Tackling our first major project: Kitchen

One of the big projects we knew we were going to take on when we bought this house was the kitchen.  Our original plan was to replace the counter tops, sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and cabinet hardware.  The countertops had been ruined when someone in the past put something hot down on the counters, causing them to blister. As if the blister wasn't bad enough, someone had tried to fill the blister with black paint or something.  Bottom line, it looked awful.  The sink, faucet and garbage disposal were all completely non-functional from the day we first looked at the house, so we knew that had to be replaced at a minimum, just to get it working again. The cabinets were also in sorry shape, but in my optimistic, DIY mind, I thought we could get another 3-5 years out them by painting them, having them repaired (the doors neither closed all the way, nor hung straight), and replacing the hardware with something more modern.  I didn't think they looked THAT bad, just needed sprucing up.

Before I continue on, let me say that my parents have always told me stories about how "one thing leads to another" when it comes to fixing up your house.  I expected that to a certain degree, but obviously was hoping we could minimize it. 

So, we met with a few handymen and contractors to look at the cabinets and give us an estimate for repairs.  None of them thought keeping the existing cabinets was a good idea.  Apparently if you're going to do that much work on the counters, sink, etc., keeping cabinets that were el-cheapo when they were new, back 20 years ago, just wasn't a good idea.  They all insisted that they were beyond repair and that they just needed replacement.  With that, we had a couple of them give us estimates for new cabinets.  Darrell and I agreed that Dave with World Class Kitchens and Baths gave us not only the cabinets and hardware we wanted, but also a fantastic price.  (We needed a fantastically cheap price, since we weren't planning on putting in a new kitchen in the first place, so if we were going to do it, it needed to be affordable!)

To save a few hundred bucks, we decided to demo the old kitchen ourselves.  Before I begin, here are some BEFORE pictures of the kitchen, taken on our first day in the house, before we painted or fixed anything up...

Let the demo begin!  We started with removing the kitchen sink, faucet, and garbage disposal, and part of the countertop:

Then we started on one of the smaller cabinets, to see how this was going to go...

After successful removal of this cabinet, which was once on the left side of the range, Darrell had a great idea to reuse it out in the garage to create a laundry folding table! I love doing laundry anyway (I know, it's a sickness, so I don't expect anyone to understand!), and this is just about as fabulous and cozy as you can make a garage laundry area:

That small diversion of progress in the garage really helped us feel like all was not lost with our reluctant cabinet project!  

So the demo/cabinet removal continued:

A victory sip after winning a battle against the cabinet:

I took the liberty (and pleasure!) of ripping off the front fascia of this cabinet:

Remember, clean as you go!:

And all that remains are the appliances....

With demo complete, we took the next two days off from our own laboring to let others do it for us!  Dave brought his crew to the house and installed our new cabinets and countertops on Thursday and Friday.  First and foremost, we are amazed by how much these cabinets have changed the look and feel of our house!  I think they look expensive and modern and, well, really amazing!  

Ahh, now our appliances look like poo... haha!  See, "one thing always leads to another!"  :)

In addition to replacing what we had before, we finally have a breakfast bar:

I am so excited about how this looks, I literally jumped up and down with excitement.  :)  Thank goodness this part has all worked out so well!

Next up:  Our handyman is going to come over on Sunday to install the sink, garbage disposal, faucet, microwave over the range, and dishwasher, so we'll have a fully functioning kitchen!  

And now we're off to IKEA to check out some deals.  Happy MLK weekend!