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By ryan @ 12:41 AM :: 161 Views ::
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After almost 6 years in our home, we have finally started remodeling the kitchen. We'll do our best to post daily photo graphs (if visible progress has been made) throughout the remodel. It is expected to take six to eight weeks.
The first pictures we've put on the site are our 'before' pictures. Our house was built in 1956 and cabinets, countertops, cooktop and oven are original. A previous owner added an addition off the kitchen that we now use as our dining room. The kitchen is currently galley style with a door at the end to the third upstairs bedroom. Other homes like ours use that bedroom as a dining room, and many people tear down the wall at the end of the kitchen and open that small room up to the living room. However, we need that room as a bedroom for Gabe.
We worked with a kitchen designer at our cabinet store to come up with a plan. We will be blocking off the door at the end of the kitchen and creating a 'U'-shape for the bottom cabinets and countertops. However, we will be removing most of the wall between the kitchen and the dining room (yes, the original load-bearing wall), so part of the lower cabinets will form a peninsula. We are also adding a desk area to the end of the kitchen by the door and window where we currently have a breakfast bar, usually covered in mail. So, we gain a ton more cabinets so we'll actually be able to put all our appliances in the kitchen and have more than one cupboard for food. We also gain lots of counterspace (we've been cooking on about 6 sq. ft. of countertop), and a mini desk area to hopefully keep us a little more organized.
The next pictures show day 1 of the remodel. In preparation of the contractor and cabinets coming today (1-15-07), Sarah removed quite a bit of the wallpaper. Underneath was another layer of wallpaper with large blue flowers. Our contractor removed the cabinets and behind the wood paneling there is yet another wallpaper with fruit. We've also seen some blue and yellow paint, so the kitchen could have been worse! The new cabinets arrived and are being stored in the dining room and garage for now. They are maple that is stained just a bit -very slightly- darker than natural. We purchased a new white range and microwave hood to match our current dishwasher and fridge. Now we are trying to decide on flooring, countertops and lighting. We are so tired of shopping. Our boys have been troopers, but even they are tired of looking at flooring samples at every floor store we pass.
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