kitchen info

I thought I’d address the kitchen remodel for those who had questions about why we were doing it and exactly what we are doing.

When we bought our house, almost two years ago, I knew at some point I’d want to do some remodeling in the kitchen.  Our house was built in 1981, and while the kitchen was actually redone about 7 or 8 years ago, it wasn’t totally my style.  I liked the style of the cabinets, which is a basic Shaker cabinet, but I wasn’t a fan of their reddish-wood tone.  The ceiling was six inches lower than the rest of the main floor.  And then there’s the backsplash.  Call me crazy, but black granite with copper fleur de lis trim and insets of copper nursing pigs just did not do it for me.  Yep, not just pigs, but NURSING pigs.  Feast your eyes on this:

When we decided to have our stairs redone, we also got a quote from the same guy for doing some work on our kitchen.  He used to build custom million dollar homes from the ground up, so he knows how to do EVERYTHING and doesn’t have to hire subcontractors.  The price was right, so we decided to plunge ahead.

So,  here’s what the plan is:

1. Remove the ceiling to raise it to the same height as the rest of the rooms.  This involves moving some electrical, plumbing, and ductwork, but I knew it was possible because our friends across the street had done it with the same floorplan.
2. Give the cabinets a facelift by painting them white and modifying the upper cabinets so that they will be a little taller, thus taking full advantage of the added ceiling height.
3. Install a new backsplash—a classic white subway tile that never goes out of style! (I did this in our Charlotte house and loved it!)
4. Complete the new look with stainless appliances.  Here’s what I have on order.  I am especially excited about the range—we are having a gas line put in, so no more electric for us, and I love the double oven!

We decided to save some money by working with the countertops we have for now.  They are Corian, which is fine, but I would really prefer quartz or even concrete at some point.  Corian stains, scratches, and you can’t put hot pots on it, which is why I am not a fan.  But for now, they will work and I think they will look so much better with the white cabinets and backsplash.

Here’s how it all looks as of right now:

It might not look like any progress has been made since the last picture, but a lot of the hard part has been done.  All of the plumbing, ductwork, and electrical wires have been moved (actually all of the electrical had to be completely redone because the people who remodeled the kitchen previously didn’t have their electrical up to code and it was pretty scary) and the new recessed cans have been installed.  Tomorrow, the dry wall should start going back up.

While it definitely isn’t ideal living through a kitchen remodel, it hasn’t been horrible.  Because we didn’t completely gut it, we still have our stove, our sink, our fridge (albeit in the middle of the eating area instead of its rightful home where that yellow ladder is sitting), and our microwave (in the dining room currently), which means we can still cook like normal.  That being said, we will all be grateful when it is DONE and we no longer live in a construction zone!