My Kitchen Remodel

I started this kitchen remodel way back in the winter of 2011 and then very inconveniently had a stroke and was out of commission for awhile.  I think I pretty much finished it up in early winter of 2012.

The folks who lived in this house before me are pretty intriguing to me.  It was a couple who built the house in 1949, a husband who was an art professor at the local college and his wife, a librarian at the same school.  They hired a student architect from Yale to draw  up the blueprints and the building has a flat roof--one of the few in this area. It is partially constructed from cinder block and has very solid walls that keep it from getting too hot in the summer.  It also has a little section with a shed roof and a clerestory lets in lots of light. I don't think they updated the house  much as the gas hot water heater was sitting in the kitchen corner (vented illegally).  That and the appliances were probably 1970's era.  They did add on a laundry room, studio and dark room in the 1980's.  They lived here until they died, both in their eighties.  I bought the house sight unseen after seeing pictures of it online.  My sister and her beau came and looked at it for me and took tons of pictures that she sent to me.  No one had been living here for four years (as the wife had moved to a care facility after her husband died and then she too had died) and it hadn't sold after being on the market for four years.

The Cons: Very old wiring, plumbing, mechanical systems.  Flat roof with membrane (expensive to replace and hard to find someone to insure it).  Property very overgrown.  Built on concrete slab and flat roof (real problem when you need to work on wiring, gas lines, plumbing).  City water but has a septic tank. Shared driveway with neighbor.  Road in front of house is pretty busy during rush hour (early morning and for drive home from work).

The Pros:  Incredible trees--gigantic pines and magnolias and oaks--that dance in the wind.(Actually, I was sold once I found out that.  Everything else was gravy.)  House has studio and little darkroom space I can use for all my sewing, painting, bookmaking stuff!  Has two bathrooms.  Has lots of little quirky, built-in features.  Sits on acre with areas for sunny gardens and shady gardens. Mature landscaping and garden has great bones because couple were avid gardeners and had planted lots of azaleas, camellias, and assorted trees.  Has garage and shed on property. Near a hospital, library, college and hospital.  And it was cheap because it needed work.

Before Pictures of kitchen (pretty discouraging and needed lots of work!):
The dishwasher was on wheels and could be moved around.  There was a huge old ac unit in the window above the sink.

Some of the countertops were a white linoleum and some were a very old red linoleum (maybe original to the house)

This base cabinet was not attached to the floor or wall and could be moved.  The door led to the sunporch they had later converted to an enclosed space.

The gas oven may or may not have worked, but the gas pipes had a leak under the concrete slab foundation and had to be rerouted along the outside wall of the house.  The venthood did not vent to the outside.

I loved these wooden pull out drawers that were built in to this cabinet so we kept these just as they were.

On this wall was the old fuse panel from when the house was built and that was still in use.

Under the sink.  All the cabinets were solidly built--no flimsy particle board stuff.  So I wanted to keep them.

The wallpaper was on the wall behind the stove but was pretty disgusting and filthy so it had to go.

The hot water heater (gas) was in a corner of the kitchen.  Go figure.  These cabinets currently reside in the garage along  with the red topped table.

We put more cabinets and counters and the fridge in this space.  We bought a new on-demand hot water heater and had it put on an exterior wall near the bathroom.

This was the original fixture, but it gave out very little light so I replaced it with a strip of 3 track lights.  I still think I need more. It's not very bright on cloudy days or at night.

I worked with a great fellow named Hunter who was very skilled, conscientious, patient and willing to try anything. Hunter did excellent work. Previously, he had tiled most of the house while we were still in CT.  I measured and drew and re-drew and re-measured and re-drew, yet again.  I was on a very tight budget so I spent a lot of time figuring out the most economical way to do things.

Cabinets: I re-used several of the cabinets and rearranged them.  I bought new hardware for the drawers and cabinets.  Originally I planned to paint the cabinets, but there was an oil based paint on them already and it was in pretty good shape and I didn't mind the color so I decided to see how long it would hold up before I took on the task of repainting. My fellow built in one tiny cabinet on one side of the stove so I could open the dishwasher fully without hitting the stove.

There was a little closet with louvered doors than I brought in from another room and had my fellow convert into a pantry by permanently installing it against the wall and adding shelves.  We then added a long shelf across the top of the pantry that extends over the doorway and right up to the cabinets for storage.  We took out the door that lead to the dining room (originally a sunporch) that I was going to use as a bedroom until my kids were grown.  He put a piece of plywood over the opening and we put shelves there (about 8 inches deep) to give more storage.  It can be removed and restored to a doorway when I turn that room back into a dining room.

