Kitchen Remodel

When we bought our home we decided that we wanted to put money into updating our kitchen.  The kitchen layout was just fine, but everything was a bit dated.  The cabinets were original (1981) and the floors were linoleum.

The fridge was somewhat new, but the stove and dishwasher were at least 15-20 years old.  When we closed on the home we went to Lowes and selected the cabinets and countertops.  We debated on dark wood or white painted cabinets.  Either would have looked great, but ultimately we chose white cabinets.  A week later we demoed the old kitchen cabinets and countertops, ripped out the floors and threw out the old stove and dishwasher.

It is amazing how empty a kitchen looks without appliances, cabinets or anything.  The next step was prepping the floor for tile.  We decided on 2ft x 1 ft charcoal gray porcelain tile.  It looks almost like slate.  We didn't have the required tools, but some friends willingly let us borrow their tools.  Additionally, they offered to come and assist in the project, which was a HUGE help!

The project lasted several days, but we only had evenings to work on it.  The top picture was after day 3 and the 2nd and 3rd picture are day 4.  We used the doorway as our center point.  Also, we staggered the tiles like bricks to reduce any visible crooked lines.  

When the tile was finished we were very happy with how it looked.  The grout lines were nice and straight and the end result was beautiful.  In spite of the beautiful tile, we were frustrated by the delay in the cabinets.  We had placed our order on April 30th (the day we closed), hoping that they would arrive before memorial day.  Unfortunately, the order wasn't confirmed by the cabinet company until May 8th.  Because our cabinets were delayed and wouldn't arrive until June 4th, we decided to move back our move-in date from June 6th to June 13th, knowing that we would have to live without countertops for a couple weeks.  We were able to find a local contractor to install our cabinets a couple of days after they arrived, so the countertop company could come and do their final measure.  We were pleased with how the cabinets looked, especially contrasted with the tile.

The wall cabinets were off by 3 inches, so that the microwave would not line up with the stove.  We were glad we caught that, so that we could have the cabinets moved 3 inches to fix it.  Once the cabinets were in we moved the appliances into place and installed the microwave.  We kept the refrigerator, but purchased a new stove, microwave and dishwasher.

We moved in on June 13th knowing that we would have to wait for our countertops, but we anticipated that they would arrive before the end of the month.  We were leaving for a family reunion in Utah on June 30th, so we assumed they would arrive sometime before, but we were disappointed and frustrated that they did not.  We received a phone call when we were in the airport to let us know that our countertops were in and asked for an install date.  We would return from Utah on July 14th, so we set up our install appointment for July 15th.  We also made plans for our friend to come in to hook up the faucet, so we would have a fully functional sink.  I took a picture of the first piece of the countertop to show what it looked like and to show the process.

Although the trim is not yet in, here is the finished product so far:

We are very excited to use our newly completed, fully functional kitchen!