Kitchen Pictures

Remember that whole story about the kitchen island not being finished?!

Well today I put the final touches on. The counter top finally came in and we put it on the base cabinet. But then the weather conspired against us and we had to wait all winter for decent weather to paint the cabinet. We FINALLY got that painted and I ran into a couple of other snags.

The contact paper in the cabinet was ages old. Picture gold and cream from the 60s. But because it was so old, it was stuck to the cabinet. It was acting glued on. So I needed a thick or dark enough contact paper to put over it so it wouldn't show through. That took some searching. But I finally found a thick white and tan paper that worked. Custom cutting and muttering later, I had a pretty inside. New hinges and door stops were put on and then we started looking for knobs.

I liked the old fashioned design of the old knobs. But the color wasn't right. I like pulling tiny pieces from the old design to incorporate into the new things we've done. So after looking EVERYWHERE for new knobs that I liked, I broke down and bought paint for the old ones.

And I LOVE the look. So here is my new kitchen completely finished.

We absolutely love this island. It's on casters so I can roll it around or move it completely out of the way. We also have two more chairs that we pull in for supper, but they are tucked away in the dining room when we aren't using them. 

My kitchen is a dream. It was a nightmare getting here, 

but I'm so thankful to finally have my dream kitchen. 

And my fight to keep the weight down attests to the food coming out of this dream kitchen. =)

You might remember this little guy as a candle in one of my older posts. But when the candle was gone, I couldn't bring myself to throw him away. So he became a planter for a succulent.

It's Finished

Well in all honesty, it's been finished for a little while. But I've been slow taking pictures and even slower getting them onto my blog. But it's finally ALL finished and so without further ado ~

My new kitchen!

 The pictures aren't lying. This kitchen is huge!

 

 I love having my microwave off the counter. It was worth it to opt out of having a second oven so that we could get rid of the old microwave.

 Look at all of that counter space and that gorgeous tile. I'm in love!

 These sinks are seriously deep.

 I have a dishwasher! Haven't had one in over four years. I know I kept saying that I would be happy if I could get a new oven and could honestly live forever without a dishwasher. And while that is true, I'm not complaining one tiny bit about having one.

The previous pictures were right after it was finished. These next few are after it's been used for a little bit. Curtains, small appliances, etc. add a more lived in look.

 This cookie jar belonged to my grandmother years ago. I think of her every time I look at it.

 My mother-in-law bought this little candle for me. Isn't he precious?!

There is one small large piece missing. Our island. After a lot of looking and discussing, we decided to use one of the old kitchen cabinets for our new island. We have totally changed this house from top to bottom. Once we finish the outside the lady who owned it wouldn't even recognize her old place. So I like keeping small elements of the old home to remind us of what it use to be. So we took the knobs and handles off the doors and sanded it down. And then we haven't had a day since that has reached the right temperature to paint it. So it sits all ugly and bare in my kitchen until the weather warms up. We also ordered a really nice piece of butcher block to replace the ugly Formica counter top that was on it. Naturally I picked one that was out of stock and would take at least 2 months to reach us. Those two months ended the end of December. Still no word on when it will arrive. So those pictures will come at a later date.

Demo has begun!

We are still working on the townhouse in Chattanooga, but this past weekend was Dominic's birthday. (I wrote this last week, but didn't get a chance to post until now.) And he requested that we stay at home. Since his cousin was coming up we knew he wouldn't be hanging out with us all day. So we asked if he minded us starting on the kitchen demo. 

We haven't finished the demo yet. Jon is back in Chattanooga tonight and it looks like we'll be spending at least one, maybe two more weekends down there before it's finished. But we are ready for our house to be back to normal. So we are working on it every few seconds we have to spare.

When we put down the flooring in the house a couple of years ago we put it in the kitchen as well. But we knew when we redid the kitchen we would change it to tile. So we removed that and the two layers of vinyl.
The floors underneath the two layers of vinyl was particle board. Not a good choice for a kitchen. So we removed that as well. 

 

 My desk is outside on the patio getting a coat of paint. The refrigerator is in my living room. Most of our things are in boxes. It makes for a crazy living area. But it will be totally worth it when it's finished.

I desperately needed something to put in my make shift kitchen for our food and dishes (paper plates). So I had Jon move a couple of the cabinets into the dining room. It's actually working out really well. We took the leaf out of the table to make more room. It's not like we are going to be entertaining. =)

This gave us the idea of using the bottom section for my island. Not sure if it will work. It will need a new top, new hardware, and some serious painting. But it could work, so I'm going to try.

I'll post more pictures later, but we have the entire kitchen gutted and are going to pick out my floor tile today. I thought I had it picked out. But I was at a Lowe's near our townhouses and fell in love with something different. Since it was over $6 a square foot, I'm going to try to find something similar, but a bit cheaper.