Cabinets galore, and more!

Hello, Blogland!  Just a quick update.  The kitchen is still coming along.  Slowly for now.  I've mentioned my hubby's crazy work hours of 80-90 hour weeks, but in addition to that, one weekend a month is taken by the Army National Guard, and lately, the other weekend he gets off a month has been taken by traveling for fellowship interviews.  We've still been working in the little spare time we have (and at this rate, I'm starting to feel like I'll never have a completed kitchen, but we ARE still making progress!).

In March, we made a trip back over to Arthur to Cabinet Factories Outlet.  After spending all the time pulling off the veneer, I sat back and realized that anything I did to the cabinets would essentially be like putting lipstick on a pig.  It would never fix the poor structural quality of the cabinets, and for the money and time I was going to put into repairing, we may as well buy new cabinets.  And so we did.

We were able to replace all the existing cabinets for $550.  Now, the finishes are not all the same, but that doesn't concern me, as I'm still painting them (and yes, I've changed my mind on that too...they're going to be Decorator's White by Ben Moore).  I'm so thrilled, and anxious to have everything in.  We've been trying to do it one side at a time.  The pantry side is first, as it's not going to take as much configuring and plumbing.

This is where we started.  We pulled out the cabinets and found a few surprises.  We stuck some drywall in to cover the holes, but luckily the cabinets covered everything.  

Again- remember that I'm painting the cabinets, so mismatched colors were no big deal.  The space between the two glass door cabinets was a non-conventional size, and to keep the balance, I didn't want to add a filler strip to the side of the cabinet, so I built a new one to go there.

This was the first project I used my Kregg my brother gave me for Christmas, and I seriously have no idea why I didn't break that thing out sooner.  It is AWESOME, and I've used it a ton since I figured it out for this project.  Anyhow, this cabinet is going to remain open with shelves, and a TV mounted inside.  I've built the shelves, but haven't snapped a picture yet.  Don't worry.  You'll see it sometime.  :)

You might also notice a couple other changes since I last posted.  The floors and ceiling.  We spent a couple days pulling out the FIVE layers of floor, and found wood.  We were planning on tile, but I felt so guilty about laying tile over the old wood, that we decided to make the wood work.  When we first pulled the floors out, the wood was covered in a felt-like paper.  It was dirty, and ugly, and the actual removal of the paper took me about four days in my spare time.

We're planning to refinish the floors at the very, very end.  Until then, they're working okay.  The only issue is that it ends a few inches shy of the base of the cabinets on the left.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do there.  Anyone have any thoughts?  I was thinking of using baseboard molding at the bottom of the cabinets instead of a standard toe kick.  That would cover it completely and make the cabinets look more like custom built ins, but I'm not sure how to do that with the dishwasher...

Anyhow, then there's the ceiling.  We rented a drywall lift and installed a plywood beadboard ceiling.  My initial plan was to have it all sanded, primed, and painted before going up, but I didn't have time to paint before Hubs had some free time to do it, so I stopped at the priming stage in an effort to utilize the time we had and get it done!  We rented a drywall lift at Menards for $12/four hours, and I cannot tell you how much EASIER this made the job.  Seriously, it would've been impossible without it.

Last night we spent some time working on other things separately.  Hubs installed the new water and electrical for the refrigerator, and I spent hours with a pry bar and hammer and removed the brick backsplash.

I'm really not looking forward to repairing the walls.  Removing brick and mortar is NOT fun, and it is not easy.  With tile, you can get your chisel under it and in a few taps it mostly tends to fall off.  Not the brick.  It came off in tiny, tiny bits, and probably took a good 20 whacks of the hammer for each one, and after the brick was off, I still had to pry under the mortar to peel the whole thing off.  Needless to say, I'm glad that project is finished, and that side is ready for us to start on.

Other than that, I've just been working on some furniture.  I'm really into bold colors right now.

The blue/gold combo is my favorite right now.  It's such a great contrast!

Sorry for the long update.  It'd been a while, but it definitely wasn't for a lack of progress!  I'll be back soon.  I have about a million things left to show you before this room is done.  ;)

Linking up with:

Coastal Charm

My man loves fishing...

...and he'll fish for anything!  His favorite thing to fish for though are muskies.

