The Kitchen

Ahh.. the kitchen.    We are the hosts of a lot of the extended family celebrations and so our kitchen gets a lot of use.   In the fixer upper, the kitchen was freakin' scary.  

Here are two shots before we moved in- don't you love that bright yellow.. and the fridge in front of the door?

We removed the doors on the cabinets to the left of the sink and painted all the uppers white (Benjamin Moore White Dove) before these two were taken.

I mean- look at that sink... yikes!    But even a minor update of a kitchen can hit the budget hard so we needed to do some planning and saving before we could tackle it.  

We had redone the kitchen of a previous home with IKEA cabinets and really liked them.  So, we decided to replace the base cabinets in this house with IKEA cabs too.    I used their online Kitchen Planner tool to fit everything in including a dishwasher.   Did you notice there was no dishwasher?   We managed for about 3 months without one.  

So, here are some of the things I picked out to get us a functional, pretty decent looking kitchen without breaking the bank:

Franke Sink from Amazon.com  $180   (large single bowl - about 28.5 inches wide so it would just barely fit into the 30" wide cabinet from IKEA).

Kohler Cruette Chrome Single Handle faucet from OSH with a few coupons- $160 after the coupons.  

We reused the garbage disposal but got an air switch from ebay: $29.00

Dishwashing dispenser (built in) also from ebay:  $20.98

NeverMT from Custom Inserts (lets you hook up the dispenser directly to the big bottle of dishwashing detergent so you don't have to refill it!)       $17.75 

Cabinets and butcher block countertop from IKEA.  I don't have the receipts accessible for this but about $1400.  

Range that works (from craigslist- total score of a Dacor range for $175- best. deal. ever.)

Paint- from OSH; lower grade of Benjamin Moore that runs about $25/gallon;  

Misc. materials and labor for butcher block and cabinet install help plus replacing part of wall that had dry rot that we found after we started the demo;  $1850. 

Plus probably some other stuff that I'm not remembering-- so about $4000 though we still have to do the backsplash.   Nevertheless, I think we did great on a shoestring budget and the kitchen will work for as many years as we need it to.   Which might be longer than I had originally hoped since we have college expenses looking at us in three years. 

First Five Months!

We moved into our house in late June after closing in late May.   We did a ton of work before moving in and have continued to do quite a bit since the move-in date.

To be honest, the house was a bit scary.  The kitchen and the downstairs bathroom were the worst but not much was in great condition.    The good news about that is that the price was more affordable!  And, we get to renovate so it's the house we want instead of the house the previous owner wanted.

Lots of potential... but lots of work!

In the five months since we've moved in, we've painted nearly every square inch of the inside of the house; removed old carpets; refinished floors;  replaced some kitchen cabinets; installed a new furnace; had new electrical work done; planted some flowers and grass; cleaned and decorated at least a bit in each room.

Here's a pic of the kids helping to remove the carpet:

And the living room after the carpet was pulled up but before the floors were refinished and the walls repainted.  

Below is a photo of the dining room after painting.  We really love the built-in! (I just noticed that you can see me in the reflection and the mirror!)

And another view with painted walls; sanded (but not fully finished floors)