Kitchen Remodel
If you have ever asked me about my kitchen you would know just how frustrated I was with it... From the day I walked in, before the house was finished, and saw a nice long counter top sitting in the garage and heard the carpenter complaining about having to go and cut a new one because the one he had was the wrong size, to the countless hours squeezing between the open dishwasher and the range to do the dishes, it has never been big enough.
Granted, it was a good excuse to cuddle next to Bonnie while she cooked a meal, it was always difficult for more than one of us to try to get anything done in there at the same time.
We started the process of the remodel in November. We had someone from the same company that installed the cabinets 9 years before come with samples of counter tops and flooring. Using the same company allowed us to keep our existing cabinets and just add on with the same style -- that saved us a bundle. They were having a special on quartz for the price of granite, so we got a good deal there too. We also opted to do the floor at the same time to take advantage of the counters being out of the way. I was also eager to replace the pealing linoleum where I had patched it when I built the pantry.
Our contractor took us to a wholesale place in Salt Lake City for appliances. The guy there was less than helpful, trying to talk me out of what I wanted in favor for what he had in stock. I was very excited to get a ceramic top slide in range to not only eliminate the messy and difficult to clean drip pans, but also to cover the gaps between the range and the counter better. We ended up going to Sears on New Years Eve and got all our appliances (the ones we wanted) for about $500 less than the wholesaler was offering. A 15% off sale helped a bit there too. We opted for a 26 sqrft french door refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom, Double convection oven with digital controls -- no knobs to clean!, a matching over the range microwave (which also have convection oven capabilities), and a quiet dishwasher with adjustable height for the top shelf and a power clean area in the back.
The work got started in mid February. The floor went first on a Thursday. the new flooring was ordered two months prior, but was delayed, so we ended up for about 10 days without a floor instead of a single weekend as originally planned. It didn't delay the original completion date though, we had a great couple of guys doing all the labor. They extended the wall that I built when I did the pantry by 4 inches so that there would be enough room for the fridge as well as opened up the wall for a vent for the microwave so we don't have to recirculate the air caught by the fan anymore. We got some handles and knobs for the cabinet doors to dress them up a bit and turned the facades in front of the sink into tilt out drawers to hold brushes and other kink items that we used to leave on the counter top.
After it was all done, despite the delay on the flooring, it was a pleasant experience and just about everything else went as planned. The new floor and counter look great, but the tile back splash really warmed the feeling of the whole room.
