Kitchen Remodel

One of the things I loved about our house when we first saw it was the kitchen. I could see the potential. Here are some pictures of it before we moved in (Feb 2007).

Why yes, those are peachy, flesh-colored counters! And don't you love the huge burn mark on the island? The previous owner apparently didn't own any trivets. I wasn't crazy about the white generic appliances or the yellow wallpaper. I knew one day we would get around to changing it.

In March 2009 we finally did get around to it. Little did I know that this was going to be the biggest ordeal of our lives! We put in granite countertops, replaced the backsplash and the tile floor, had the wallpaper removed, the walls textured and painted, got a new sink and faucet and finished replacing the white appliances with stainless steel. Let me rephrase that, we hired people to do all of this. More on that later.

This is how we lived for a few days while the granite and floors were being installed. Let's just say we ate out...a lot...during this time.

Yes, that is our fridge in the office. Very convenient when you got thirsty while blog stalking.

Since it was still tax season and Ryan was very busy and since this was a pretty big project, we decided not to attempt any of this ourselves. We hired a local company for the counters, backsplash and floor. I could type for another hour all of the details with what a terrible experience we had, but I won't. I will leave you with a few of the hiccups:

Almost installed 2 different color floor tiles (I stopped them just in time!)

Removed the baseboards and took them with them when they were supposed to put them back

Removed 3 small custom pieces of trim and then lost them

The list goes on and on. My blood pressure will get too high if I relive this for too long. I'll just say that they actually did install 2 different backsplash colors and tried telling us that it would be the same when it dried. Well, a week later they were still 2 different colors. After several weeks and 6 trips back to our house to fix things (not to mention 2 trips from the general manager who ended up being a jerk, too), it was finally over.

This is a picture of the 2 different color backsplash tiles.

Finally, its finished! (Actually, this isn't a picture of the finished product. You can still see the wallpaper. I will have to find a picture with the painted walls, but you get the idea.)

The only thing left in our house to work on is the master bath. I have a feeling it will be while before we tackle something again.