For What It's Worth


Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Kitchen remodel…

I posted pictures on Instagram during my kitchen remodel and people kept asking to see before and after comparisons so I’d thought I would do a post about it.

So, if you were just humoring me and didn’t really want to see more – too bad BAHAHAHA! You’re getting it anyway.

And…I haven’t been in the mood to review anything so there’s that. *bad blogger*

Anyway…

We had been wanting to do something about our pantry for over 15 years – since we bought the house. It was an awkward drywall closet with wire shelves that angled so we had weird, unusable corners and very little storage space. That area is also in a corner next to a bay window with a drop ceiling so it’s was hard to work around.

Before:

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We couldn’t afford a full kitchen remodel and wasn’t sure what options we had that would work for us – yet match our existing cabinetry. We went to Home Depot for a free design consultation and man was it helpful! I didn’t think we would be able to work with all the angles but the girl there had a plan ready in under 5 minutes that gave us loads of storage space and new counter space as well.

After getting the estimate for the cabinets and labor we decided to do the install ourselves – tear down the old pantry, move an electrical outlet and install the new pantry – saving close to $4000.

Deconstruction:

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Ready for installation of new cabinets:

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After:

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Once everything was torn up we needed new floors – we had laminate and under that - old linoleum – man was that was a pain in the ass to remove!!! Dusty and smelly!

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New floor – darker Hickory Oak laminate that now matches our dining/living room (as you can see, the dogs love it):

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New granite counters to replace the old laminate counter tops:

Left: old Right: new

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New sink, bench by the window for extra storage, and for Figgy to bird watch, and a few decorative touches and tada! DONE

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We hit a few bumps along the way. The laminate flooring was easy to remove but the linoleum took days, we had towering piles of flooring boxes in my living room for almost a month, and one side of our counter top had the finished edge done on the wrong side. Something they realized AFTER they removed the old one and sink so we had a makeshift counter for a week while they fixed it.

Figment had a complete meltdown with all the noise and smells. He was throwing up/stopped eating. He's a very dramatic kitty.

But it all worked out in the end and I'm really happy with it. Eventually, I would like a tile back splash but I need to live with it for a little while to see what I want. But that was enough for me for now! I need a loooong break from remodeling as I'm sure anyone else who has done this will agree.

23 comments:

  1. Wow, did you do a huge amount of work. I had seen the pics courtesy of Twitter already, but still.
    But...you have a pool outside your kitchen?!? how come you never mentioned it?

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    1. I've had the pool for almost 15 years so I guess I didn't think of it lol Beau used to swim in it a lot (& I tweeted pics - I thought) but we didn't go in very much last year because of a problem with the water chemistry. Hopefully it's all better this year.

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  2. Did you hire an extra hand? How long did it tak you to complete your side of the labor? You saved a lot. I've been researching for a similar remodel, just cabinetry and countertops, I think all we can do now is painting cabinets and spend money on new countertops. I don't know how challenging that would be though lol

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    1. Kevin and I tore out the old pantry closet - it was drywall - but a friend helped him install the new one because it was really heavy. There are LOADS of YouTube videos online to watch. The woman at Lowe's said it was really easy and to save $$ and do it ourselves and it was.

      Each step (removal and installation of the cabinets) took about 1 full day with a few days in between for spackling/priming the wall to dry. But it was just that one corner. I'm sure a full size kitchen would take a lot longer.

      The floor was probably the worst. Removing the linoleum glue was a nightmare and took about 2 days of scraping and sanding to make it smooth for the new floor.

      Because we got granite counter tops and have really weird angles to deal with - we had to have them do the installation. We had installed the previous laminate counter ourselves and it was pretty easy. We did the sink/plumbing ourselves and that saved about another $500.

      I want to do our bathroom next but I don't think it's in the budget so I'm looking at painting the cabinets. I'm kind of nervous to do it though lol

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  3. Whoa! That is a crazy legit remodel!! Looks amazing!!! <3 - http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com

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  4. Poor Figgy. Lots of kitty treats for him!

    I don't get the angle of that pantry at all. Doesn't make sense but I love how you fixed it. So pretty. Also love the granite. Hm... you hiring out? :D

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    1. It was such a stupid space. that happens a lot in FL homes because they are more concerned with plant shelves and views than usable space.

      Nooooooo Not for hire! We were going to do our bathroom next but I need a break lol

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  5. Congratulations! It looks wonderful.

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  6. wow so much work, but it looked like it was definitely worth it

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  7. Look at all the work you did....but it looks AMAZING!!! I think if I was you I would spend my whole time cooking and baking in the new kitchen you spend a lot of time working on. Good for you.

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    1. I've been trying to cook more and make sure I use it! lol

      I do just stand in there a lot :-)

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  8. Aw, your poor cat! I love your new kitchen though. That's awesome you were able to save so much money. It looks great!

    -Lauren

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  9. That looks great, Karen! Good for you for doing the labor yourselves...if we tried that it would be a year that we'd have boxes waiting to complete the remodel! That space looks so much more functional now and I love the sink/counters and floor. I so need new counters and a new floor too. Hate laminate. My cabinets are ok I guess but they are bowing off the walls...something is not straight :( Hubby's answer is to just sell the house...lol

    We'll see...

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    1. Thanks.

      Personally, I subscribe to your hubby's way of thinking lol

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  11. Oh I fall into the camp of genuinely interested in seeing your remodelling projects, partly because I'm nosey and partly because I've been undertaking some home improvement projects around the house myself. Nothing as big as this - sounds like it took A LOT of work, but I hope the final results were more than worth it because your kitchen looks pretty spectacular now! And you saved so much money doing it yourself! But yes, you guys deserve a long work break after this haha.

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  12. It looks wonderful! Go yall doing it on your own. That's awesome. What brand of flooring did you use? I'm redoing my whole house floor eventually and love the way it looks. Poor Fig!

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  13. Looks great. Wow amazing you did the cupboards yourself. Wish hubby could do that.

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