The Big Kitchen Redo

Much thanks to Mo Cranney at Kitchen World who did a great job with the design and layout of the cabinets. Shout out to all the folks at Euro Marble and Granite. Nice, helpful, and competent. And most especially Mike Cover, Daniel, Nolan, Michael, and the tile guys at Cover Construction! A great attention to detail and caring about their craft.

BEFORE

Dining area

The dining room wall and entrance to the kitchen. It's going to be opening up on the left so that the new cabinets/counter will extend this whole length

Sink side

Sink side. You can see the never-functional dishwasher, the pantry, the wall that will be removed towards the dining room, and the laundry on the other side. The previous owner had removed the doors from the cabinets, which is why I had to keep the kitties out. Note the limited (and broken up) counter top space. Especially without a working dishwasher (so one side of the sink always had a drainer on it), this was very limiting.

Stove/Refrigerator Side

This side is shorter and ends at the fridge. Currently, no electric outlets at all on this side! Even worse for countertop space, but at least I could use the stove top as such as long as it wasn't hot.

The Laundry Area

You can see the dishwater and pantry on the left and the refrigerator on the right and then looking in, the w/d on the left (with two double cabinets above), a great venting fant in the middle, a door to the water heater & a little storage at the back, a door to the hall on the right, then the electric box and a little knook on the right. The knook had been for a garbage compactor. I had a double trash can in it, but it had lots of wasted space at the back. In these photos you can also see the current slate floor.

During

Early Days

Here we see how a soffit is added to the dining room to match the kitchen (it does come out a little above the window, but I think it looks better than not matching it). The top of where the door was comes across to meet at soffit height. The ceiling is cement, and this gives area for the wires to come across. In addition to existing wires, the light switch for the kitchen will now be with that for the dining room as you approach (see left).

The Cabinets Arrive!

Yeah! The cabinets are going in! On the left are ones in the dining room area (marked by the currently red wall) and the right as they continue into the kitchen proper.

Since these cabinets are in the dining area, I wanted to make them a little interesting, so two glass fronted ones on either side of a wine rack.

The pantry has shelves at the top and pull out trays at the bottom. I was thinking I might have to have them adjust the heights on the bottom, but no, there is room enough for my 10# flour tub.

The stove side. The refrigerator is going to be replaced, but with the new refrig enclosure I will no longer be losing things off the counter down between the cabinets and fridge. You can see the new laminate flooring. I tried to match what was in the dining room (the dining room/living room flooring predates me) and got tolerably close (you can see the intersection in the right hand picture). The kitchen flooring will be perpendicular to the dining room because it makes more sense going that way in the long, narrow galley kitchen.

The counter people come at the end of this week to make the template/take the measurements.

On the sink side again, the cabinets and floor are now in. You can see a couble of large drawers (a double and triple one) along side the regular cabinet/drawer combinations) .

To the left you can see the pop-out sponge holders at the front of the sing cabinet (looks like a drawer front (see above left), but just swings forward. The holders are plastic to avoid rot from damp sponges.

Back towards the laundry, that old nook now has the pull out trash. There's a drawer on top (perfect for extra bags) and two tall trash/recycling bins fitted into built-in slots.

The same knobs will go on the cabinets and the drawers, but cabinets knobs are veritcally oriented and drawer knobs are horizontally oriented. Not a big difference, but a little visual interest (I think).

The same knobs are on the laundry cabinets, only in brushed nickel. Turns out the doors came a little closer to the ceiling, so the right most door hits the fan. But they added a spacer at the top to give clearance (there's also a spacer to the right where the dryer vents up and then above all the cabinets and out the front wall.

Lighting attempts #1-3

Okay, hopefully third time's the charm (unless it is Lowe's appliance delivery/installation, for which at this point I'm hoping 5th time's the charm, but that's another story). Attempt #3 right (below attempt #2). And LED light like in the laundry (photo from the box -- not yet installed).

So this (left picture) was a lighting fail. Going back because the little screws which were supposed to allow you to tilt them one way or the other don't work -- just hang straight down. Chosen because I wanted as much light as possible, but now with the kitchen opened to the dining room, there is already more light + under cabinet lighting on the sink side. So attempt #2 (below): visually so pleasing, I really wanted it to work, but wouldn't be enough light.

Appliances

Appliances have arrived! The range is induction on top and can do convection/air fry inside. The heating element in the oven is hidden at the bottom, for easier cleaning. Microwave above. And a dishwasher at last on the other side.

With the old appliances gone, finally a good look at the cabinets in the dining room area and the full sweep of the new space on the sink side. You can see where the wall was removed where the vertical white spackle marks the red dining wall.

Counters arrive

The counters are a Madura Gold Granite. What can I say? I love them.

And to the right, you can see a sample of the tile which will cover the wall between upper and lower cabinets as a backsplash.

Coming together

All that's lacking now is the light fixture, paint and backsplash . You can see the new floor, the faucet, and the laundry droom in this shot. Close up of the faucet below. The airswitch for the garbage disposal is sticking up because the counter guys have to come back and drill the hole for it larger.

And here's a view of the new washer/dryer combo. Compare to the before photo on the right and note how they now sit back farther (thanks to a side vent) -- much less of a gap behind them.

My new spice drawer using the rack below. I did find a few duplicate spices from when the labels weren't so easy read and I overlooked having certain spices.

The backsplash is now mostly in but not yet grouted. Here you can see it with the counter. Below, you get the broader sweep, but the counter is covered with cardboard.

All but the painting!

Kitchen light now installed...

and backsplash all grouted, plates on electrical outlets (oil-brushed bronze to match the cabinet hardware).

A Fresh Coat

The painting is not quite done, but below you can see it mostly painted -- I went with the color that was already in the dining and living room (you can see it in the pictures above). Found the old paint can from when it was painted in 2007! so I had the actual color (and they still make it). What remains is the little white line above the cabinets (you might notice it above the wine rack) -- they are going to get the cabinet color to paint that. My sister suggested painting the soffit the same color as the cabinets (which idea I liked) but with the intersection of the cross wall (see the right hand picture below), I decided to go with the same color as the walls.

Basically Done

The dining room light needs reinstallation and things like the mixer need to come back but otherwise all done in the kitchen!

Finished

Kitchen is finished! Bathroom still needs finishing, but here are some final pictures of the kitchen and dining room (final laundry room pictures above). Only the dining room rug needs to come back in, but I'm waiting until all the construction is done.

Bread and vegetable box from Etsy (comes in a variety of colors and option of wire mesh on top drawer as well as bottom)

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