My son, Matthew, arrived two weeks ago today from Arizona to help with the house renovation. We have been working non-stop and I'm amazed at how much we've gotten done, not only in the kitchen, but with so much of the internal structures, such as insulation, blocking the floor joists, dropping the ceiling in the library, hanging and finishing drywall. Thus, the reason I haven't taken the time until today to stop and update everyone on the progress.
Today, I want to talk about the KITCHEN! It is so close to getting done I can almost smell a gourmet home-cooked meal being whipped up in there. The first thing to get done was to drywall, finish and paint the ceiling. I have determined that finishing drywall is my least favorite thing to do! The process takes several days and there's very little instant gratification. I'm getting better at it and the ceiling and back wall turned out great...I was able to get a smooth finish and didn't need to texture before painting.
Here is the kitchen today! The cabinets are Elegant White Shaker, ordered from the RTACabinetStore.com and assembled by yours truly, me. The knobs and pulls are by Eddington Lane in Champagne Bronze from Wayfair.
Since the gas range will be located in front of a window and I want everything in the house done to code, I chose a floating stainless steel vent that would usually be used above an island...idea from the Houzz website.
I love the floors! They are Mohawk Laminate Wood Flooring in Southbridge Scraped Oak from Costco. (they come on sale a couple times a year) Once I got the hang of it, they went in fairly easily and were finished in one day. They are water resistant and should hold up very well in the kitchen. The original hardwood floors throughout the house will be stained the match these floors.
The new back door is a little shorter than the original, so we needed to frame in the top and insulate. When I trim out the door, that ugly space at the top will be covered. The black hardware style with oval knob and back plate will be used throughout the house. The door is a Therma-Tru Fiberglass Craftsman from Lowe's.
This space was once the old stairway from the kitchen going to the basement. The stairway was moved to a different location in the house so I could utilize this precious 30 square feet of space. It transformed the kitchen from an inefficient galley to a fabulous gourmet space, with a built-in refrigerator, 30" double pantry, coffee bar with microwave cubby.
Matt built the refrigerator surround and was a genius at getting it to fit, making sure everything was straight and level, in addition to rebuilding the pantry cabinet from 36" wide to 30" wide. (If you look real close at the back wall you can see a seam right down the center of the pantry cabinet. I had ordered the cabinets before we decided to fur in all the walls and lost 4" in the side wall.)
Just a reminder of what the kitchen looked like before cabinets, new door, and floors...
Yes, we've come a long way in 2 weeks! I'll try not to wait so long to post next time. Coming up; Electronics and Sound, delivered and written by my son, Matt.