Kitchen renovation

You know how it's said that sometimes things have to look worse before they look better? I sure hope it's true, because things are looking really bad here in our kitchen as we tear things apart! This was I did a couple of weekends ago~ pulling off the old icky laminate backsplash so it was ready for this past Saturday, when we put in the sink. (Pardon some of these pictures, they are a little out of focus!) I couldn't stand the way this area looked so I "mudded" that part of the wall with joint compound. We are covering it all up with beaded board so it doesn't have to be perfect.





Later after the backsplash was completely removed...So pretty, huh? Uh, yeah...






Now after two coats of joint compound, it will be tolerable until we cover it up! :)

The Sink Dilemma

You'd think choosing a kitchen sink would be rather straightforward. At least, I would have thought so...I was just saving for a standard double bowl cast iron one from Lowe's. The problem: The space for our sink could only fit a 25" sink. We looked online at double sinks this size, but the bowls were itty-bitty. The only way to accomodate a larger one would mean lengthening the counter, which would involve replacing the slider with a single French door vs. a double (losing a lot of light) and framing it all in both inside the house and out. (Too much work!) The solution: I had seen a farmhouse sink on Craigslist, and so I decided that wouldn't be such a bad compromise at all!

Choosing a Countertop

This proved to be a little difficult as well. The problem: We found out we couldn't use laminate with an undermount sink, as the countertop framing in the sink would be exposed, and it could ruin the laminate. We were told we'd have to use a kind of countertop that was solid throughout. At this point, you are looking at a lot of extra $ when selecting a counter. There was this website called SolidSurface.com that will actually sell sheets of solid surfacing, such as Corian or LG HI-Mac, for a pretty fair price. We found a couple of colors we really liked, but found once you buy the right bits and blades for your tools, pay shipping, and so forth, it adds up! The solution: Out of curiousity, we got a quote from Lowe's, and were very surprised that doing it all ourselves would save us either nothing at all, or very little! Needless to say, that was a easy choice!

Sink Installation Day!

Before the company could come and make the template of our countertops, we had to install the farmhouse/apron sink so they could get precise measurements.

Look at the horrid sight behind the dishwasher! Yuck! I will be scrubbing and painting that soon!




Prying the countertop loose...




It finally budged!




A much prettier sight for sure! :)





This is the support system that will hold the sink in place. It was a lot more work than it looks!




Whew, finally it's installed!





(After things were all cleaned up a bit.)





This is our makeshift "back counter" that holds our old faucet for a couple of weeks, until they install our new ones. The new counter will wrap around the back of the sink and they will drill holes for the new faucet on installation day! The new faucet is much better! It's amazing when you take off a counter, how awful it looks! All the parts of the wall you couldn't reach to paint... If I had thought of this before we put in the sink, I would have wanted to remove the cabinets from the wall and clean and paint all I could behind all of it, just for my own sanity. But I will have to settle for removing the dishwasher to clean/paint whatever I can and repainting the cabinets inside and out. We are putting beadboard on the sides of the cabinets and looking into resurfacing the doors/drawers with trim and beadboard. Maybe someday we will replace them, but for now we will make do. :)


I hope this hasn't been too boring for you! I was having a hard time getting myself to show this to you, because it's all still so ugly in our kitchen. But then I thought I should show you, rather than just always tell you, what we are doing! It will eventually be finished and that won't be such a hard picture to show! :)

I hope you are all doing all right! I have been such a terrible blogger friend, pretty much MIA both with blogging and visiting! I am looking forward to having a little more time when the kids go back to school next month! Hopefully things will settle down a little, because this has been a crazy busy summer! I will be around to say hello to you all as soon as I can!

Blessings,




P.S. I hope you don't mind if in the next week, I show you some more of the work we have done in the kitchen! More pictures to come!