In fact, he'd fish for them all day, everyday if he could.  Sadly for him, he's a surgeon, we live in Illinois, and it's winter, so he hasn't had a ton of time for fishing lately.

Luckily though, I have plenty of projects.  Projects that involve fishing.

*Big Smile*

For the last couple weeks we've been transforming the kitchen lighting from a three bar light over the sink, and ceiling fan...

To a single bulb in the center of the room (the light over the sink was attached to the wood valence).

And last post, I left you with this mid-work-huge-mess-picture:

Note that if you decide to rewire your kitchen in the dark (his hours don't leave us with a ton of daylight), you should stand a light up like the one pictured instead of wearing a headlamp and running around the house with just it on.  You know, so the neighbors don't think you have burglars and call the cops-- because then you have to deal with them showing up at the door asking tons of questions.  Not that WE had anything like that happen...

Let me just tell you, rewiring the ceiling in a old house where you can't access the wiring from above is a pain.  And messy.  And sometimes scary.  Throughout this project, we've discovered knob and tube wiring, cloth wiring, and 80's no-ground wiring (wired in some CRAZY ways) all in the same room.

My sweet husband though, fisherman that he is.  He fished wired through the ceiling, through the walls, down the basement, figured out which wires were coming out of where, organized the breaker box... it's been a big job.  It's taken some time since we've been doing it all on our own around the kids, birthdays, holidays, call schedules, etc.  So it's a good thing that neither of us gets too bent out of shape over a mess, or I'd have pulled my hair out by now, BUT I'm happy to tell you all that the wires are run for the kitchen lights!

So- remember- old house, no access?  Yes.  We have a few extra holes in the ceiling.  It's not going to be a problem though, because now that the wires are all in place, we'll be working on putting a bead board ceiling up to hide them.  So, that's where we are right now.  We (eh erm, he) still has to wire the light in the pantry, and run a separate wire to the microwave and refrigerator, and put the under cabinet lighting in, but these projects are small compared to how much work the ceiling lighting was.  So we're trucking along.  Slow, and steady- but progress is progress, and I'm so proud of all the fishing the hubs has done for us so far.


Talk to you soon,

The Nook

When we started this kitchen movement, there was a nook area in the kitchen.  It was a strange, four foot long section of counter top, floating above nothing.  I think whoever put it in intended for it to be a breakfast nook, but really- who wants to sit and stare at a wall?

Not to mention that it takes up a lot of space in a small kitchen- and as you can see, we could really use the storage.  Also, I love having an excuse for making hubs clear a space in the office for the dogs.  Dogs in the kitchen= dog hair in the kitchen, and that's no good.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best utilize this space.  The trouble with it is that the whole area is recessed about 15 1/2" from the rest of the kitchen.  I toyed with the idea of building a small cabinet next the the refrigerator to allow the doors to open fully without hitting the edge of the base cabinets, and following this tutorial from Young House Love to build the refrigerator in, and then putting a lower cabinet in with drawers, and open shelves above on the right side.  The problems with this was that, while I could probably build the small utility cabinet, I couldn't build the doors...and I couldn't find anyone who would make them to come close to matching what we had for less than $120 per door.  We would have needed four doors, plus supplies to make the cabinet boxes, and the purchase price of a refrigerator cabinet and base cabinet with drawers at around $550 on it's own, and shelves above that.  After all that, having it sit back so much further than the other cabinets would have left it in the shadows, and made it look terribly out of place.

Then I went on to thinking of pantry cabinets.  These would be practical.  Lots of storage, and I can use them to hide the funny recess.  The only downside I could think of is the loss of counter top space, but really, when we get down to it, the only thing I used the counter space previously was to store more junk that we didn't have room for in any of our other cabinets already.

I spent a few days at cabinet shops, big box stores, and online pricing pantry cabinets and figuring out options.  The cheapest that I could come up with locally was $2300, and that was for cabinets that would come close to matching, but wouldn't really match our existing ones, and were basic boxes with shelves inside.  I know cabinets are expensive, but ouch!  That was more than I wanted to spend...especially since they wouldn't be "perfect" and the entire kitchen project started out with the idea that I would "just" paint the cabinets.  Then the idea came to me that I may be able to head over to the Amish community about an hour and a half away and have some cabinets made to match.

