The Kitchen

How exciting... I just figured out how to give each post a name!  I'm calling this one "The Kitchen" because I'm going to post a bunch of pictures of my living room.

So here are some Before photos.....

It all started with me just wanting ONE little cupboard removed.  It jutted out and I thought if we took it out, it would open up the kitchen.  Well, super hubby had his own ideas of opening up the kitchen.

 

Our only regret with this kitchen remodel is that we didn't take out the soffits.  Most soffits are

non-functioning and a complete waste of space.  As you can see here.

So this was your typical 1970's kitchen.  Dark brown, dark brown and more dark brown.  And black if you count the tar that was used to install the linoleum.  Yes, tar.

 

So, our plan of attack: 

Remodel the kitchen without spending any money because we don't have any.

 That means, no new cabinets and we paint what we got.

 I'm not gonna lie, this sucked.  But I will say, it was totally worth it in the end as you will see.  Luckily, we had very nice cabinets to start with, we just didn't like the color of them.  So we washed them down with tri-sodium phosphate (TSP), lightly sanded them and primed and painted them with oil-based paint.  It was a smelly process.  *Note: if you do a project like this, I would highly recommend doing it when it's warm outside and not in the dead of winter where you can't open windows to breathe.

 

Soup anyone?

 

So this is the result of probably one of the most hateful chores we have ever done: removing wallpaper.  Ugh.  And we aren't talking chintzy paper wallpaper.  We're talking hard core Grandma hired some crazy wallpaper cementer lady to put it up.  And let me tell you, that lady knew what she was doing.

 

I would tell you what our process was for removing the hateful paper from hell but I don't remember.  It was too many years and beers ago. 

 

 

 While we're at it, we might as well replace the patio doors.  This photo also gives you a nice little preview of another post to come at a later date: The Greenhouse.

 

 

Much better.

 

.

Ok, now for the After photos... Drum rolllllllllllll

 

Tah-dah!

 Amazing what a little paint and hardware can do.  And some tiling too :)

We had an island custom built by our friends at Northland Custom Woodworking. 
Good job, boys. 
They also installed our counter tops.

One of the downsides to having a house built in the 50's is that there was no sheet rock then.  Everything was plaster.  Our ceiling was a mess and chunks of plaster falling out so we decided to do what most normal people would do and not get rid of the problem, just cover it up.

 Believe it or not, this is NOT a tin ceiling.  They're tongue and groove ceiling tiles that we painted with a silver metallic paint.  Saved us close to $1000 going this route.  Not to mention we got a pretty nice buzz from the metallic paints fumes..... Oopsy. 

 

 Ok, so I lied.  These aren't all after photos.  Remember the tar?

 

 We replaced it with pre-finished hickory hard wood flooring.

 So nice.  So clean.  This was in 2008.  Not so clean anymore.. Sigh.

 

 

 Oh Jace... Such a cutie.  I miss those days.  When they didn't argue back.

 

That's my cute little frosted glass pantry door.  It says "Pantry" on it.  Clever.

 

 

 Trust me, my fridge is much cleaner on the inside than the outside.

Not.

 

Oopsy - I guess you get a sneak peek at "The Greenhouse" project.......

Replaced the door with a baby gate on hinges.  Much easier.  Just another masterpiece made by super hubby.  He used poplar and left overs from the front deck... Another future blog post.  Stay tuned.