Kitchen and Mudroom Reveal
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Wow! It has finally happened! My kitchen cabinets, back splashes and decor are done! (Or at least done enough to show off.)
This is the view from the living room:
Study/Desk area: It’s not getting much use now, but I envision it to be the spot where my kids can be on the internet when they get older. (Keeping them under the watchful eye of Mamma!)
Stove top area: (I have rearranged and changed out the decor since this photo was taken.)
I have a plate rack that was supposed to be installed in the open shelf above the dishwasher, but I love having my plates and bowls on the open shelf. It’s so handy and convenient, I decided not to have it installed.
In the three drawers on the bottom cabinet, I keep the the silverware on top; bread, tortillas and peanut butter in the middle and all our plastic cups, plates and bowls in the bottom for easy child access.
We had the fridge and microwave built into the cabinet. I pretty much copied the layout from a photo on the GE website that I fell in love with. I made sure we got the model with water and ice in the door. It makes it so convenient, especially now that my kids are big enough to make their own drinks.
Close up of the backsplash. You don’t want to know how long we spent picking this tile arrangement out! I kind of feel like the black accent tiles were unnecessary, but oh well…
I have applied 4 coats of a color enhancing sealer, now it just needs one final coat of a shiny sealer and it will be done. I keep all my coffee supplies in the shelf above the pot.
Here is the view to the mudroom from the kitchen dining area:
Our cabinet maker built the bench, but my hubby made the shelves and installed the hooks. During the school year we keep all our jackets, backpacks and lunch boxes on the hooks. On my to do list is a cushion for the bench. I think I will just make the cushion for the long side and move that basket to the short side.
The mirror, shelf from Ikea and valances over the kitchen windows were the only new items bought to decorate the kitchen, dining and mudroom, everything else I already had.
Sitting area: Nana and Papa like to come over some mornings when they are here and drink their coffee in these chairs.
View of the breakfast area from the living room:
Here is a little of the back story…
We sold our house 4 years ago. We acted as our own General Contractor and built a house, we ended up selling it before moving in. We found another lot and started the process again. We knew when we started that the budget was very tight and we couldn’t afford to have any overruns. Of course, we had budget overruns. The biggest surprise was that the county made us install a fire protection sprinkler system to the tune of 11k, then the painters painted over the sprinkler heads, which then had to be replaced at another $1400. Because we were the only house being built in this area (at least 1/2 mile from any other houses and there was lots of tree cover) we had quite a bit of theft, including the shingles stolen off of the roof twice. (To keep all the construction supplies safe, my husband started to sleep at the site. He built a fire in the fire place and pitched a tent in front of it to keep warm. He had a small space heater too, but was still pretty miserable since the nights were running in the twenties and there was no sheet rock on the house yet.) On Christmas Eve, he decided to stay home and that is when the shingles were stolen the for 2nd time. Merry Christmas! This time they took his tent, cot and sleeping bag too. We had other overruns too, like including lumber and plumbing…
Anyway, by May of 2010, we had to be out of our rent house. So we had no choice but to move in before the paining, tile work and other finish type work was done. (All the toilets worked and most of the sinks, but we only had one shower complete.) We didn’t even get the certificate of occupancy until over a week later.
I haven’t written too much about this experience because the first few months were rough. A lot of tears, hard work and fighting and I just really haven’t wanted to talk about it. One of the reasons I started this blog was to help me focus on the good stuff and not dwell on the depressing stuff.
I don’t have too many before pictures, I just didn’t take any really, though I kind of regret that now. I do have these shots my husband took when he was painting doors and cabinets. He took them with his phone so they are not the greatest:
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| Can you see all the cabinet doors and shelves lined up along the fence? This was in July or August. It was so hot! |
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| More shelves and drawers… |
Here is a picture of my hubby cutting out the kitchen niche, he was not happy I was in there taking pictures of him! (Its hazy from the sheet rock dust, yep I had fun cleaning that off all the cabinets!)
I am just about done with the kitchen. I still need to order knobs and pulls and I want another coat of polyurethane on the cabinets. We did a satin finish and wish we had gone with a higher gloss, but I doubt that will be done any time soon since we definitely have a few more important projects first. I would also like to update the decor above the cabinets a little and possibly get some new bar stools. I tried out some wood bar stools with backs from Target recently, but I think they stuck out a little to much, so I will continue my search…
I would like to share the site I will be ordering my cabinet knobs and pulls from. It is called Ebuilderdirect. We have ordered all of our door knobs and hinges for our last 3 houses from this site and have been happy with the service and products. I haven’t seen prices much lower.
My next project will be to finish up the master bath. I just got my tub installed about a month ago and we got the tile work done around it last week as well. All the trim needs to be caulked and painted, one of the vanity lights needs to be lowered and there are a couple of holes to be patched. We installed quarter round trim around the vanities which now needs to be stained and polyurethaned. I am repainting the walls with a metallic paint that is very close to what the original paint color was, just with much more dimension. Hopefully I will have something else to show off soon as well.
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