(Love seeing these signs when you get into Amish country)

I googled kitchen cabinets in Arthur, IL and found that there existed another one of my favorite types of stores.  A warehouse.  Oh em geeeeee!  Cabinet Factories Outlet carries warehouse overstocks, cancelled orders, misordered product, and factory overruns at wholesale pricing.  They have everything on hand, and assembled.  You just pick out what you'd like, buy it, and take it home that day (or within 7 days).  Does this sounds similar to another place I found on my current kitchen hunt?

Friday I went to scour the warehouse, and I found some pantry cabinets that will work!  They weren't 100% what I was planning for, but I was able to get ALL of the cabinetry for the entire nook area (plus a pull out mixer stand for inside a base cabinet) at 28% of what the other quotes were ($630 with tax!). I came home and drew it out to scale, and I think it will look fine. The pantry cabs on the right are full pull outs with cookie sheet organizers in the top, and a 6 place wine storage block on top them, and the one on the left has drawers behind the lower door, and an open storage area up top. They are 24" deep, so I'll have to affix 3 inch blocks behind them to studs to be able to attach them to the walls, and leave them flush with the existing upper cabinets (which makes it a perfect depth to make it look like we have a cabinet depth refrigerator, even though we don't).

I'm so glad it's all coming together.  Today the Hubs has been working on changing the wiring around to add more lights.  Just to give you a little insight on the horror of renovation...this is what my kitchen looks like at this very moment.

Yikes.  Check back soon to see how it's going!

Guess what??

This last weekend, the hubby and I took a little trip to Chicago.  We ended up picking up our counter tops and sink for the kitchen remodel at Ikea!

I'm so excited.  After measuring and deciding we wouldn't be able to fit it, we went with the Ikea double bowl Domsjo sink anyway.  

(Nervous laugh)

Hubby liked the look much better than the single bowl that I had decided we were going to get.  Okay, I like it way better too, but I was trying to ensure fit and save money.  We found out that the 36" space required for the double bowl is only for the front apron that extends out of the cabinet, and that the actual bowl space in the counter is 34 and some odd inches.  It should fit.  I'm nervous.  Hubby says he doesn't care what the cabinets measured, we'll make it work.

Lilyfield Life

We also decided on the oak butcher block counter tops.  This was hub's choice as well.  I couldn't decide which type of wood would be best for us, and he liked oak, so oak it is.  (And he says it's always whatever I want that goes.  Pshhh.)

********

I also have to tell you about a place we found.  Okay, really, a lot of you probably already know about it- but since we live in a small town area that doesn't have a ton of options for buying big items, this was like a lightbulb, revalation, "ahhhhhhh" moment when I found out.

Sears Outlet.

Oh my gosh- this place is the scratch and dent mecca of appliances.  Seriously.  I took this picture of the hubbs when we finally made it to the end of all the refrigerators.

I'm just going to guess, but I'd say there were at least 200 refrigerators on the floor, plus ranges, microwaves, dishwashers, washers and dryers, mattresses-- Sears, outlet form.  And everything came with their original warranties. A-mazing.

No lie.  I love the scratch and dent section in Lowe's.  I'm a perfectionist- no doubt about that- but I'm also frugal as frugal can be.  I don't care about a dent on the side of a range that's not ever going to be seen because it's recessed next to my cabinets and walls.

Sure, this place has a lot of appliances with very obvious dents and scratches, but it also has a lot that have minor dents.  It also has some brand new, still in the box appliances that are super deeply discounted.  Example- Stainless Maytag 25 cu ft. 4-door fridge w/easy access refrigerator drawer- currently selling for $2500 at Sears.  Sears Outlet price was $1500, plus they had a sale for an extra 10% off the day we happened to stop it.  Awesome right?!

We didn't buy that one.  It was a little small for the space that we have, and again- Hub's motto is go big or go home, and he wanted bigger...but it's always what I want, and he just does what I say, riiiiiggght? *wink*

So, we found this refrigerator.  It's a 31 cu ft Kenmore Elite.  And I sort of love it.

