Kitchen Remodel

When we first bought our house this kitchen didn't bother me too much. I was grateful it was more updated than others we had seen and was fine with it. But as the year wore on we were so frustrated with so many aspects of it. I am going to list them so you will see why we were completely justified in remodeling :)

The sink which was in the corner was very shallow and small. But even worse when you swung the faucet from sink to sink it would overlap on the counter.

All the storage space under the sink, under the window and to the dishwasher was useless as there was so much wiring and pipes down there and it was just gross looking.

The garden window was ugly and just collected dust. We didn't want to store anything there because it blocked our view of our backyard that we love.

The overhanging cabinet was so low that we had to bend down to be able to see to the other side or talk to people. It was very uncomfortable.

The cabinets were very short and so any of our larger appliances wouldn't fit in them and either had to be stored in the pantry or in the garage.

The lighting was fluorescent lighting and actually lowered the ceiling about a foot. Not to mention all the lighting were connected by extension cords plugged into one outlet. Talk about a fire hazard. How did the inspection pass with the lighting that way, I have no idea.

The stove was a huge monstrosity of a thing. It took up most of the kitchen and was always warm. It did cook very well and we could fit so much in it at once but I got so tired of how huge it was and how hard it was to clean. It was almost impossible. The gas was always lit on it so we turned off each burner (as a child safety) and had to use a lighter every time we wanted to use it.

The microwave was way to high. It was connected to the ceiling. The guy before us loved copper and everything was copper that he could do. I guess we shouldn't have changed that because at least we would have been protected from the UFO's when they came.

The white tile was a nightmare to clean. I never felt like it was clean. Partly because of the dark color grout.

And there was a musty smell in the cupboards.

Dishwasher didn't fit in and so when it broke the home warranty wouldn't cover it--because the opening was weird. Stupid home warranty (on a sidenote when they asked us if we wanted to renew we asked them why we would want to do that since they denied all of our claims and we had to pay out of pocket anyway)

So anyways that is our list of why it was a nightmare and so we decided it would only increase the value of our house and make it safer to live in to remodel it. And thus begun 6 weeks of eating out. What a hardship.

The work started the week before we left for Disney World so we were gone for almost 3 weeks of the remodel. The kids liked having the workers there all the time. Though when they first did the demolition, Lexie asked me why they wanted to ruin our kitchen. She was very upset. There were a few minor problems as there was a plumbing leak, a gas line that was all over the place, and electrical wiring that was a nightmare. But it finally got done and we love the kitchen. Though honestly I didn't really want to start cooking. I am just lazy that way.

View from the front door. The cabinet line was followed from the previous one but it seems so much wider to us. Weird huh. Notice the microwave is in an appropriate spot now. The cupboards and drawers are self shutting. We have a lazy susan in the back corner so we can actually utilize that space. And the other corner on the bar opens from the other side. We extended out the counter both ways to add more space. We added a drawer to hold the trash can. Our sink is HUGE and I love it. The faucet is pretty great too. It is great to look out the window and not see the ugly window before but have an unobstructed view of our beautiful backyard.
This is the corner our lazy susan is in and all of our appliances fit in their. We gained so much space in taking out the lighting and raising the cupboards the foot to the ceiling that we have 3 semi empty cupboards. Minus just storing junk that I can't get Eric to agree to throw away. He is not allowed to put anything in my cupboards without permission because those three would already be full. And the tree outside is an 88 year old walnut tree, that the house was built around. Provides great shade in the summer. I can't tell you how the walnuts taste because the squirrels ate ALL of them. We have 4 full grown pine trees in our backyard that the squirrels live in, giving us a mountainy feel :)
Our backsplash. I really, really like it and I wasn't sure if I would. We got stainless steel appliances and I don't think I would do that again. I hate having to clean it with special cleaner. Why can't I just spray it with 409. But we did get a convection oven. Since I was so use to being able to cook 2 cookies sheets at a time in the big industrial oven we figured it was worth the couple of hundred extra to make it so I can cook 3 cookie sheets at a time. Too bad I went on a diet shortly after this. Though I did make cookies a few times and it works. Totally worth it especially since we didn't have space for a double oven. We absolutely love our kitchen. I love walking in my house now and seeing it. And I actually manage to keep it nice and cleaned up because I am proud of it. Before I would do the dishes and get frustrated that it never looked any better. So we are really glad we did the remodel and the cabinets match the color of the wood our ceiling and skylight in the living room. I LOVE our house.