kitchen reno, take one and two.

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know that Erik and I are no strangers to DIY house projects.  We are by no means professionals, but now that we are working on our third house, I would say that we do have a bit of experience!  Our current house really was move-in ready, but I knew when we bought it that there were a few little things I would want to change over time, namely the kitchen backsplash, laundry room, and paint colors in a few rooms.  Eventually we have plans to do more (dreaming of a fully-furnished, roomy screened-in porch but that's for another year decade, ha!)  Before baby 2.0 arrives this summer we decided it would be realistic to tackle a few medium sized projects, and first up is the kitchen.  But, before we go there, let's back up a few years.  Actually, let's back up six years, to when Erik and I bought our first house together.  That house was definitely not move-in ready, and when we bought it we knew it would need a full make-over.  This was before the kiddo phase in our lives (actually before we even got married!) so we had a lot more time on our hands.  Maybe some day I will share the whole house renovation, because we literally gutted the entire place and replaced everything, but for today let's take a peek at the kitchen.  Like I said, we literally took out everything in here - replaced the flooring, cabinets, appliances, countertops, and painted the walls and ceiling.  Erik's parents helped us with this project, and it wouldn't have turned out this awesome without them.  Here are the before and after shots:

looking into the kitchen:

kitchen sink area:

stove:

Hey, remember that time when I started a blog and one of my first posts was how to make a kitchen cabinet organizer?  ha!

Note the green walls - this was the second kitchen I painted green (I also painted the kitchen in my rental house green when I lived in MI) and also not our last kitchen of this color, stay tuned.  Erik installed the tile floor, and we hired someone to help us install the cabinets which were ordered from Lowes.  The counter-tops are granite and all the appliances are stainless steel.  The sink and faucet are also from Lowes.  This was a very small kitchen, but is still one of my favorites to date.  The back window overlooks a steep drop-off that leads down to a creek and if you didn't know any better you would think you were in the mountains when you looked outside.  I sure loved this little house and get a little nostalgic looking back at these photos!  Technically, since we still own it as it's now a rental property, and we could move back in if we missed it that much but I don't think that tiny house would fit our growing family!

We lived in that sweet little house for two years before we decided we were ready for a change.  We were planning on starting a family so we started shopping for a house with a little more space both indoors and out (our first little house had virtually no yard.)  In September of 2012 we bought our next house, another fixer-upper with the intention of keeping our (then current) house as a rental.  We figured it would take a few months to fix up house #2, so we lived in house #1 while the "new" (to us - it was built in the 1960's) house was being worked on.  In reality, it took closer to nine months before it was to the point where we could move in!  But, it was worth it.  House #2 was another complete make-over, including replacing every single door (I think there were over 20 total) which required tearing out the old ones, installing the new, priming, painting and installing new trim.  I swear we would have finished the house months sooner had I not had such an obsession with those five-paneled doors... Anyway, I digress.  The kitchen wasn't a complete gut like the last, we opted to keep the cabinets, flooring, and countertops, but give it something of a face-lift.  We did rip out a built-in bench in the kitchen nook, painted everything (ceiling, walls, trim) and replaced all the appliances, lighting, and sink/faucet.  I refinished the kitchen cabinets myself which involved me taking a week off of work and putting in a solid 8-10 hours a day, on the kitchen project alone.  I removed all the doors and shelves, stripped them, sanded them (orbital and by hand), primed and repainted.  I then reinstalled the doors and added new hardware.  We opted to paint the cabinets white (you will see a white kitchen trend here soon) but used a gel stain to make the island a dark brown.  We were going for a farmhouse kitchen look and I felt we accomplished it quite well!  Here are some before and afters.  Note, the after shots were taken by a professional we hired when we listed the property for sale, which is why they look, well, professional!

It is hard to tell in the after shots, but this kitchen was also painted a light green, but much paler than the last.  I think we went through something like six paint samples before finally having Lowes mix us up a custom green for the walls.  Also note the new lights - I did those myself, along with all the other electrical work in the house.  For the light above the sink, I removed the unsightly external conduit someone had lazily mounted to the ceiling, properly ran the wires through the ceiling, and just patched it up after.  In the breakfast nook, you can see there were formerly two (really weird and ugly) lights.  I combined them into one pendant light, and also repaired the ceiling where the old lights were.  I can't remember how many coats of white it took to cover that ugly red paint in the nook, but it was more than a just a couple!  The cabinet above the stove was removed so we could install a range hood.  The brick backsplash was done by Erik with a thin brick veneer, and we both absolutely loved it.  To the left of the range hood and stove we added in a cabinet that Erik built, with open shelving for our funky little microwave that everyone always thought looked like a TV!  We left the laminate countertops as they were, but in retrospect I wish we would have tried to resurface them with a faux concrete or something like that.  They were the one part of the kitchen I always felt really didn't fit in.  We had intentions of eventually replacing them with either solid concrete, solid surface, or butcher block, but ended up moving again before that could happen!  This brings me to kitchen reno #3, which I will get to in my next post.  We still have a couple small things to finish before I can take the after shots, but so far it's my favorite (and definitely the most budget friendly) of all! 

We are scheduled to close on the sale of our last house in just under a week now.  Which, is actually a huge relief since we moved out nearly a year ago already, but also makes me just a tiny bit sad - we put so much time and hard work into that house, and looking back at this photos has certainly reminded me of everything that went into it.  But, onto the next I suppose.  Stay tuned for kitchen reno, take three!