This refrigerator retails at $3800.  That's INSANE.  I would love, love, love to have a professional kitchen someday full of high end appliances like Viking, Wolf, Jenn-Air, but the el cheapo in me cannot justify spending that amount on an appliance, or even the amount of a kitchen full of brand new consumer grade appliances at this point in our lives, which is why I have been saying that we couldn't do stainless steel in our kitchen right now.

Guess what though?  We bought this fridge!!  We found one that had a couple dents on the side (which will be totally concealed), and has a couple light scuffs on the upper right door that I'm really crossing my fingers I'll be able to buff out with some Bon Ami or Bar Keepers Friend.  We bought it for 65% off the retail price.  Woot woot!

I'M GOING TO HAVE STAINLESS APPLIANCES!!

(I'm a little excited.  Can you tell?)

So- here's my lesson.  Check out Sears Outlet.  You can get an idea of stock online, but I'd highly recommend going to a store in person to purchase.  It's hard to see the little imperfections in a small picture, and you want to guarantee that you get the best one for you, at the best price.  At the store we went to, there were probably 20 of the same model refrigerator we purchased.  They are all priced differently because they all have different imperfections.

(I am not being reimbursed by Sears or Sears Outlet for this post- this is an honest review of my experience.)

All that said- work on the kitchen is on hold for a week.  Hubs is finishing up his last few days of having been on night float for two months (barf- we hate night float around here), and we have some electrical work he has to tackle before I can really knock out more of my projects.  I'm working on a custom job on a credenza for the shop (yes, local friends- this was the piece I was going to keep.  It sold before I could get it home for myself!), and it needs to be finished so I can get my focus back!

I'll be back with the finished credenza soon.

Until then,

Kitchen update

Kitchen work has begun!  I wanted to update you with progress, ideas, and decisions.

First of all, let me remind you of what we're starting with...

(Blah)

The first thing to go was the heavily ornate crown molding on the tops of the cabinets, and the valence.  It's gone.  Totally.  And you know what?  My window that's been hiding behind that thing for Lord knows how many years is SUPER cute.  I'm so glad it can be seen now.

After doing that, I noticed there were notches out of the cabinets where the valence had been.  You can see it in the picture above.  After a little more exploring, I realized that the wood color on my cabinets was not what they originally had been.  Somewhere along the life of the cabinets, someone had chosen to reface them with a plywood veneer.  It was loose, and cheap looking, and I could see the cabinets underneath were solid wood, so what did I do?  I ripped the veneer off all the upper cabinets, of course.  

Beautiful, right?

At some point, they'd been painted white.  Peeling off the veneer took a lot of the paint (ok, and maybe a small bit of the wood here and there too) off.  I'm planning to go around and strip them all now so I'm starting with a smooth finish.  This has led me to the decision that I will not be using chalk paint on the cabinets.  Nope- no quick fix for these guys.  I'm going the route of stripping, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, and sealing.  It's a lot more work, but I know it's going to be worth it, and I'm planning on working on them bit by bit.

I spent a lot of time agonizing (and making friends and family agonize with me) over paint colors.  I decided a couple times, changed my mind a couple times, bought the paint once, and went back to have it retinted, but I think I finally have the colors chosen.

The trim is Valspar Ultra white in gloss (I can't show you a sample of this, because it doesn't show up online!  It's essentially the same as the white on your screen.  Really bright and crisp).

Walls will be Olympic paint's Garlic Clove in Satin finish.

It's very light.  Without having the ultra white next to it, it would work as a white itself, but it has a nice, subtle contrast to it.

I'm still agonizing over the cabinets.  I really, REALLY want stainless appliances and crisp white cabinets, but new appliances are not a justifiable expense right at the moment.  Not to buy only to possibly turn around and sell our house in a year and a half.  It may help the house sell faster, but it won't help our house sell for more.  That said, I bought gray paint for the cabinets.

It's a Valspar color- Gull- in semi-gloss.

However, before I get to painting cabinets, I needed to get rid of the orange-red walls.  I gave everything a quick coat of primer, and took the ceiling fan out to prep it for paint (and just to get rid of it...it really dwarfed the space).  The pantry area in back will be worked on as well soon, but I can only handle so much junk out of place at once, and I have to completely empty the food out from the shelves to prep and paint, so kitchen first, then pantry!

