Our kitchen is finished! Pics!!
Before:
View of kitchen right before we removed the wall between kitchen and dining room.
Kitchen and old wall(area thru doorway is dining room):
After:
(beam in photo is where old wall was)
Link to all photos in photobucket:
http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p250/slc2053/
We have a 1950s house which had a small kitchen and a separate small dining room, which we NEVER used. ItÂs only DH and I and we rarely entertain. The cabinets were built along with the house and were so dark and ugly (years of dirt and multiple coats of polyurethane) that in 1996 (after 3 years of being in the house) we did a mini-make over. We painted the cabinets white and blue, put in linoleum flooring (removing gold/green carpet), we painted the walls and trim (walls were yellow or green, canÂt remember) and came up with a light blue/white/read kitchen that we lived with for 10 years.
One day last summer I casually asked my husband how hard it would be to take out the wall in between kitchen and dining room (figuring it was load bearing) and he said, weÂll never know until we try and he took a hammer and busted through the plasterÂ.we left the framing up until we installed a support beam, then removed the framing. We then ripped out all the plaster in walls (what a MESS) and ceiling and put in insulationÂbecause there was NONE! We built out the wall behind the fridge (no room to recess it so we built a false wall) leaving a boxed area 6 inches deep for the regular depth fridge to sit in. We replastered and then put hot water radiant heat in the floor. We worked with a guy who owned a kitchen cabinet business and we ordered unfinished cabinets and he stained them and installed them.
We took our time and lined up our own cabinet installer, electrician, plumber, etcÂand worked around their schedules as we knew these people, knew they were good, so they were worth the wait. When we were done with cabinet and floor install, we took a deep breath and didnÂt do anything for about 4 months. We had a perfectly functioning kitchen and were a bit burned out. We still needed to add finish trim around windows, doors, floor, add toe kicks to cabinets, and add crown molding to cabinets. Oh, we also wanted (needed?) a backsplash but couldnÂt decide what we wanted, then once we did, we had to "wait" once again on the installer that we wanted to use.
We spent more than we had planned, but we got more than we expected. We can honestly say we had top notch contractors throughout and most charged a very fair price. We splurged on granite, as we didnÂt think we could afford it initially, but it ended up costing only a few hundred dollars more than the HD WilsonArt laminate we were considering.
We love the space, and IÂd do it all again in a heartbeat! I love this stuff.
The details:
Cabinets came unfinished maple from Conestoga (conestogawood.com)
Wine rack (made by a friend and stained to match cabinets)
Radiant Heat (uponor-usa.com)
Pendant Lights (Destination Lighting)
Ceiling fan with light (Lowes)
Island Paint Color as well as window and baseboard trim (BM Dove)
Flooring (Alloc Laminate  looks like slate. It is a dark gray with greenish blue in it and a hint of a tannish color (very subtle)
Wall Color (BM Â I think Wilmington Tan)
Granite (Uba Tuba)
Sink  Silgranit Anthracite 1 ¾ (black)
Faucet  brushed nickel - Grohe
Backsplash (Walker Zanger Stacked Stone  slate-natural lookÂNO GROUT)
Undercabinet lighting (fluorescent lights from Lowes)
In-cabinet lighting  strip lights from Lowes (hung vertically)
Wine/Beverage Cooler  Mr. Chef (Got it at HD for less than $400 and works great-we debated getting one at all so decided not to invest too much!)
Range, microwave  GE (Lowes)
Dishwasher  KitchenAid (Lowes)
Refrigerator  GE (Home Depot)
TV Â 32 inch LG (Circuit City)
Bar stools and dining room table and chairs at local furniture store
Cushy Cupboards
Never M-T
Off to frequent the Bathroom forum now!
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