it's done!

Our kitchen that is! It's finally DONE! This has been such a long process and a lot of hard work, but I am so amazed and happy with the final product.  The original plan was to have the kitchen completely done by the time we moved in.  What were we thinking?!   

Please refer back to here for how the kitchen looked before our remodel and which products we chose :).

In a condensed story...

First we ripped everything out.

Then we installed the new cabinets.

And sanded, primed, and painted.

Next we had our new countertop and sink installed.

Then we installed all the trim molding, baseboards, soft close function, and door/drawer pulls.

This past weekend, Matt installed our new over-the-range microwave.

And now it's done!

And I LOVE it!!

LOVE

We added this entire section in. There used to be nothing in this corner. The previous owners put a table and chairs in this spot.

I love how this whole thing turned out.  We had to move up the top cabinets a bit to be able to fit in a microwave above the stove.  I guess the microwave installation was a pain (I conveniently had to work when he installed it). Matt had to rearrange siding on the outside of the house and rewire and do something with spray foam? to get everything to fit in and work.  Gotta love him.

Love having a window in the kitchen above the sink

Complimentary cutting board to match our counters.  We were so worried about these countertops.  We actually weren't even 100% sure that we even liked it when we picked it out.  It just matched everything best.  I absolutely love it though and think it was the best possible choice!

We got free special edging and chose the "large ogee" whatever that means...

My beloved pantry!!

SINK! LOVE this.  It's a 70/30 sink.  The right side is perfect for thawing stuff.  I've never had a sink this big or deep.  It's amazing.  The faucet on the left is filtered water!

Just a random picture of my favorite candle to put in the kitchen.  It makes it smell exactly like a fresh-baked donut in there! :)

Close-up on the Mocha Granite

it's a green kitchen!

We are so very close to having our kitchen done! So close, yet so far away.  The countertops were supposed to be in today, but apparently our sink was on backorder so they pushed our install date back to next Tuesday.  We've waited so long that we didn't even make a fuss.

A couple weekends ago, Matt got the whole kitchen painted.  If you have forgotten the cool paint color name, I'll remind you...Homestead Resort Par Sage.   It looks soooo awesome.  The color goes great with the rest of the house and looks fab next to the cabinets.  I can't even wait to see the counters in there now!

Ok, now I got a new camera between then and now, so the next few pictures are on the new camera with the flash on.  It makes the green look way lighter and limier than it is.  I'd say the above pics are more representative of the actual color...but here is the finished product!

Matt started getting all the trim put up this week.  This whole install-your-own kitchen thing is sure a lot of work! He does such a great job though.  Today, we went to Lowe's and picked out all of our hardware for the cabinets.  I can't wait to get that on the doors and drawers.  We went with "pulls" instead of "knobs".  Hopefully, Matt will get those installed soon...I am so excited!  We also bought our new over-the-range microwave today at Best Buy to go in the little nook between the cabinets above the stove.  I am going to pause here to talk about how much I love saving money.  Our microwave was on sale...plus I used a 10% off small appliance coupon...plus the rest of my gift card=$22...plus $115 worth of reward certificates we had from buying our washer/dryer from Best Buy and using our reward card.  So with the microwave AND a 2 year protection plan we got our new flippin' awesome microwave for $70!! I just love watching the price go down and down and down.

Next on the list:

-Hardware and finish up trim

-Baseboards or kickboards or whatever they are called

-Install microwave (and fumble with moving the exhaust etc.)

-Countertops next Tuesday (YEAH!)

Could we possibly be moving closer to being done with this dang kitchen remodel?

kitchen progress

I feel like I have talked about the kitchen remodel a lot. So bear with me if I say something I have already said a million times.  

In June, we went to Lowe's and designed our new kitchen.  The cabinets and countertop in the house are so old and out-dated and not in good condition.  There is also no space for me to put food (if you know me, you know I keep a WELL-stocked pantry...it's an addiction).  So new kitchen it was.  I did not realize how expensive, tedious, and labor-intensive it was to remodel a kitchen.  Especially when we Matt is doing all the tearing out and installation.

After much, much, much debate and back and forth we decided on Kraftmaid cabinets (which I usually unintentionally call Kraftaid or Kitchenmaid).  We went with a painted maple door which they called "Mushroom". It's basically off-white, but really warm. The door style is Alexis.  This style comes in the full-overlay design.  Here is a definition of it since I just tried 5 separate times to explain it, but erased them all...

"Full overlay doors have less than one-eighth of an inch between them—in effect, they fully lay over the cabinet. Frameless cabinets always have full overlay doors but some framed cabinets have them as well. You can tell for sure whether a cabinet is framed or frameless by opening a door and checking for rails and stiles."

Here is the door style. I couldn't find a picture of our door style with the Mushroom color.

Imagine this door style, but Mushroom color. Kind of like the light part of a Portobello.  How's that for a visual?  

Full overlay is a little more expensive than partial overlay, but looks soooo much nicer overall.  It's a much sleeker and streamline look.  These doors/drawers also has the "soft close" feature which I talked about in the previous post.  I love that.  We still need to buy the knobs and that will definitely make the kitchen more put-together (and make it easier for me to open the dang doors!)

The new cabinets are so beautiful! The kitchen looks amazing already and we don't even have the countertop or new sink in.

Countertop company came today to measure and gave us a final quote on the material. I am so excited because we last minute decided to put a 4 inch backsplash all the way around instead of just a 3 inch on one side of the kitchen and she threw it in at no extra cost! We went with LG Hi-Macs which is similar to Corian if you've heard of that.  No laminate and no granite.  The LG Hi Macs is perfect.  The color is called Mocha Granite so it is a rich brown with specks of other colors.  It will go great with the Mushroom cabinets, cherry hardwoods, and Homestead Resort Parlor Sage walls (can you tell I like saying that word?).  We also ordered a brand new stainless steel sink which will be integrated into the new countertops.  It will be a smooth connection where the counter will butt up right to the sink.  It looks so  awesome.  The sink is a 70/30 sink so one side is bigger than the other.  It is the deepest, biggest sink that I will ever have.  I am so used to the manufacture dinky stainless steel ones that have been in all the places we've rented.  We also bought a new faucet to install and it's fancy to me.  Once again, because anything new in a kitchen is fancy to me.

Huge semi that delivered the cabinets to me last week 

Old cabinets..you may not be able to tell, but they are falling off the hinges.

Before: sink and sink base

Before- above stove area

New cabinets filled our garage

My pantries!!

Just a little Friday night demolition 

1st new cabinet in!

After: above stove. Still need our new microwave and knobs...and paint and trim etc.

Big ole corner cabinet on the wall that previously had NO cabinets

Matt's electrical work.  He moved this outlet which was originally on the lower part of the chair rail up here. Don't ask me how he did it.  I just nod and say "Good Job!" Where does he get this from?

Sunday night after I got home from work we installed the final pieces...the pantries!

We just watched.  He stayed between my feet the whole time.  Until I was enlisted to help.

Ta-Da! Well, almost.  Still a lot of work to be done, but they are installed!

When you give a nurse a power drill...

She will scream every time it turns on.  That's a scary tool!

BUT I helped.

And then I loved on him :)

Matt worked SO hard this weekend getting all of the cabinets in.  I am so proud of my handy-man!