Kitchen, Before and After

FINISHED!!!

Hallelujah!  The kitchen is FINALLY finished! 

Pop the bubbly!  It's FINISHED!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and will follow up with a "lessons learned" post for anyone considering a kitchen reno, as well as some before/after photos. Moral of the story is we are OBSESSED with how everything turned out, and I have to say, I am so proud of myself for conceptualizing this bad boy from the start.  It's a pretty amazing feeling to see something you've had in your head for 12 weeks develop right in front of you!

 

So close!

We have a fully functioning kitchen (yay!), and just a couple of things left to make it complete.  Next week, we'll officially be done when the backsplash tile and hood are installed.  

This has been the longest and most frustrating 12 weeks that I can remember (9 of those without running water in our kitchen, mind you), but I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end.  

In the meantime, some of the finishings that we chose are below - so many decisions!!!

 Countertops: Viatera Quartz in Mulholland

 Farm Sink - one of my favorite pieces!

 Pendant Light - searched high and low for one that wasn't crazy expensive but still had a cool industrial look

 Drawer/cabinet pulls

 Appliances - Frigidaire Gallery
Fridge, Oven, Dishwasher

 Faucet - Moen

 And my favorite "extras" that both happened to be incredibly thoughtful gifts:
iPad holder and screen cover
All of my recipes are in Pinterest, so this sits next to my stove and is literally used almost every day. Brilliant! (thank you, C&C!)

Dishtowels that never fail to make me smile
A little homage to our home states (thank you, Karen!)

Labor Day laboring - LIGHTS!!!

 I'm now OBSESSED with the backyard.  I mean, I loved it before, but holy cow.  We'd been talking about putting lights up for awhile, but sometimes you just need your dad in town to be the extra set of hands (and provide the extra years of home improvement wisdom).  The end product literally looks like it was done by a professional.  Can't WAIT for the weather to cool down so we can start dining al fresco!

*Lights are from Target and we used 3 strands for about 75 feet of porch to cover.  It was tedious but to get them as straight and tight across as I wanted, they used a staple gun to staple between every other bulb.  That's SERIOUS dedication - my boys sure love me :)

And a tip I found by doing some research - the bulbs are super fragile, so it was recommended to take the bulbs off to actually hang the lights, then screw them back on once the strand is up.  Took a little bit of extra time, but it was well worth the peace of mind as we're not 100% sure about the replacement bulb situation. It's for this reason I'd also recommend picking up an extra box*

Of course, dad couldn't let the weekend pass without
getting us some plants.  The man LOVES his yard :)

And the full nighttime view :)

Labor day laboring - RV gate

Old, falling apart, warped wood removed

 Dad made a visit to the desert to check out the new digs and help with a few projects.  The boys were at it  all weekend and we have some beautiful new additions in the front and backyards thanks to their hard work! So grateful to have such an easy going, generous, fun and loving dad :) 
First up was the RV gate (yes, we have an RV gate, and no, we do not have an RV) - the wood was rotting, and basically the fence was falling apart.  A half day's worth of Home Depot and hard work outside and we have a beautiful new gate!

Pretty new wood perfectly sized and drilled in!

Finished!  Stained and lovely :)

Entryway - the sleeper project

As I mentioned, the entryway was a bit of a last minute decision and I think because of that we weren't really expecting to be wowed by it. Holy.Cow.
The number of comments we've received on the finished entryway alone tells us that we made the right choice to do it. It's that whole phenomenon of you move in to a new house and you know what's there isn't exactly what you'd choose and isn't exactly modern, but in the grand scheme of things is liveable.  Until you change it.  And then you realize just how ugly you really thought it was.  Our contractor rocked and this was knocked out in a day and a half. 

I've realized that it's kind of tough to see a big difference from the photos, so you'll have to take my word for it...either that or come to my house to see the old tile which is still living in the laundry room :)
Check out the transformation below!

And my little entry nook!
Tabletop not fully decorated yet, but love the table we found (HomeGoods)
and the mirror (Target).

The floors that wouldn't end

To make a long story short, the floors are a big part of the reason the blog hasn't been updated in awhile - they started the stress train. They have been the most frustrating part of the reno to date.
Pro tip: if you move into a new house and you think you're going to want to re-do floors, ALWAYS do it before you move in. Always.

However, after four loooooong days of no furniture and dust an inch thick on every wall on our first floor, we have absolutely stunning new main level floors.  We went with laminate in a "pecan" color made by Hampton Bay, which I think will look incredible opposite the light entry tile and the white and light gray kitchen. I think I mentioned at some point that hardwood doesn't do well in the desert - apparently it needs the humidity. Major bummer, but laminate is almost impossible to scratch plus really easy to clean.  And I am amazed after having hardwood floors in DC how you can hardly tell the difference!

A before and after sampling below:

Renovation bug

So the problem with doing renovation is that once you start, all the old non-renovated stuff look 1000x more terrible than it did before you started.  Thus, we our entry way is getting a face lift as well.  We went to Arizona Tile in search of something durable and a little more modern than we had (think a hint of peach).  We ended up with Regis Bianco and will use a light gray grout.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

It's not a trip to AZ tile without checking out all the countertop options.
Hard hats required!

Crystal Clear

Hands down, my favorite part of this renovation so far has been....new windows. Holy.Cow.
I knew our windows were bad.  I knew when we moved in that at some point, we'd probably end up replacing them all. So what better time to start then with a brand new kitchen?  Along one wall of the house, we have a beautiful bay window, a huge dining room window, and a sliding glass door. I found a local company through Yelp (which has been a lifesaver) who quoted us waaay less than Home Depot did.  It took 2 days and when I saw the finished product, I literally almost cried.  Never underestimate the power of new windows if you're doing a renovation!

I can't believe how much bigger the window looks!