It wasn't really a series of unfortunate events, but more so a series of unfortunate realizations that led us to a kitchen redo a littler earlier than we had planned. Do you remember me telling you about how our seller was kindof a jerk about having the house cleaned before we moved in? Well, my dear friend Katharine and my Super Mother-in-law, Linda, helped us move in those first few days. And the first task us ladies started on was cleaning the kitchen. The greasy, grimy, sticky kitchen. It took us a few hours just to clean out the cabinets, drawers, and countertops. (Thank you ladies!!!)
We had planned ahead knowing that we would need to buy a fridge, and unfortunately for our wallets, we knew it was going to have to be stainless steel to match the other appliances. (Fortunately, that exactly what I wanted!!!! woo-hooo!)
While I loved the open space and ample cabinet space, there were some things about the kitchen that I did not like. For example, the microwave was SOOOO close to the range top. The Gas Range Top. I could have just barely gotten my stock pot under there and tried to stir, but it would not have been successful. I can't figure out what in the world the people were thinking when they installed this microwave.
PLUS, the air return from the (non-vented) fan built into the microwave was melted off. Ummmm.
Clue #1 Sherlock.
Well since I had a fantabulous microwave from my sister, we really didn't need this one anyway.
So the microwave came out.
And we were left with this horrible piece of backsplash made from the same material as the countertop that I should have gotten a picture of but I thought it would have broken the camera. They had DRILLED HOLES into it in order to mount the microwave. Oh, it was bad. So we went to Lowe's and bought a hood.
Before we could install it though, we used the oven when we had some friends over. Now, I've never had a gas oven before, so I found it odd and somewhat scary that every 2 or 3 minutes, the gas in the oven was reigniting. After some research, we decided we needed to just go ahead and get a new oven/range.
So, off to Lowe's again! And this, my friends, is where the snowball began.
Here's the short version:
I had originally wanted a double oven. The only double oven available had a backsplash. Our counter tops were made for no backsplash. Fine. We'll buy the backsplash range with the double oven. ((YAAAAAAY!!!))
A few days later, in anticipation of our new oven coming soon; the current backsplash needed to come down. And attached to it? You guessed it. The sheetrock.
So my sweet husband, trying to figure out how perfect of a sheetrock repair job he will need to do, asks "weren't you planning on tiling the backsplash?" Well, before I tile, I want to paint the wall under the cabinets. And while we are painting, the new hood won't cover all this where the microwave was:
Apparently the cabinets were a dark reddish brown at one point. Which meant we had to get primer and white paint to cover up all of that mess. Are you keeping track? Lowe's owes me, for real. Here is the chaos that was our kitchen before we really got started.
So we went to install the hood and realized that it was meant to be hard wired into the house. Our house was not made to hard wire in the hood. So we stole the plug off the microwave and yours truly wired the hood to plug in! It was entertaining.
The new stove came in!!
It's so shiny!! But we couldn't back it up all the way just yet, we still had to finish the wall.
The next week was filled with sheetrock mudding, sanding, priming, and painting. But we did find something incredibly awesome at Lowe's. Check out the peel and stick "Instant Mosaic" tiles! It went up in MINUTES and we didn't need cement or grout!
AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!
And we had a few extra that we stuck above the sink under the window!!
So FINALLY, after three coats of green paint (Valspar Bathroom and Kitchen paint, from Lowe's, of course) and some cleaning and reorganizing, here is part #1 of the kitchen redo!
To save you from scrolling, here is the before
and the after (including our new bar stools!!!).
And that is how the Snowball in our Kitchen ends.
Paint & Supplies: $35
Tile: $50 (and I have a few left over for any quick fixes)
Plus appliances, barstools, and lightbulbs ... but if we hadn't have needed any of that, this would have been a great easy fix under $100!
But, to my husband's dismay, I have several more thoughts about how to improve the kitchen even more .... but for now ... I'll just keep PINing my ideas here.
Thanks for reading!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment