Kitchen Make Over
We have a large kitchen. There is the main part of the kitchen and then an extension. We bought it this way. Earlier this year, we redid the laundry/pantry area in the kitchen. It came out great. We wanted to redo the rest of the extension so we got to work. This is the before pictures.
We had a microwave cart, small table and book shelf on this wall before. It always looked messy to me no matter what I did.
The sliding door leading into the kitchen.
The octagon window is in the top picture too.
We were having the siding done. My sister had given us a window when she was having her new house built. It was the wrong size for where she wanted it. We had the contractor put it in and replace the sliding doors. We had to work around the beams in the wall but it fit.
He tore out the old window and put in the new one.
Hubby and I then got to work.
Hubby removed the baseboard heater and replaced it with a toe kick heater. We fixed all the holes in the walls, spackled and painted the walls and ceiling.
Next we started hang cabinets that we got from IKEA.
Top ones first.
Then the bottoms. Unfortunately several of the cabinet faces were delivered with damage so we had to wait and wait for them. 2 came one day and a week later the other 2 showed up(the day of the graduation). Hubby got them put in quickly and off we went.
I am in love with all of this extra counter space and cabinets. It looks fabulous. Hubby did an amazing job. He would work all day at his job and then come home and stay up late working on it, Several night past midnight. We did go slightly over budget but we feel like it is worth it. I have so much more light in my kitchen now.
We also redid the Bilco doors ourselves. It looks great from the inside and outside now. We have been saving for almost 2 years to get this huge project done. It was worth not eating out at restaurants and spending money frivolously. We will never go into debt again.
It all looks fantastic!!!!!! Great job. LOVE the outdoor color.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It is a new color this year. We were the first house that they put it on.
DeleteThe re-do looks great, and really functional as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It was great having all that extra counter space for the party. I made it a coffee/tea bar.
DeleteWow I love the new look. I so wish my hubby was handy. But alas.... Love the color of the back of the house.
ReplyDeleteI am very grateful that hubby is very handy. We would have to pay for everything otherwise and it would take a lot longer to get it all done.
DeleteI love it! You did a great job and so what if you went a little over budget, it has increased the value of your house. I would rather save money for something big than waste it eating out all the time. You should be proud of what you and your husband have accomplished.
ReplyDeleteJeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
Thank you. We are. We eat really well at home so there is no reason to eat out. The mortgage will be paid off before Hubby is 60. Then we can sell it and move somewhere smaller. Every time we finish a big project Hubby says we just increased the value of the house.
DeleteWe paid off our mortgage years ago, although it was difficult. Recently I was lunching with friends (I do occasionally eat out) and two ladies mentioned they wanted to retire from working full-time but couldn't because of their mortgage. I was stunned, but said nothing. Both had bought their homes at least 10 years before we bought ours. I looked at them and realized they: buy their name brand clothes new, eat out constantly, drive new cars, and vacation lavishly - all things we choose not to do. I prefer to own the roof over my head.
DeleteJeannie
We have several friends like that. I tried to talk to them when we were getting out of debt and they didn't want to listen. I stopped talking to them about it.
DeleteLove the finish of those cabinets.....what is the name/style?
ReplyDeleteThanks. I picked them out. Don't believe Hubby if he says otherwise. Askersund light ash.
DeleteLooks fabulous and I can see all the work that has gone into it and as previously said it will increase the value of your home a great deal.
ReplyDeleteWe are doing construction ourselves at the moment and building a 10 x 2.2 mt garden enclosure over the vegetable garden beds. We built it out of all recycled materials from taking down a grape yard enclosure with materials used being 8 x 10' ironbark posts, salvaged galvanised piping, pipe clamps, heavy duty chicken wire, and tie wire. It is all up now apart from the shade cloth on half of the roof and we spent a total of $38.26 for the whole thing as we purchased the shade cloth, some netting clips and 2 secondhand pipe clamps.
So far we are really happy with what we have accomplished and it is rather rustic and country looking too in keeping with our 1910 - 40's house.
You are right that doing work yourselves saves so much money over hiring a trades person. We figure we have saved ourselves $761.74 over hiring a tradie to do over about 10 hours including the materials we purchased.
Have a great week ahead.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna)
Great job making your new to you house your forever home. We both know how to make our money work for us and how to stretch it as far as possible. That garden will save you a ton of money with all of the goodies you grow. Have a wonderful week.
DeleteI would love that counterspace to put my dehydrator and crockpot. They take up so much of my regular counterspace. I paid off my home in 2009 and it was such a relief. I did it all by myself and really suffered some days just to own the roof over my head.
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice to have the coffee makers off my counters. That is wonderful that you paid your mortgage off. We can't wait. We think we will be able to pay it off early but we are currently saving for retirement and college. In 4 years when our youngest is done with college we will attack the mortgage.
DeleteWow, that turned out REALLY nice! And...good job not taking on any debt to do it!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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