We drove back from the lake last Friday morning, and by that afternoon I was emptying the kitchen cabinets (I also went to work for a few hours that day). That’s how excited I was to get this kitchen project started. So here we are, one long week later, and we are still working away at it. Kitchen projects are hard because they are so disruptive! I can’t even get a glass of water without having to step over and sift through stuff: building supplies, painting supplies, trash, and the kitchen clutter that was living on my dining room table for days on end. But I think the end is in sight.

 

As a reminder, here is where we started. If you’re wondering about our list of projects for this space, check out this post.

 

When we bought this house, we loved the updated white kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately, a few years of use and the drawers and doors are showing their age. Chips, dings, and general dinginess have made us fall out-of-love with them. We knew trading out just the doors and giving everything a fresh coat of good quality white paint would refresh our kitchen in the most economical way. It also doesn’t hurt that we have connections in the cabinet industry.

 

The plaster ceilings are starting to crack and yellow, so they really need to go! Especially compared to the brand new, beautiful, clean, crisp, white ceilings of the dining room beside it that we replaced a few summers ago. But more on that later.

Our first step was to empty the kitchen and remove all the doors and drawers. Next the microwave and vent system came down. Our microwave is fairly new and in perfect working order. We just didn’t like the look of the dark microwave above the oven anymore. We have since purchased a smaller unit for the pantry and will be using a decorative vent hood (thanks Dad!!) in it’s place, but we won’t need the upper cabinet that formerly hid the venting duct, since our new unit is self ventilating.

It’s always fun doing demolition and seeing what each room looked like in their former lives. Cherries and grapes in the kitchen… makes sense, right? We needed a few more rows of tiles here above the stove since the new hood will sit higher than the microwave did.

Daniel did a fabulous job filling in the space while I stood nearby and tried to be helpful. Seriously, thank goodness for handy husbands.

I’m sparing you hundreds of progress shots here. This shot is after hours of sanding, priming and painting the cabinet bases and finishing up the tile. You’re welcome. I also painted the upper wall section where the cabinet had previously been.

 

Here is the gaping hole in the ceiling and dangling electrical that will need to be repaired when the new ceiling and vent are installed. We are hoping to install the new cabinet doors tomorrow (fingers crossed they are perfectly coated in paint and dry by then). By early next week, we will likely be moving onto the new windows, ceiling and faucet. More updates coming, no worries!

 

As always, thanks for reading. No really, thank you!!!