I'm amazed by how much larger it looks already.  No ceiling fan.  No heavy molding.  No valence.

This weekend my mom came up and helped with the boys so I could get the molding cut.  So it's finished (mostly), and assembled.  I'm not attaching it until the cabinets are stripped and ready for paint, so I still have a small piece of trim to cut and attach to hide the seams, and caulk around any gaps.

It's coming along nicely, and I'm planning to provide you with instructions on cutting and assembling the molding.  It took me a lot of searching around the web to figure it out.

Here's a final progression of pictures to show you the changes over the last week without scrolling.

I'm so excited about this project!  I'll be back with more updates soon!

My kitchen

You know how you can do one thing, and that leads to another, and another?  Well, making my curtains has really started something.

Since we moved in, I've always thought of this home as a temporary place.  Since residency is only five years long, and we have no guarantees on where we might end up for fellowship or employment after fellowship, I haven't spent any time making my house a "home."  We have furnishings, and it's cute and comfy, but I never took the time to make it something I really enjoyed.

Until I made the curtains.  Then last weekend my husband moved our washer and dryer upstairs so I don't have to pack clothes up and down two flights of stairs to get it done.  It has really been a life-altering change.

Now I'm on a kick.  Partially because I've realized that this is my home, and even if I only have another year and a half here, I want to really enjoy it, but also because if we have to sell in a year and a half, I want someone else to want to buy it. 

So, my kitchen.  I know that a kitchen sells (or doesn't sell) a home.  When we were house shopping, there were plenty of homes that we turned down because the kitchens were so awful, even though every other aspect of the house may have been okay.  Considering that, I've decided to focus my efforts there.  I have a very limited budget, so I'm working mostly with what I have, with some minor new expenses.

Here's what we're working with.

Overview

Left side

 Pantry area

Right side

As you can see- it's not the worst kitchen out there, but it's certainly nothing spectacular by any stretch of the imagination.  These pictures are already somewhat upgraded as well, as the microwave and 30 year old refrigerator (which we were graciously loaned by my in laws when we moved in) have since been replaced by the side by side refrigerator and over the range microwave (that still needs to be wired into the cabinet-- hence the drop cord.  Beautiful, eh?).  The cabinets are covered in a plywood veneer, and the trim was an obviously DIY job by someone who didn't know who to install it properly.  The floor is sticky tile (unstuck in a few areas) that has been stuck to another laminate floor, that I *think* is covering hardwood, but I'm not sure.

This was the microwave, and it sat on this icky wood stand that hung behind the stove:

 (Yay, Diet Coke!  Don't judge.  Mama needs some kind of juice to keep her going!)

It "works" in the functional aspect...but it doesn't work in the aesthetic one- for me anyway.

I have a lot of plans that involve a lot of paint.  Unfortunately, I don't foresee us buying new stainless appliances in the next year and a half, and so my decisions need to work with the white ones we already have, but also with stainless because the option is there for us to buy, and possibly come back to live here longer after fellowship, it's just not immediately practical (but really, what doesn't go with stainless?).

These are some of the kitchens I've been looking at for inspiration:

(via: French Designing)

(via: Flea Market Trixie)

(via: The Lettered Cottage)

(via: Miss Mustard Seed)

(Found through: Idulgy)

source unknown

via: Atlanta Homes Magazine

via: Cote de Texas

The general themes that I'm noticing in all my inspiration pictures: apron front farm sink, open/glass cabinet fronts, tall cabinets, neutral walls, butcher block counter tops.

I love white cabinets, but like I said- white appliances.  I don't really think the two go together very well.  I just envision getting it all painted, and having it drive me nuts that the whites are not all the EXACT same.  So, I think I'm leaning towards gray (big surprise, from me, eh?).  And since my cabinets are not perfect, I don't really have the time to take them totally apart to sand, prime, prime, prime, sand, and paint, paint, paint, and seal- I think I'm leaning towards light distressing, and using Annie Sloan in French Linen for the color.

HOWEVER, before I buy the paint and am stuck with it, I want to know what you think.  White or gray, distressed or not?  PLEASE comment and let me know!

See you all soon!

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PRIMP