Saturday, August 2, 2014

Our Revamped Kitchen

So, I've had this post in my queue for weeks now, and didn't realize that I (1) never finished it, and (2) never posted it. Enjoy!


It's done! It's finally freaking done... our kitchen nightmare is over. As you may remember, back in October we had a little "incident" with a bad dishwasher installation by Home Depot. They never tightened the water line running into the dishwasher, so it proceeded to leak into our cabinets for two weeks. They were the worst company I've ever had to deal with in terms of insurance claims (which is saying a lot since I work in insurance for a living), and then tried to wash their hands of the whole situation. Long story short, we won't spend a dime at Home Depot ever again.

This is what we were left with, shortly after the incident:


Since part of our cabinets were torn out, and our countertop was cut in half, pretty much everything below the upper cabinets had to go throughout the kitchen. It was a long process, not helped by the fact that it took us about 6 months to finally decide on backsplash tile, but I digress... It's done, and I'm thrilled.

Here's a quick rundown of what was changed from our original kitchen:
-New base cabinets, and some upper doors converted to glass front
-Painted base cabinets
-New granite countertop
-New sink and fixtures
-New dishwasher, stovetop, and microwave
-New tile backsplash
-New light fixture over table, since old no longer matched everything

All that, because someone didn't check a water line before finishing their install. The only original parts of our kitchen that remain are the wallpaper (which I actually like), the floor, and the upper cabinets. We still have our original white fridge and double ovens, but they're on the list of things to switch as soon as possible. Save the most expensive appliances for last, right?

So, here it is... time for the big reveal! This is what our kitchen looked like when we first moved in, back in 2011:


And here it is now, almost 3 years later, after our partial renovation:


I'm in love. Seriously. It made such a massive difference in our entire downstairs, that I question how I even lived with the all-white kitchen in the first place. Also, when was that in style?! Our house, back in the mid-90's, was the model home for our development. However, our kitchen had white linoleum countertops and a sea of white cabinets and appliances. Was that really the "in" thing back then? *shudders*

Anyway, it's much better now, and I'm so happy with how it turned out.