Finally........

Be warned it's long..........

I have taken photo's of my kitchen and I am going completely over board with photo's(they should enlarge slightly) since this project consumed my life for the best part of 2 months it tortured me and I shall torture you in return !!

This is also the part where I start justifying myself by saying I did lose all my 'before' shots so these are the taken in a rush 5 minutes before going to Home Depot and my kitchen looks a mess because I'd given up with it knowing it was about to be ripped out.
We had a really really small budget it had to include the unit's,worktop,sink,tap,new stove top,new dishwasher and flooring which is why we did everything (except fit the units)ourselves. Everything except the appliances was either from Home Depot or Ikea.

This is the view now as you walk in my front door,excuse the wet floor !

Originally we wanted to take out the hatch(we took the doors off which is why it's 2 colours because I haven't got around to painting it all one yet !)and turn it into an door opening to match the one the other side and enclose the other section to allow for wall units but it didn't fit in the budget and it's something we can still do at a later date if we want.

I posted these images in September describing the nightmare of getting glued tiles off the wall.I didn't glue my tiles on you'll be pleased to know and I love how the bevelled edge subway tiles look but they were a pain in the ass to grout because of that edge and I'm not sure I'd use them again !

I'm glad I decided to paint the window frames white,it was a lot of work but it looks so much fresher and cleaner.My only disappointment was that those wall units were too narrow to be glass fronted,as they hold all my glassware and I had wanted that on show.Code now is that there has to be 9 inches between a dishwasher and oven,ours were side by side before.I thought a 9inch cupboard was going to be a complete waste but it's actually a really good thing as it hold all my baking trays and my huge wooden chopping board.

There wasn't much we could change about the actual layout the only thing we did do was straighten the sink area.It was curved before and I'm sure the theory behind it was that you could look out of both the windows but in practise all you looked at was the big useless space behind the sink and the section of wall between the windows.By straightening it out you can actually see out both windows and I've gained counter space and my garbage container actually fits under the sink now.

Above is the view looking down towards my laundry/scrap space and the door to the garage.There used to be shelves on that wall and all our utensils hung there too but we decided to not but them back up there as really they were in the way !!
Below is the view looking up from the laundry/scrap space.That larder cupboard was the most expensive thing apart from the flooring I wasn't sure if I'd made the right choice with those 2 big drawers but I love them and man can they hold a lot of stuff !

This area didn't change much since we opted not to change the hatch/put up units.We just bought new shelves and these now hold the stuff from the shelves we took down and the basket on top of the fridge holds all the cookery magazines that I can't fit in the cupboard ! We replaced the handles on the Ikea unit to match the new handles in the rest of the kitchen.Of course even though it's from Ikea the style of handle I choose didn't come in that size,so I had to custom order some very similar from Home Depot and those 3 handles were nearly as expensive as the 20 in the rest of the kitchen !

This side we changed to a more unfitted look one because it was cheaper ! and two because I like that look and I love being able to just grab plates and bowls without having to open doors.The wooden worktop is fantastic.I gave it an extra coat of the protective coating.It takes hot pans/plates straight out the oven and wipes up a dream.After we put this together I so wanted it as my scrap table,it would be perfect since I stand to scrap but no way that's fitting in my space !
I'm pleased with everything but my absolute favourite thing is my floor........

I am so happy with the way it turned out,I will have a bad back and bad knees for the rest of my life but it was worth all the hard work.
The only thing we wished we'd done was put in pot lights,I think we'll end up doing it this spring even though it will make a mess,it will help as the current lights,which we kept since we'd only put them up a couple of years ago don't really light the kitchen where you need it.

OK that's a long enough post for me,I scrapped 2 pages this weekend,good stuff and I'll be back Wednesday with some happy news........

It's Wednesday !

Middle of the week and I'm here to post. I am being good this week !

I grouted the tiles yesterday........it was hard.They have a beveled edge and scraping the grout off was not as easy as things I'd done before and it took longer than I thought but it's done and really finishes it off. A little bit of painting to do today and it done except for the picture frames.I really want to get to work on these frames but I have other stuff to do first. When we moved in I created a large clip frame with all bits and pieces of our lives before and after we met,concert tickets, restaurant receipts,plane tickets but I took it down for some reason and it never got put back up. So I'm re doing it in 3 separate frames to put along an empty unless wall we have..........I have an idea on how I want it to look but I know how those idea's normally turn out ! so fingers crossed.

Here are 3 more cards I made at the weekend.....I make them with intentions of sending them but then I realise I like them so much I don't want to part with them !!

I have loaded my first 2 photo's here for my photo a day challenge.

