Monday, June 14, 2010

Before and After

So, once upon a time, we remodeled our kitchen. We finished it about a year ago, I just haven't posted pictures of the project yet. When we bought our house the kitchen was the first project I wanted to get started on. It was monochomatic and not in a good way. The previous owners had sort of done a remodel but it was just ugly and weird. They mixed styles that did not work well together. The natural light in the kitchen is gorgeous and nothing they did to the room showed that off. I wanted something bright and cheery to get me through the long winter months we have in Utah. I am so pleased with the end result. We did all of the work ourselves. My mom came out before we started any of the projects to help pick a pallet and get things moving. Josh's sister and mom also helped us paint our cupboards. We were grateful for the hours they put in. We didn't realize what a project this was going to be until we were deep in it, which was probably a good thing. It really was a lot of work, but was so so worth it.

Before:
The walls and the cupboards were the same color, it was just so dang boring to look at. The room made me cringe. The peek-a-boo cupboards had plastic windows instead of glass, ew.

We had to fix some of the lighting and get rid of the dome light in the center. The fridge didn't fit the space it was given and was way too tiny for our needs. The window coverings did nothing to prevent people from looking in from the outside. It was like living in a fish bowl, you could see right in.

The combo of the backsplashes was just odd. They did a tumbled travertine right next to a modern subway tile, with a marble counter top. It was horrible. There was no range hood.

The work:

These pictures are all out of order but oh well.
These are just some, yes some, of the nails we had to pull out of the floor the house came with when we tore it out.

We had to tear through 4 layers of floor in the kitchen (yep, they just kept putting new floor on top of the old ones), re-secure beams and replace the sub-floor, do a layer of underlayment and then lay our floors (which are gorgeous), and put up baseboards.

We had to use many things to get those pre-existing layers of floor up.

My job for most of the floor work was to pull all the nails out. There were thousands and I spent days doing it. I thought for sure I was just going to want to burn the house down by the time we finished this project. It was tedious but again, worth it.

To get one of the layers of linoleum up we had to burn it off to melt the tar that held it down. It was an adventure.

We painted cupboards and scraped old wallpaper off.

Josh tore out the old backsplash.

He built this contraption in the stairwell that leads to our basement so he could vent our new range hood outside. I was freaking out the whole time, thinking surely the thing was going to collapse and he would end up paralyzed.


Installing our new backsplash.

This is a rare moment so I had to document it. Josh doesn't take a break to eat, drink, or use the bathroom until his project is finished. I must have made him sit.

Along with all of that we replaced the blinds, replaced the plastic in our cupboards with glass, painted the walls, fixed and added lighting, installed new appliances including a fridge and a range hood, raised cupboards, added molding to the top of the cupboards that didn't reach the ceiling, and I'm sure more that I can't think of at the moment.

After:

Check out the floors, we love them.

We went with a glass tile backsplash that makes me smile every time I see it.


The only projects left are getting the painting I did for this room framed and hung, and figuring out what to do with the inside of the glass cupboard. Who knows if those 2 things will ever happen.



16 comments:

The Kilger Family said...

I love love love it!!!! I can't believe you guys did all that work yourselves! It looks awesome.

{Levi and Em} said...

Oh my goodness, this is GORGEOUS!!!! lOVe lOVe lOVe the colors!! Pretty sure when we get a home, I need to do a room this color! Soo pretty Court!

Chris and Mari Spiker said...

It really is such a cute kitchen! All that hard work paid off--it's probably hard to believe that it's over after pulling out ALL OF THOSE NAILS!!! Wowza. You guys did such a good job! The colors make it so happy & clean. And I love the tiles, they are one of my favorite parts!

Maybe in 25yrs when Chris & I finally buy a house you can come over & help us make ours cute? :)

Kendell Wrae Evans said...

Oh My Goodness, what an amazing transformation. I love the backsplash! Great Job Courtney! by the way, congrats on the baby on the way! so exciting! i love reading your blog!
~Kendell (myler) Evans

Laura said...

Wow, I remember being there and saying how cute it was, but I really didn't realize just how much you did to it! That is so much work!!!
Good job, I'm sure you're glad you did it now!

Jake and Kim said...

Seriously, so gorgeous. Quite the talents you both have!

Abe and Lisa said...

What a cute blog you guys have!! It's fun to see what you two have been up to. And that kitchen looks awesome!! What hard work.. but it totally paid off. I'm also loving your yellow kitchenaid. I wanted that color but then went with silver.. boo me!

Alison @ Oopsey Daisy said...

WOW, that is one gorgeous kitchen! I am jealous!!! Love the colors!

Lindsay said...

oh my gosh its so amazing! looks like it should be in a magazine. i heart those colors.

Missy said...

Awesome! That looked like SO much work. And the homemade scaffolding made me laugh, Josh has always been a bit of a Mcgyver. Anyway, excellent before and after pics, you should submit it to design sponge: http://www.designspongeonline.com/
It is one of my favorite websites for design, very addicting. I think you might like it.

Ms. Green Eyes said...

LOVE your kitchen. LOVE it. And your prego pictures on facebook are amazing. You are tiny. I am very jealous. Not a mark on you either! Lucky, lucky girl. xo

Deven and Alyssa Perry said...

Wow What an amazing transformation! I would love to have your kitchen in my house!!!! I love the Kitchen aid color too! hehe... The floors are definitely amazing as well! great color pallet! The room looks so much bigger and inviting! Truly Amazing!!!

Megan said...

oh how i wish of owning my own house... and of having a kitchen like this... and of being handy enough to have the satisfaction of doing it myself. well, i dont have any of those so i guess i'll just live through you! i absolutely love it... you guys did an amazing job!

Spiker said...

I love it too!

Spiker said...

Oh and that scaffold thing is terrifying. Crazy man.

Sabrina said...

i think the name Josh = crazy do-it-yourselfer. i totally could see my Joshie making 'scaffolding' like that. YIKES!

i love your kitchen. love it. such a happy place.