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........

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.........

The room that started it all.

So the story goes we thought we needed to practise our renovating skills on something smaller before we tackled the kitchen,so we went with our family bathroom,which I've hated with a passion since we moved in. Mmmmmm,blood sweat and tears were poured over this room !

My bathroom is long and thin and dark and it's still waiting for a blind to be made and a new ceiling light which I can't find(I'm too fussy apparently)but it all worked out in the end,totally over budget and took twice as long as expected but we did it.

Goodbye ugly vanity unit which was really kitchen cabinets and hello lovely stone tile instead of nasty grey vinyl.................the only thing is the boys use this bathroom and I don't think they care one way or the other !