Kitchen Redo

We moved into this Southern California home in 2001. We were so happy to find a home with the number of rooms and other items we wanted. We did wish some things were different, but as with anything, you can’t have everything; some things are not going to happen, or not right away at least.

We did wish there was more garage space. We did come from our previous home that had a fully finished basement, so storage was going to be an issue right away. But we settled in and 16 years later. I had some new dreams about this home. Honestly, I didn’t think we’d ever really do them. But, OMG!! I’m so glad we did.

It was a lot of work (we did most of it ourselves). The flooring was a huge portion, as was painting the cabinets.

We finished most things but left the range hood for 6 months, mainly we were a bit undecided and didn’t have the time either. Well, good things come to those who wait, and I’m so glad we did. I had an inspirational photo… ok, I had many. But there was one I really hoped to do, and I’m so glad I kept showing my husband the photo.

We ended up putting in tall windows, and what a huge difference it made to the whole kitchen! The kitchen felt completely different with just two small (but tall) windows, which don’t open, but we really didn’t need them to. They are just PERFECT. We chose frosted as the view out of them is to our tiny side yard, but the natural light they bring in is amazing!

Doesn’t everyone like seeing remodels (or is it just me), oh the possibilities…

We’ve been talking about doing some of these for YEARS, and some were decided actually a few days before they were done. I’m really decisive, I know if I love it right away  98% of the time, there are some exceptions. Currently backsplash tile is one of them, shiny, matte…. the matte tile is not really WHITE, and I thought it would be, so I need to find a new place to find it, because it’s off white and I really wanted white, if I can’t locate it soon, we’ll go with the shiny white, which is easier to clean anyway!

I’ve been using them a lot, our kitchen is under a remodel and I’ve been altering them as needed to either cook them in a slow cooker or on a single portable burner. I use this Nu Wave Induction burner  most often to cook. We did the remodel in the winter, and it was the rainiest winter we’ve had in a years.

Remodeling sure makes the days fly by.

So I really feel like I have to have something planned ahead of time, we can eat real food for each meal instead of take-out! We’re doing the majority of the work ourselves and WOW have we been hungry!

We removed a couple upper cabinets in the kitchen to open up space and to be able to accommodate a new wood hood we will be building. We had new countertops installed (Solid Stone – white) and with that, we installed a new sink (stainless steel farm style sink bought online at Costco), and faucet (bought at Lowes).

We painted our kitchen cabinets white… what a huge difference the whole kitchen looks like after brightening it all up. We used Home Depot Brand Semi-Gloss Enamel Alkyd Interior/Exterior Paint, which we found by reading numerous articles about diy painting cabinets. We sprayed on and the fine sprayer did an amazing smooth job. After prepping the cabinets really well using mineral spirits and lightly sanding. Taping off the kitchen and removing all items was key as the “spray” does get everywhere, so proper prep is important.

We then moved onto the flooring  (Walnut Engineered we glued down, who knew I’d like installing wood floors, I was able to finish up the kitchen myself along with the bathroom and large closet after my husband and father and I all worked on the rest of the house, office, entryway family room dinette and a front room as well,  new baseboard molding nice and high looks so much better too and door frame molding on all interior doors.

The kitchen is light and bright, and even with the lights off, the new windows near the cooktop allow this much light in at 6 pm in the spring… natural light is so important in a room. Helps when taking food photos, and in summer, it’s super bright even later.

This is what the kitchen looked like when I first started blogging… it had just one window, and even at noon time, this was the light that the kitchen would get, and there were some under-cabinet lights on. Having the color of the wood changed to white made the light bounce and make a huge difference. 

It was a lot of work, and we would do it again, so much goes into the prep and planning and things often take longer than expected especially when it’s your first time doing that particular project, we had hoped to have it all done in four weeks, it took at least two weeks longer and then we finished up items when we had the time or the weather permitted (not over 100 degrees)

One of the best things did happened

because we waited and were patient, finishing up things…

We had talked for a while about adding windows in the kitchen, but really thought it was more on the dream list…

We ended up hiring someone to install the windows, my husband finished the job and did the window frames, and we are so happy we didn’t rush to finish the kitchen without adding the windows, they really give the entire kitchen a custom feel and more light!

We then tiled the backsplash in classic subway tile with white grout. We bought the tile from Arizona Tile, and the tiles were really nice, better than the home stores that had chips and such in them.

We added new switchplates, and that was pretty much it!

The kitchen has been complete for over a year now, and the cabinet paint is holding up REALLY well, it looks great and we decided to add a couple of thin windows by the cooktop. It really lets in some great light. My husband build a custom hood from a photo I showed him, and the floors are walnut-engineered wood. All in all, I’m so happy the remodel is done, I wished we did it years ago.
I couldn’t be happier, but it is a lot of work, so if you’re going to tackle a big project like this yourself, be prepared that it most likely will take a lot longer than expected to get everything completed.
Things come up and you have to make adjustments, but all hard work pays off!