It's either take out forever or a new kitchen!

Buying a house is already difficult but buying a house that needs work is another thing! I can't tell you how many times I wanted to cry myself to sleep over this house. My body just physically couldn't take the pain of manual labor anymore. From painting every room, to unpacking, organizing, repurposing lots and lots of furniture, hanging items, digging up dirt, hauling rocks, pulling ivy out, to exterior painting, remodeling bathrooms, refinishing cabinets, hanging light fixtures, the list goes on and on! So when we moved in, we made a list of things we could tackle ourselves and things we needed help with. Then we prioritized things from most important to later down the road. Well on the top of my list was a new kitchen. I am a huge fan of cooking. I cook every night and I knew that there was no way in hell I was going to cook in that kitchen. The microwave and oven both were broken. Drawers were falling apart. And the tile was disgusting! So I told my husband, "It's either take out forever or get me that new kitchen!" So we got a new kitchen:)

When redesigning a room, you want to have a clear picture of what you want. After many hours spent on Houzz.com, I came up with a look I wanted and ran with it. We ordered our shaker style cabinets from Lowe's and got the granite from a place in Rancho. I will say, going from dark quartz countertops to now a light granite countertop, I am not a fan of granite. I really wish I had chosen the light quartz countertops. They are more durable, don't stain and you never have to reseal them. Lesson learned! From that point we got a contractor to help us out. The layout of the kitchen stayed the same because of budget and how our house flows but we did do some changes. First I wanted two food pantries which allowed me to hid the sides of the frig. Also, we extended the countertop to allow for barstools. Both great decisions. Another good decision was my standing double oven. It takes up the same space as a normal oven but allows you to use less energy when making a pizza or small dish. For the backsplash I knew I wanted subway tiles, which are inexpensive and easy to put up.

There are still things we would like to do in the kitchen but don't have the money for right now. We want can lights and hanging pendants over the island. But for now, my husband and I are happy with what we were able to put up. We took down the old light box, dry walled the lovely hole in the ceiling and put up a track light (online purchase $200). We changed out the old light above the sink (Lowe's $50) to match the track light and took out the ceiling fan over the kitchen table and put up a simple light (Lowe's $30). We also would love to change the flooring out but since it runs most of the downstairs, we can't afford that either. But for now it all works.

If you are considering a kitchen remodel, here are a few tips! First, save up! Our kitchen remodel ran about $20,000. That was no structural moves and basic appliances and cabinets. If you are looking to cut costs, try refinishing your cabinets. We paid about $10,000 for the cabinets. Refinishing would cost you about 1/3 of that. Second, roll with the punches. We had a horrible time with demo. All our cabinets were nailed in not screwed. It was a nightmare getting the nails out! Then we had a leak in the sink plumbing. Then we had to move the frig water line. Then we had to move the gas line for the oven because the oven stuck out too far with the old line. Then we realized that the cabinet layout was slightly off from the old layout and the subfloor was exposed. Could we find the same flooring to match- NOPE! So we did our best with matching some new to old. Putting the sink back in took about two days. We couldn't match the new piping with the old piping. But we prevailed! And third, don't be afraid to tackle some of the projects yourself to save some money! Even though the demo was a pain, it saved us $1,000. Doing all the lighting and dry wall ourselves saved us money too. Putting back in all the appliances and sink ourselves saved us money. Painting not only the kitchen but the entire house saved us thousands of dollars! So with all that said, enjoy some before and after pictures of our remodel!

Before- Me measuring for my new kitchen!



Before- No island for seating making it look even smaller of a kitchen.


 

We did the demo of the kitchen to save money. You can see too that the wall color has changed. In the mix of all of the demo, I repainted the house. I didn't want to have to worry about trimming out the paint around the new cabinets.



 

 



We took down the top cabinets first and then worked on the bottom half.

Double oven!

 

Granite- Love it but it just doesn't hold up like Quartz.

 

 Finished project until we tackled the lighting:) Subway tile ties it all together.

You can see the pantries flank the two sides of this wall, thus hiding the frig. I also wanted the cabinets to go from floor to ceiling. It is not a huge space and the ceiling are not tall like in some new homes. I think this really helps modernize our house.

 My husband and I have changed quiet a few light fixtures at this point and decided to tackle these two lights ourselves. The pendant over the sink and the track light.

 We were not fans of the fan above the table so we swapped it out with this inexpensive light!

 

You can see the pendant light in this picture along with our with new windows.

 

Funny, as I am looking back at these photos, I notice some of my décor has changed too. Good thing I buy cheap all the time:)