New Kitchen Part I

 I titled this post "Part I" because this is the reveal of one wall only...well, one wall and a half.  There are other reveals to come, but they are purely aesthetic, so they will have to wait until later.  So once again here's the before photo (before the cabinets, counter, and sink were ripped out and the subfloor replaced)...

 And here's the after.  We purchased very inexpensive cabinets (pre-assembled) that are unfinished but structurally well-built.  The counter top is actually laminate, but it has a beautiful extra-large print that does not repeat.  The edges have a lovely rounded finish that really doesn't scream laminate.  The sink is a white-ish granite composite that was $100 less than the cheapest enameled cast iron (though it collects smudges that a regular wash rag won't scrub off, so I can't recommend it).  But it is way better than the stainless for the faucet we have.  We turned the corner there on the right and added several extra feet of cabinetry and counter top, which has already been very helpful.  Why the people who built this house put cabinets and counters only on one wall I will never know.  But we will correct that! The last thing we did was put in a tiled backplash.  We learned a few tricks after tiling the mother-in-law suite's shower, and Jason did a fantastic job of making difficult tile cuts look perfect -- even around rounded edges!

There is still plywood exposed on the foor, and a little step-up to where we stopped ripping up the 5 layers of linoleum on the rest of the kitchen.  People trip on the little step - which I guess we can enjoy as built-in comic relief.  No dinners have been lost to spills yet!  We still need to caulk between the tile and counter, finish with trim on the left and right walls around the tile, and add one shelf on the wall on the right (beside the fridge). The bottoms of the cabinets need trim, and the cabinets themselves need painting and hardware.  But we have sturdy, undamaged subfloor, no holes in cabinets, extra counter top space, and no gaps between the counter and the wall.  And, as one of my friends exclaimed upon first seeing the new cabinets, "the cabinet doors CLOSE!"

 It's funny how little money we've spent on materials, but how beautiful I think this kitchen is looking.  I don't know if I'll ever put granite or marble in a kitchen.  Especially when the house is in an older neighborhood where most of the kitchens haven't been updated in 50 years.  Makes me think we wouldn't get our money back when we sold, and I personally favor having the entire house updated over spending extra for natural stone countertops and having to let something go un-addressed elsewhere.

There will be a shallow shelf along the top of the tile backsplash, running from the open cabinetry on the left to the fridge on the right.  I hope to find vintage glass spice bottles and store my spices there, since my spice cabinet in the old in-wall ironing board cubby will have to go as we finish that wall.  If you look at the floors, you can see the plywood on the left side of the floor and the linoleum still on the right.  I can live with that as we pay off debt.  I really love having a lot of deep drawers for pans, baking dishes, and kid dishes, which we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd paid for good-quality already-painted cabinets.  The girls can unload all their dishes from the dishwasher and set the table with at their places, because they can reach all their eating utensils.

Also, that blue wall is starting to grow on me.  I was planning all along to paint the walls light grey when we renovated the kitchen, but now I'm falling in love all over again...