The Fully Functional Kitchen Has Arrived!

So all the cabinets are in!  The sink, the faucet, the oven, the DISHWASHER.  Wow, what a magical machine...

The day the counter tops went in felt better than Christmas.  We love them.

It has been about a week now and I've never been so excited to wash a dish in my life.  Once Brian got the faucet and dishwasher functional I went on a cleaning and washing SPREE.  I was so excited to put everything away in the cabinets I couldn't be stopped for even a "we're almost done" blog post.

There still is plenty of work to do, but at least we finally can slow the pace down and relax and enjoy our practically done, new kitchen, a little.

Things left to do are:

• attach drawer/cabinet knobs and pulls (coming this week in the mail)
• install crown molding on cabinets
• install kick boards
• choose and install a back splash
• install under cabinet and island electrical plugs
• install under cabinet lighting

and eventually:

• open the wall between the living room and kitchen to create a breakfast bar

 A few friends have been over this week to check out the kitchen and they all have said it feels like a completely different house now because of the remodel.

I still can't believe it is ours and we did it all ourselves (except the floor tile and countertop).

 We have a contract to have our windows redone... in due time.  The missing cabinet in the island is out just while Brian finishes up the electrical plug install.

 The dishwasher has a matching cover panel, like the cabinets, but we can't install it until the pulls arrive.

 For a refresher on what the "before" of the whole kitchen looked like, click here.

IT'S ALMOST DONE!!!

The Sink is In and the Countertops are Ready for Templates

When we bought our sink we decided we wanted a 33" Kohler Whitehaven Farm sink.  It did come in a 36" or a 30" but we decided the 33" was just right.  Unfortunately the sink cabinets Ikea sold were only 36" or 30".  So obviously went for the larger cabinet to accomidate our sink, but knew we'd have to get crafty to make it work.  Brian's dad, Dennis, made this awesome steel frame to hold the 100+ lb pound cast iron sink in place perfectly without relying on the cabinet itself for support.

I did the gorgeous spray paint job to keep rust away. ;)

We used an Ikea side cover panel as the trim piece the apron of the sink goes against.  It worked out perfectly with 18" doors.  Slightly bigger doors would have been nicer but the doors offered by Ikea also didn't accommodate the sink in any other configuration.  We are very happy with it.

 

Next Brian and his dad had to really get creative with our washer/dryer cabinet.  The cabinets Ikea makes are not deep enough to house our machines so we had to come up with a plan.  The kitchen designer gave us some ideas and panels but the logistics were up to the guys.

Brian and Dennis made this cool base for the machines to hold the cabinet up at the proper height as well as keep it stable so the machines could rest on the ground instead of INSIDE the cabinet on a base or on flimsy cabinet legs. Again, the gorgeous paint job is by yours truly.

Once all the cabinets were installed the plywood for the counter tops was put in.  (We still have one upper cabinet to hang above the dishwasher area, but we will put that up while we are waiting on the counters to be cut.)

Tomorrow morning the countertop templates will be made and hopefully the counters will be in in less than a week!  We are so extremely excited.  Once they are in, we can install the faucet for the sink and have a fully functional kitchen again.

We are nearing the finishline.  It's been a lot of long nights and hard work and money, but it's all paying off now.

Now for your viewing pleasure, some Before and Afters:

 (Please excuse the missing pantry door.  The one we have is damaged and we are waiting for delivery of the new one.)

Thanks for checking out the progress!