Kitchent Remodel...IT'S DONE...for now...

Yesssss!  It's done! For the most part, that is...Of course I follow that statement with "there are still minor details to finish up", but I have cabinets, drawers and shelves for my dishes and all the tools are put away! Thank you to our super amazing friends, Michelle and Doug who helped Brian and I with skills that they learned through trial and error from their own remodels in the past. You guys are beyond amazing with all the work you put in for/with us in the past week!

Seriously, who knew that a small little galley kitchen on the "cheap" would take so long!!!! Just in time for hosting Bunco last week and our gourmet club dinner this week. I won't go on and on about all the stupid girl emotional feeling of what it's like to have my kitchen completed and love making my coffee in the morning in a little, pretty space...oh wait, I think I just did go into that, didn't I? Haha...oh well, thank for reading...here are the before and afters!

Before:

I know, I know, you are thinking "why would you change that??? I dont know...maybe the dark brown oak, the green wallpaper border, the low hanging soffets...do you want me to continue? I didn't think so...

We thought this suited our style just a little better =)

 Mmm, yummy open shelves...

I love my pendant light.  As you can see {if you look close enough} I took this picture before the kitchen was even done!  I loved it so much, that as soon as the last screw was tightened up I pushed Brian out of the way to get this picture!   

I love this little window behind the sink.  It's amazing how much light it brings in the kitchen and how much this kitchen needs this.  I also love  my soap pump!  =)

So, there you have it!  It's small, but now it's pretty and functional!  

Just a recap, what we did in the above picture:

Ripped out cabinets, soffets, had can lights and pendant light installed. Ordered pre-formed laminate counter, installed with the help of Michelle {who knew I would EVER be so excited about laminate}, painted cabinets {after lots of sanding, cleaning, priming and painting}, added hardware, replaced window trim, installed bead board, open shelves and painted...whew...lots more to come...

When I started researching the best layout for a small 70's, lake community rambler I knew I wanted open shelves like Emily Jones. I knew that it wasn't going to be fancy and I wanted it open and bright. Although I know her kitchen is not a galley kitchen, I saw this picture of her bead board, open shelf wall and fell in love.  So, we started there and ended up here...

What we did here {with help from M&D}:

Raised the cabinets 6" and added crown moulding. Yummm, I love the small touch of crown moulding and let me tell you what a difference it makes raising cabinets 6". Seems like your ceiling grows at least a foot!!! My 6'4" husband was stoked...me, well, my 5'4" self is happy for him! Also happy the yummy, Martha Stewart "zinc" gray crown moulding adds a touch of detail that I can't live without now! =)

I'm pretty sure I want to paint everything Gray now!!
There are quite a few small details that I want to add to the kitchen.  Like the back corner I want to incorporate a bit more of a coffee station.   I have some empty wall space that I love, but I think it needs a little something pretty that can also be storage.  I'm sure as we live in this little kitchen longer we will know what to add and what not to add.  That's the thing with living in small spaces...the challenge is living with what you need and making it pretty and functional.

Now that you have seen the before and afters, here are the "during" pictures...kinda like the out takes =)

This is our pantry door when I had it off the hinges, sand, prime, paint...repeat (4x)

This was the begining stages when Brian tore down the upper cabinets and we started taking off the cabinet doors to prep them for painting...

How gross is this???  Seriously!   So, this is what my kitchen looked like for about 3 months.   I guess I thought if I tore down the cabinets and stared at the hideous insides, I would get it done faster...haha...not so much.   I just hated it even more and decided to ignore it and move on to different, smaller, instant satisfaction type projects.  It was like getting my "fix" withouth fixing all that.

Time to put the hubs to work again!  This was fun!!  I'm pretty sure I found something way more important to do right about then...after I took these pictures of course.  Bye, bye green, flower wall paper/border.

Our Amazing friends Michelle and Doug volunteering their skillz!  In all honesty, they felt sorry for us, rolled up their sleeves and crashed our kitchen!  We love them for it and for so many other reasons!

I was itchy with my kitchen and dining room being in disarray for a week!  I was so excited when it was done...I actually cried!  =)

Crown Moulding!  Yuummmm!

The back yard became the work shop.  Good thing we were blessed with no rain that week.

Michelle fears no power tool!

Installing the pretty new, white, shiny sink!

Almost done!

And one last time...Here is the final results of all that hard work!

Ok, now I'm going to do dishes!  =)  Thanks for reading!