The Great Kitchen Remodel: The Epic Conclusion

Memorable Quotes from my facebook wall during our kitchen remodel:

• "The most valuable lesson I have learned during our kitchen remodel is: Tomorrow never means tomorrow. I think all contractors should start using their own air quotes when they talk. "Yes we'll have the floor done for you "tomorrow". The counters? We'll come "tomorrow" and put them in. "Tomorrow" your kitchen will definitely be done... "Tomorrow" it's never a day away."

• "Kitchen tile is being grouted today. The backsplash also went in. It is taking longer than expected because the granite guy says the pieces he has don't match our existing pieces perfectly. Not sure what to do about that. Thankfully the floor guys are providing me with much loud music in Spanish to help me think."

• It's done! It's done! It's done!!!!! No more stupid little island that was too small to use yet took up the entire kitchen. Now we have a very beautiful peninsula instead and I swear the kitchen doubled in size!

Whew! That was a long three weeks! Never believe a contractor when they say your kitchen will be done in five days. When they are working with subcontractors for tile and flooring you are at the mercy of their own various schedules, especially when they are working on multiple jobs at once. That was definitely my least favorite part. Our contractor, Deskin, would text me and say, "The tile guy is coming today to finish up the backsplash." So I would put off going to the grocery store or whatever else I had planned and wait around all day only for them to not show after all. Quite aggravating.

That was the most frustrating part. The hardest part, of course, was being without a kitchen for a week and a half. We had the use of our microwave and toaster oven but that was it. While the floor was being put in we couldn't go in the kitchen at all. Once the floor was done, they came and took off the counter tops and then we had a floor but no place to set things. Thank goodness for friends at church who brought us dinner and my dear friend, Kedra, who fed us one night as well. Fast food gets so old so fast! Here's a picture of the tile we chose. We couldn't match the existing wood floors we have and liked the idea of tile more for a kitchen. It looks great and we love it.

Here's a picture of the backsplash tile we chose. It's a mixture of glass and stone and has all the colors of the floor and granite in it. Speaking of granite, the counter tops we had before were segmented pieces, scraps most likely, that were pieced together. The granite guy said in all his fifteen years of doing counters he had never seen anything like it. He tried very hard to match the pieces we had for our new peninsula but he couldn't, most likely because they were just scraps. So, after talking to my dad and getting his opinion, we decided to purchase a new slab and redo all the counters. It's the same stone as we had before but it has more black in it and I actually like it better than the counters we had. He gave us a great deal too. What's another $600.00 anyway in the grand scheme of things right? ;)

Where we used to have the wooden buffet (which has a new home with a lady in our neighborhood) we put in a floating counter with a nice big cupboard above it. It's been a great catch-all for our keys etc. And as I hate wasted space, it made that part of the kitchen still usable. Plus, since the cupboard is so large there is plenty of space (with room to spare) to put everything we need in it. We also painted the walls a grayish-green. It goes nicely with the backplash. :)

And here is our new kitchen!!!! It seems so large now and I love that we can all be milling around preparing our meals and everyone has plenty of room. It's amazing how one little island could render a room so nonfunctional. I love, love, love, how it turned out! Everything flows now, the colors, the counters, and the space in general.

And here it is looking at it from the dining room. We had to sacrifice a few feet in our dining room but it's working just fine. The chandelier just isn't centered over the table anymore. It's more now over the bottom left corner. ;) I love my beautiful new kitchen and now I can truly say I love everything about the home we have chosen to raise our children in. It ended up costing a little more than we expected and obviously took longer than we thought but the end result it so worth it. It was also definitely worth all those extra fast food calories we consumed. ;) Hooray! I love it!