I know I promised to let you in on the biggest deal of the year, and to show you more of our kitchen upgrade.
So, please excuse my tardiness!
Our son turned five months this week and has decided he can only be soothed by Mommy; when the sun goes down he wants to get up and party all night and into the wee hours of the morning. Which means my night time/me time/ work out time/blogging time has taken a hit.
To refresh your memory (or if you are new here or just stopping by “Welcome!”) THIS is what our kitchen looked like before we moved in.
Nothing particularly wrong with this picture, right?
Nothing wrong with that picture, until you see this one above.
What on earth is all that open space for?
We assumed it was for an eat in kitchen table but RIGHT beyond that half wall was the dining area.
I just couldn’t imagine putting two tables a few feet away from each other.
For us, it just didn’t work.
This is the house we hope to stay in while our children are attending classes right across the street. We could stay here even longer, so we started brain storming on how we could make this kitchen a better working one for us for the long haul.
We discussed building an island or having a peninsula added in this empty space pictured. But I just couldn’t get over the half wall. It either had to come down or go up. We wanted an open concept living area or a kitchen that was its own little private area.
AND, after looking at the fridge that we inherited with the sale of the house, we knew we needed something a bit larger for our growing family and our healthy appetites. BUT the space the fridge was in was too small for anything larger.
This got our minds spinning even more.
There was lots we wanted to change.
Once we discussed how we live as a family, we realized we needed to go with the idea of building the wall up.
It meant if you were then sitting in the dinning room or lounging in the living room you wouldn’t see the huge mess that was left in the kitchen from preparing meals. ( And lets be honest here, my sink is usually full of dishes from the children jsut begging to be washed up.)
The wall was also full of intake and out take duct work which meant taking the wall down was out of the question. Our decision to build the wall up was a confirmed good one we actually moved our belongings in. We quickly realized there was no wall for a television! (Which is definitely a necessity when football season begins.)
This family is a two television type of family. Call me high maintenance if you wish 😉
We got to work the day we got possesion of the house. (After a long day of work at our day jobs!) Im tired just looking at this picture. 😉
After some careful consideration, and falling upon the right deal at the right time, we my husband and father in law began ripping out the linoleum and the cabinets.
My husband tiled and together we grouted the kitchen floor in our pajamas. Good times.
We found this little model kitchen during one of our many trips to Home Depot. It was a cabinetry line that was being discontinued. We immediately fell in love with the quality of these maple mahogany cabinets. It helped too that they were 50% off. We couldn’t believe our eyes! There was just one catch, they had lots of different kinds of cabinets that were being discontinue but only a few of the variety we loved left.
Art and I can be very determined at times, a good trait for both partners to have in situations like this! We decided then and there that we would take turns calling every Home Depot around and asking if they had more of this cabinetry. Then we took turns driving to each of the locations and piecing together our kitchen. With two whining children in tow. 🙂
We call this the deal of the year because shortly after running from store to store collecting our beloved cabinets they DROPPED THE PRICE AGAIN!!
In the end we ended up paying 85% less then what they were listed for in the store. Amazing. Good things come to those who wait! And those, that visit the customer service desk every other day to price match.
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Over a few weeks we would piece our kitchen together in the isles of various Home Depots after working our day jobs and then cart it home; then we would deal with this mess.
We did find a bigger fridge that could house our family’s condiment obsession! Though this one didn’t end up joining the family permanently. We sent it back and got one that we liked even more. 🙂
It was kind of nice though to have two fridges at one time.
Though NOT having anything else for a kitchen, was pretty bad!
This picture gives me the heebie jeebies! YUCK!
We didn’t even have a kitchen sink!!
Then we bumped into this pretty number…
I had been coveting this IKEA sink FOREVER!
My parents are lucky enough to have upgraded their sink to this one and I was always jealous the way my mother could dunk a large pot or a baking dish or baptize a small person in her extra large sink.
I was ecstatic that my sister could make the trip to IKEA for a hot dog and an ice cream cone and to also pick up this beauty while she was enjoying her well priced lunch.
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We decided to put the bigger and better fridge on the half wall. We would be building it up eventually and our television would be hanging on the opposite side of it.
Until then, this little corner was a junk dumping ground.
I snapped this picture with my phone when the cabinets were taking shape.
My awesome hubby would come home from work every night and putter away at this kitchen overhaul. His expression in this picture is one of surprise not anger for having to slave away all night.
I swear.
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We did keep two things from the previous kitchen.
The dishwasher and the cabinet hardware. They were sleek and modern and gave the kitchen a more contemporary looks to conteract the cabinets which were fairly traditional in tone and shape.
My husband hung all of the cabinets boxes and then made a template for the hardware out of a piece of scrap wood. One day he drilled the holes, and I attached the hardware. We were so happy when they were finally ready to be hung!
As you can see from the above photo, my hubby has a cute tush, I painted the kitchen a chocolate brown while my husband and father in law hung the cabinet boxes. (That paint colour only lasted for a few months. Today it is lighter and brighter. :))
Just when I thought I could finally unload all of our boxed up dishes and pot and pans and get to cooking again, we had to wait to measure and order counter tops and to reinforce the cabinetry the sink was to rest on.
Our counters arrived a week or so later and since we are do-it-your-selfers over here, we opted to install it ourselves and saved a little more money.
While the men measured and cut appropriately I did what any good wife would do, and ordered in pizza.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited for the perfectionists in my kitchen to have it complete.
Perfectionists are wonderful to have when putting a Little Estate back together again, but awful when you are sick of cleaning dishes in the bathtub.
Agreed?
If you want to catch up on previous posts about our house you can visit here:
Our Before House/ Part one
Our House/ Part two
Our House/ Part three
Thanks for taking a look. I cant wait to show you the big reveal soon enough!
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Anne
October 16, 2012 at 12:54 pmOh it looks so fabulous already! All that running around has really paid off – great job!!
Anonymous
October 17, 2012 at 9:23 amHahahaha Bethany you made me laugh, I thought my Darls and I were the only ones that ring and run around trying to find all the pieces from various shops. Kinda like a jigsaw puzzle. Cant wait for the big reveal. Jojo
bethanygier
October 17, 2012 at 2:06 pmYou girls should have seen me climbing the ladders "for employees only" to look through the cabinet doors. While my poor babies hollered "Dont fall Mama!". Funny and scary combined!
Anonymous
October 20, 2012 at 4:14 amOhh that would be Darls up employees ladders only with me in a staged whisper.."you can't do that…hurry up!!" it's all part of the adventure isn't it. Jojo:)
Junky Vagabond
October 22, 2012 at 3:12 pmI'm so impressed by all you've done so far! Lucky you that you have a DIY kinda guy 🙂
bethanygier
October 24, 2012 at 3:43 amVERY lucky to have a handy hunk! 😉 (Maybe he will read this and finsih some more projects) That sweet man, bless his heart, comes right home from work and puts in another six hours at home! Love him!
Thanks for dropping by JoJo and Junky Vagabond!