rusted through.
We didn't figure that out until the sink was removed. 

My husband was displeased. 

It's clean now. It's fine.

The good news is, we finished a few days later... 

...AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

View through to our dining room and office wall:

We were able to replicate a 10 foot, $2500 desk I loved online for under $100 using some Ikea trestles and an old wood bench-top I found wasting away on the side of the house. 

(And I like mine better!)

Actually, we were able to do both the kitchen and this desk for under $1000! No gimmicks or sponsors, just 3 weeks of really long days and carefully deciding where to splurge (the marble backsplash) and where to save (the Ikea countertops). That and being incredibly blessed with fairly new appliances and a kitchen that only needed cosmetic updates and manageable repairs.  

I am one happy girl :) 

And so glad it's done. 

Before I go, a few side-by-side before-and-afters for you :)

Thanks for checking out our new kitchen! 

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