Friday, June 4, 2010

Where it all began...

We bought our current house in May 2009. The previous owners had their son and four of his college buddies living here. Needless to say, it was a house that you had to see WAY beyond the current condition to see any potential. We had looked at so many houses that we were pretty certain what we wanted. As soon as I walked in to this place I knew... This is IT!

The biggest change had to come in the kitchen. We didn't have the money to gut the whole place so we did the following changes. After it was all said and done you may have thought we gutted the place. But we are penny pinchers and stretched our dollar as far as we could.
{removed the L-shaped counter}
{removed the soffit above all cabinets}
{replaced the countertop}
we went with laminate over granite saving over $2000
{replaced the flooring}
we installed laminate wood (and have since ripped it out for tile)
{replaced the faucet and sink}
husband found deals on that by buying directly from a plumbing supplier instead of a Home Depot or Lowe's
{replaced all appliances}
under $1700 for dishwasher, double oven, microwave and cooktop. we have found that if the $200 job will cook/clean just as well as the $800 job we'll keep the $600 in savings for other things.
{new doors and hardware for cabinets}
{new 12' section of upper and lower cabinets from the dishwasher on}
{installed ceiling fans}
the galley style kitchen was a really hot place with no circulation. while i dreaded putting up the fans, i'm really happy with them now.
{replaced back door and pantry door}
again buying through a supplier we replaced both doors for under $70
{installed beadboard backsplash}
eventually we may do tile..but money ran out and i had seen this option. it's worked well for our family and was probably under $100
{new coat of paint on everything}

The bulk of the work was done by my husband and some of our church friends and family. We hired out the cabinets, flooring and countertops. Once these changes were made it felt like "home" and just the way we'd imagined.

Before (with the guy's stuff!)



12 comments:

  1. Love this room and the doors are to die for! Good on ya!
    ~Heidi

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  2. Wow what a transformation! You guys did an awesome job. I bet you were so happy to have it all finished.

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  3. LOVE IT!! Love the doors too! And the green in the kitchen is very close to the color of my kitchen...so pretty!

    Lou Cinda :)

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  4. Need to know about your countertops! We are also going with laminate instead of granite but I would love to know what you have...it's just what I have in mind. I also posted last night about the outside paint job. Colors, etc. You're in Texas...too far for me to visit!! :) Thanks!

    Oooh, also, where did you get your doors? HD? Lowes? Specialty store? Thx! Have a great day.

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  5. @Renae

    Thanks Renae! The countertops were Wilsonart "Milano Quartz". I love them because they fool a lot of people to think it's granite. :)

    The doors are from a supplier here in town...but if you have a builder supply store you could probably find them. I think they are called "santa fe". Good luck!

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  6. Well you'll never believe this but the Milano Quartz is the sample I have hanging up in my kitchen right now. Sort of a style board on one of my cabinets! I think it's hilarious that I loved your countertops and that coincidentally it was the one sample that I picked up that I actually cared enough about to bring home. Do you know what edge you have? Thanks Lindsay, I'm grateful for the inspiration.

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  7. Wow, I just found your blog and I love it! Great job on everything!! What color green is in your kitchen? I have a pale green in mine and I'm looking for something a little darker.

    Thanks,
    Brandi

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  8. @Anonymous Brandi... I don't know right now what color my kitchen is. I will check the paint cans in our garage and hopefully find it! ;)

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  9. Love the cabinets where did you get them? Your blog is awesome so inspiring!

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  10. Your kitchen turned out really nice!! What color did you paint in the kitchen?

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