The great kitchen update
(Probably more to come eventually....so......
the beginning of the great kitchen update!)
Right before Thanksgiving
Right before Christmas
AFTER COUNTER INSTALL!
(January 31st)
Why didn't we do this before?! I'll tell ya.....
We always knew that the best thing we could do for our home's look would be to replace the countertop. However, in 2016, when we picked a $4000 granite countertop, and needed to deposit for install, I felt hesitant. Doing any updating, creates a domino effect.
If we have a beautiful new countertop..... we should probably replace the stained linoleum too, right? And if we change the linoleum...... we need to pop off those ugly kickboards, and we wouldn't glue those ugly things back on!
And if we have a beautiful new counter........ don't we want to make sure that we replace the oven that has the broken display. What if we choose an oven with slightly different dimensions, and it doesn't fit in the cutout? Will we have to replace the countertop again?
What if we'd rather get new cabinets altogether? Would we change the layout and make our new countertop obsolete?
Just too many dominos! And too much domino spending too. So, we just decided to be happy with cleaning and painting only, and left the house "as is" and lived with an oven that only had bake function and no display for 6 years...... and green countertops. And it was fine. We were grateful to have a countertop and floor, and a kitchen, and an oven that baked.
Until the oven really broke. I mean, going down to the basement for a year and a half to flip the breaker to get it to turn off half the time was inconvenient and all, but when it wouldn't turn on BAKE anymore reliably, we knew we finally had to act!
I ordered a new oven, and the domino effect BEGAN!
First, Scott installed the flooring, before the oven came, so we could get the flooring under the oven.
This was the moment that I realized I for sure HAD to go and switch colors on Scott 😳 after he spent an entire day installing the dining room and kitchen. Sorry hun!!
The base floor color just looked so similar to what I wanted.
He eventually put that dark flooring up in the office during Christmas Break.
We both admit that the lighter color looks way better in the kitchen/dining/living room, and are glad we decided to just switch while we still had the chance.
Here you can see the light and dark next to each other.
The darker color made the cabinets look more orange. It also made the room feel smaller than it actually is. It's a very tall room, but not a lot of square footage though.
Putting the lighter flooring in made the room feel almost bottomless, more open.
It also felt to me like we were putting a suitcoat on a girl. It felt like the room was female, and she wanted a springtime dress, and we were forcing her into a suit. Something about the color really didn't match the room at all. I hated wasting that whole day that Scott took to install the floor. I also felt wasteful to forfeit several hundred dollars of the flooring that would be made unusable.
I tried to accept the floor, and tried to like it for days. My mantra was, "Change can be good!"
When I had accepted it and was ready to move on, we ripped out the carpet.....AND......saw the subfloor.....I wanted the light floor AGAIN!
Scott was such a sport. He just said "Go get the floor you want and I'll start first thing in the morning"
I'm glad we decided to change every single day! The floor hides crumbs and dirt so much better, and it just fits the room's personality so well!
Then, came the oven install. The blower was completely different and the gas oven installer said he couldn't install it! Scott "to the rescue" spent all day modifying our current vent to allow the new blower to fit with it, and the installer could then hook up the gas.
Good-bye Jenn-Air! You were good to this home for 23 years!
Then, the countertop prep. Scott removed the "step up" counter. That alone made the kitchen look so much more open and modern. I honestly don't think we would have removed that in 2016, so I'm glad that we did end up waiting until we knew what we wanted to do.
Scott took a couple of days to fashion this new back to the oven to allow some support for the new counter, but also to make more knee room than the old box that was there.
Then, when the counters were ready, Scott had to remove all the old counters, and the corner cabinet (which rests directly on the countertop).
We also took the opportunity to replace our 4 pull out drawers with a homemade shelf. That was a Scott & Katie late night date. :) Even on a pre-early morning seminary night! It was fun though!
We learned some stuff through this process. If we had to do it again, it would go much more smoothly. We feel more experienced now, and are so grateful it's DONE!
Well.......except..... that maybe Scott will reinstall the floor underneath the stools....little strip there that's weird from under the step up. We should have removed that first thing before floors. 😜
And...... I would have asked the countertop installers to make our backsplash 1/4 an inch taller so we didn't have to paint the whole wall. We'll probably get to that paint touch up in about 6 1/2 years. 😂
Our original plan was to paint the cabinets, but we are happy with color right now, actually!
I do want to paint the stools I picked up for $15 bucks!
What color would you do? White? Grey? Blue?
Anyway, we LOVE it! Big change. Took 2 months!
Still have some things we could update, but the countertop will be the biggest change we get for sure!
Happy it's finally in!
Scott might eventually add some cubbies above our existing cabinets to take them to the ceiling.
I'm also inspired now to move on to the kids' bathroom. We have some unfortunate stains on the floor that look really bad right now. Also the cabinet has so much water damage that the particle board is pealing.
Before (Now)
I'd like the "after" to look something like this.... (with just one sink)
I already ordered new cabinet doors and drawer faces, and happened to find this photo and thought "This is just like what I ordered! It will probably look similar to this in color!"
We plan to put in new floor (again, to replace stained linoleum), keep the old cabinet, and just get new fronts, and then replace the countertop & toilet.
The shower will look a bit dated after all that, but I'm not inclined to go that far to making any changes there yet. It's the best looking thing in the bathroom right now.
Our upstairs bathroom would require some major changes if we touched that, so we're going to wait on that project until we are ready for a bigger time commitment.
Hope if you have any projects you are smarter than us and don't start the day after Thanksgiving! Hahaha!
P.S. We were just so inspired by Siri Powell's beautiful home that we visited on Thanksgiving that we started ripping up flooring the next day. :)
Thanksgiving at Powell's 2022
The kids/boys table
Such amazing food, and pickleball after on their new court
