As some of you may know, we were finally able to remodel the kitchen!!!!!!! This has been a long work in progress (ever since we moved in!!!). Last fall, God really allowed everything to begin to fall into place and we were able to make a giant step forward!!! Dad had taken out the little bedroom wall about 5 years ago. The beginning of last year, we had started to get a few new appliances, but other than that, we hadn't done much of anything but save money!!!!
Two weeks before thanksgiving, we spent every spare minute packing up the kitchen! We had done a lot of work downstairs to be able to do our canning down there, so we were able to cook and eat down there.
Here's some pictures of how it used to look:
So the workers arrived on Monday, November 21, 2011!!! In one day, everything changed SO much...it was amazing....things were actually happening!!!!
By Tuesday, all the cabinets were out, there was lots of holes in the walls, and everything looked like a real construction site!!! (don't you like out little green paint splotch!!!!! We painted it up there when we were trying to figure out what color we wanted!!!)
The timing worked out really well, because the workers started on Monday and we left for South Carolina early Wednesday morning and didn't come back until early Sunday morning! So it was easier on the workers and on us!!! It took them between 3-4 weeks to have the electrical and drywall work done.
Starting to really look put nice!!!!
After they were done with the drywall and most of the lighting, it was time for the part we were dreading the most....PAINTING!!!!!! We had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would just do it, but none of us really know HOW to paint right, so we were a little nervous of how it might look afterwards! BUT... God had worked everything out so amazingly before that, and He wasn't done yet! The one mom that I babysit for, was of course seeing everything progress from day to day. In conversation, it came up that it was now time to paint. Her dad is a contractor and she used to paint for him all the time, so she very graciously offered to paint for us!! We didn't have to think on that very long!!! So Renae came after work for two evenings and painted our kitchen for us!!! She did an AMAZING job! Thank you SO much, Renae!!!!!!
Then the cabinets came!!!! It was quite a load!!! There was TONS of boxes and there was only a small path in the kitchen AND living room!!!!
Installing the cabinets....it took them two days, but they did a GREAT job!!!!
WOW!!!! Looking good!!!!! It was SO amazing watching everything come together!
One cabinet accidentally got missed in the ordering process, so we had a blank space for a little while!!
Dad put in the microwave, stove, and fan bases the evening after the guys installed the cabinets!!
The floor was the only thing we were worried about. We had the tile ever since we put up the addition, and it was on clearance then, so there was definitely no more to be had. We were a little afraid that after so many years, some of it might be broken and we might not have enough to do the kitchen. Another thing was the money...we had gotten two estimates and at those prices, we weren't going to be able to do it right away. But we were told about another man that lays tile and so we set up a time for him to come and give us an estimate. As with EVERYTHING, God was working it all out! This man's estimate was a third of the cost of the first estimate we got! So we thought this would be great, but it was a week and a half before Christmas...who would have time then? But somehow he did!!!! He and his wife started Saturday morning and finished the grout on Monday evening!!!! It was a little tricky, because we had to stay off of it, so we had to go in and out the laundry room door, but it was TOTALLY worth it! He did a fantastic job and it was so exciting; were just so amazed that it was actually done!!!!
Then came the hardest part of ALL: putting things in the cabinets! We started first thing in the morning and it took us the ENTIRE day!! It was SO hard trying to figure out where everything would go! We were used to packing things in the cabinets and had a hard time not packing one cabinet and then having nothing in another! But we finally got it done!
Plumbing!!!
We put up decorations, curtains, fan blades, light switch covers, and things like that the week after Christmas right before everyone came! Then our contractor came back a few more times with finishing touches like trim, under cabinet lighting, door fronts for the dishwasher, and things like that! So this is the finished product (we're still working on decorations and stuff, but other than that, it's all done!):
The pantry cabinets are so nice!
The island is amazing and its on wheels. At Christmas, we moved it completely out of the kitchen and set up another table there.
The sink area - the dishwasher is to the left - it's two individual drawers instead of one big door and two shelves. We can run them at the same time or just one at a time.
The fireplace!! This is something we really wanted, but couldn't find one that would work. But we finally found one - at Big Lots!!!!
That's about it!!! We want to replace the fridge and get a black one, but that's something that will have to wait for a little while!!! So what do you think?
Note: This kitchen remodeling section was prepared and written by Karissa, who has so patiently waited for this spacious, organized kitchen in which to cook and bake. Can you tell by all the exclamation marks just how excited and pleased she is ? God has truly been so very gracious to us, and we are all thoroughly enjoying this lovely room. Cindy