Oh and Ash "awarded" me this ! Thank you Ash,so I'm passing it on to my friend Susan who's blog I love when she updates it ;)

Good intentions.....

....I had them I really did !

I fully intended to update before now but life got busy.

Friday I was not in the best of moods I was mad,upset and could totally understand why my son is so discouraged but after a glass of wine,lots of extremely loud music and a moan to a friend I'll leave it at some rules and regulations are just bloody stupid and some people are obviously set in there ways and there's nothing you can do about it.

The kitchen is almost there,really it is...................we tiled this weekend here's proof....




Well I tiled he cut tiles and took photo's,now I just need to grout and touch up the woodwork and voila.....done!

Since today is December the 1st it means I'm starting my photo a day again over here . I'm so mad with myself because the shot I wanted to take today I couldn't as I forgot to take my camera because I was not fully awake when we left the house at 6.20 this morning.......................Oh well,I'll find something else !

Oh and hopefully fingers crossed we passed our citizenship test today.It will be 8 to 10 weeks before we find out but I am 99.9% sure i answered everything right and the interview was good so just waiting for that piece of paper.

It's the little things.

In life that give you pleasure,right?
Last night I was very happy because I finally have a dishwasher again...woo hoo,no more washing up in the bath...no more washing up full stop,it's been a long 8 months,well 8 months of washing up only 3 weeks in the bath.
The old one packed up way back in March and "it's OK we're getting the kitchen done,we'll wait."Well I never thought I'd wait this long (it's been in the garage 3 months,well it was a great price on sale !!) but it's in and working and it's clean and has big baskets that actually hold wine glasses,very important that ! and it's so,so quiet and I am very happy !
It's sad I know but top of my list house hunting 5 years ago,after 3 beds and a garage was a dishwasher !! I'd never had one before and thought I was due this little luxury especially since I have a husband that loves to cook and use everything item possible to do so. I got my wish,didn't matter that I probably had the oldest dishwasher still in working order,that was missing half the plastic spokes to hold plates,didn't matter that it was so noisy you couldn't possibly watch TV....it washed dishes and it washed them well,with it's half or full capacity and twist to start button,it did it's job until it decided it was no longer going to drain and emptied its self all over the floor with bloody hot water.
Wow, this is possibly the longest post I've written on complete nonsense........

Where?

Where did this week go ? I remember Monday and now it's Friday ?!

My Mum went home last night and I'm sure this visit wasn't her most relaxing one but at least she had nice weather !

My kitchen units were fitted Wednesday,I'm missing a side panel for my tall unit and all the top moulding,so at least 2/3 weeks before that gets finished.Waiting for the worktop people to come measure up the work surface area,again another 3 weeks for that to be fitted.There have been a few little problems,units fitting closer to window/door frames than anticipated,so we will have to change those.......all that priming and painting gone to waste but nothing else for it.

I'm still washing up in the bath and cooking on the BBQ but I have at least moved everything out of my dining room,which now feels massive and of course with nearly everything back in the kitchen that feels much smaller !

I have still been taking my pictures and have updated here and will add 2 more later tonight.

So busy....

I'm not sure leaving the plumbing until the weekend before the installation was the best idea because it's not going as well as it should but I am trying to stay calm,it will be OK,it will be OK !

So while the plumbing part of the team has gone back yet again to Home Depot I've snuck on the computer to update my photo's here.

Later.........

Behind schedule.......

Well due to the havoc that the tiles have caused we are behind schedule with the kitchen so I will be working my arse off this week painting like a mad woman because the floor has to go down this weekend.I got one coat on the ceiling this morning and after I've eaten something I can get another coat on.

Luckily a friend came over Saturday to help drink beer,sorry rip out this side of the kitchen and also helped us install new Sheetrock or whatever the stuff is called because it's called plasterboard from where I'm from !! As the tiles this side were glued on even better than the other and there was no way they were coming off without bringing the wall with it.

So above was my kitchen Saturday and below is my kitchen this morning.My lovely husband re plumbed in the sink on a makeshift stand because I really couldn't handle washing up in the bath for the next 3 weeks.Those wood window frames are taking more coats of primer than I thought but primer is my new friend and they will look so much nicer white than before.

No rest for the wicked so back to it........

kitchen nightmare #1 !!

I am lost in all the work that needs to be done on the kitchen,we worked so hard last weekend and no doubt this weekend will be the same.My house is chaotic to say the least...........one level with no basement is fine when you don't need to move one entire room into another.Most things went OK last weekend except this ...........

That is what happens if you remove tiles from a wall that have been glued on,yes GLUED,I'll repeat it since it's so bloody stupid,who glues on tiles ?