Appliances:  I bought a gas stove off craigslist (and drove 2 hours to pick it up and load it in my van with the seats out).  It was $300 and then I had to hire a fellow to do some work on it for another $160 but it's a nice stove.  Had I known more about gas stoves, I would have waited and found one closer by that I could have checked out first.  This one is bigger than I need, but I do love it.  I got my fridge off the scratch and dent row at Lowe's down the road. I bought it early for $700 before I had any ideas for the layout of the kitchen.  I wanted one of those fancy tall, skinny Smeg European models but couldn't justify that much for a fridge.  The downside on this one is that it fills the space perfectly, but there is no wiggle room on the wall side so the fridge has to be opened on the wall side.  That makes it awkward for loading groceries in the fridge. I bought an enamel sink from a salvage place about an hour away.  I bought the faucet from Lowe's.  I brought my dishwasher from Connecticut with me ( it was an expensive model I'd just bought).  I bought a vent hood that is vented outside (through some crazy interior cabinet maneuvering) and is a Broan from Lowe's. As part of the vent outlet disguise, my fellow built in a little box for the microwave (it fits in perfectly and I'm now permanently committed to that size!)   I have a radio/cd player installed under the cabinets (old school that I brought from CT) so I can listen to NPR or books on tape when I'm in the kitchen. 

Countertops and Backsplash: I agonized over this decision.  I really had to go cheap on my countertops and if I had it to do over again, I'd probably go with butcher
block.  I used small tiles because I got a great deal on them.  My fellow laid them very flat and smooth but still you can't roll dough out on them. They are trimmed in oak along the edges. I don't have much counterspace so I really should have sprung for the butcher block.  However, at the time I was in love with tile, granite, stone  My backsplash I truly love.  Though I might have put it in vertically rather than horizontally.  Just the space between countertop and the bottom of the cabinets isn't much and it might have looked odd.  I do truly love the pattern and colors, though.

Mosaic:  In Ct, I had two marble mosaics I ordered off Ebay from Lebanon on my kitchen walls.  (Back in the day when I had money to burn on those sort of luxuries.) They were of swans.  I ordered one for this house while I was still in CT, and I originally planned to use it behind the stove, but it was too tall.  I could have cut it down, but that would have killed it!  So I had my fellow mount it on the wall with a row of hooks underneath it.  Because of that damn refrigerator and it's weird door opening attribute, not all the hooks can be used (except for aprons).


After Pictures:

The backsplash, cabinet handles and paint colors I decided on.  I ended up not using the chocolate brown paint on the cabinets because I thought it would be too dark. 

 

Countertop with oak trim and  and backsplash installed. No more funky wallpaper.  New electric had to be installed for the new appliances and with GFCI circuits.

 

 

 

 

  Microwave shelf, gas range and vent hood.  Swan mosaic ready to be installed. These are the cabinet handles up top before they were replaced.  To the left of the stove is the little cabinet Hunter built. I store pans in there but I need to get something that pulls out so it is more functional.

Enamel sink, new faucet.  And the louvered doors.  I love louvered doors.  I think they remind me of the beach or afternoon naps or something.

 

 

Morning sunlight coming through one of 3 windows.  New hardware on cabinets.

Blue paint (mixed on the fly from blue paint store reject and white paint leftover from painting house) used to paint two walls and pantry in kitchen.

Inside pantry.  It has since been rearranged and filled up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built-in shelving where doorway used to be and rolling kitchen island. 

 

 Shelf built by handyman atop pantry and doorway to edge of cabinets.  Royal blue Scandinavian plates (off ebay) on side of pantry. I had four, but one got knocked off and broke into bits on the tile floor.  We painted this wall ice blue.

Front doors of pantry closed.  Ikea footstool painted dark grey.  Tile floor I installed when I ran out of money to pay for services.  Don't look too closely.

 

 

 

 

 

I hung baby pictures along the top of the cabinets.

 

Trying out different paint colors on the wall by the swans mosaic.(I don't know why I love this but the heart wants what the heart wants.  It looked better in CT surrounded by white tile and I still might do that one day but for now, that's what I got.

 I like these lacy, French style curtains.  Several times I've thought about replacing them and even started embroidering a valance to replace them, but I like them for some reason.

 The dishwasher that came with me and a homemade laminated magnet to try and keep straight when I turn it on.  So far, it hasn't helped.

 

Aprons and colanders on a partially painted wall.  I finally painted it light blue along with the pantry and the wall it is on.

 

 

 

 Banana pudding on the countertop.  My fruit bowl I've hauled around for 20 years and my garlic jar (it has holes in the back of it

I think I paid close to $5000 to remodel the kitchen, including the labor (but not the electric part of the labor--that was done as part of a whole house update, along with gas lines and an on demand hot water installation).  Here's a little side by side comparison for before and after.

 

Some pictures taken after it is in full use (warning:  real life clutter depicted!):