Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Completed Kitchen

So we've had a functioning and completed kitchen since the first weekend of September. I broke it in hosting Brittanie's bachelorette party sleepover, and since then we've been loving it. 

Love this view. 

Eventually we'll get some artwork up on the grey wall. 

This "hallway" is a lot less claustrophobic these days. 


Fun art. 


Look at that dishwasher and all that counter space! 


I love having this corner to stand at and work. 

Also wildly obsessed with the pendant fixture we found at Lowe's. 

Stephen did a great job with the mini cans.  They add
so much extra lighting to the kitchen. 




Ignore the terrible late-afternoon lighting and focus
instead on how great this looks. 

And that cabinet doesn't move across the kitchen to
wash dishes, which is neat. 


More fun artwork with $0.99 frames from Target. 


Love my containers. And cereal. 


Normal ceiling? Check. Extra cabinets? Check check!


New view from the living room - through the
widened doorway, I might add. 

Discount rug from Nebraska Furniture Mart over
the new flooring. 

I can run this baby all by myself!!



So it was definitely a labor of love, and way too much work for Esteban, but we sure do love our new kitchen. We hang out in there frequently. My favorite parts are definitely being able to run the dishwasher myself, walking barefoot on the rug, all the extra lighting, how easy the countertops are to clean, and maybe occasionally stroking the subway tile lovingly...

And just for fun, let's look back at how obnoxiously inefficient this kitchen was before:





And it is so much better afterwards:





So tell us what you think! I'm obsessed. My husband is pretty darn talented.




Tuck likes the kitchen, too. 



Kitchen - Part 2

And onwards with the renovations: 

This is his favorite (nope)


Stephen's favorite: drywall!









Andy and Stephen worked hard one Saturday morning to put up all the brand new cabinets (from Cabinet Giant here in KC). 


Look: a normal wall! 





Channeling Dexter. 

Sanding: Stephen's other favorite...nope. 

That space? Yeah, it's for a real dishwasher. 
 After looking at what seemed like a million laminate countertops, and not being able to afford solid surface counters, we settled on tile. Luckily, we found this awesome grey textured floor tile at Lowe's and used that.

Tile. Not linen. 



Where there used to be a dishwasher, there is now a cabinet!





Adding the cabinet under the window was one of the best decisions we made!


Stephen also added cabinets above the stove and fridge. 


We'd always planned on using subway tiles for the backsplash, and we found a great deal on mosaic-style ones that made the job go much quicker for Esteban.


We used the same grey in the hall as our bedroom and bathroom.
We had some left over and thought it would be a good neutral. 

Look at that gorgeous shiny wall! 


Having an above the range microwave is wonderful. 



Look! Real drawers!!



Meanwhile, I printed off labels on sticker paper. 
Yup. Love it. 


To be continued (just once more)