Kitchen Reveal!

There aren't many words needed here, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Let's just say we've had a few changes around our house.

BEFORE

AFTER!!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

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BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

You may be wondering what that small door to the left of the ovens.  Well, it's my new spice pantry!  I had one in our house in Washington, and I have been dreaming of adding one to this kitchen.  If you have empty wall space between 2 wall studs, I highly recommend building one of these.  They are also the perfect depth for canned food if you don't collect spices like us ;)

Mystery door??

Spice pantry!!  Yes, the jars are labeled and alphabetized, and there is room for a little growth.

Two more fun things in our new kitchen are the mason jar light over the sink and our new bar sink by the cooktop. 

Mason jar light

Bar sink and new cooktop (ignore the tv cabinet in the background- it hasn't found a new home yet)

Seriously, we could not be happier with our new kitchen and floors.  We are enjoying eating at the new bar too!  It's only been a month since we ripped out the old kitchen, but I already have a hard time remembering what it felt like to cook in that cave.  I'm having a blast organizing the new kitchen, and I love not having carpet under my feet!  The new flooring is wood grain TILE in case you were wondering.  It extends into the fireplace room, dining room, entry way, and bathroom as well.  We hope to replace the old blue carpet in the other living area later this year.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!  What was your favorite part?

Kitchen Remodel: Demo Day

Our kitchen remodel is moving along very well!  We should have most of the work done by the end of this week, but I'm waiting until it's all done to show pictures.  For now you'll have to just enjoy these pictures of demo day.  Josh and I did all of the demo in about 9 hours the day before Thanksgiving.  Mom even came and helped for a while.  It was hard work but also a lot of fun. 

The old oven and cooktop came out in about 10 minutes!

We got the refrigerator relocated and then out came the dishwasher.

While Josh finished the dishwasher and sink, I removed all the cabinet doors.

Looking good!

From this point, Josh got to work with an ax, crowbar, and mallet.  Mom and I picked up the pieces and moved them outside.

These cabinets were obviously built in place.  You can even see where they painted around each shelf.

I probably should have taken a whack or two at some point, but I let Josh do all the fun (hard) stuff.

Almost done!!

I could not wait to see this wall torn down!  That was the best part of the whole day for me.

Appliances, cabinets, and countertops gone!!

Time to move on to flooring.  We had carpet with 2 layers of linoleum underneath.  Thankfully it came up in huge sheets.  We just cut off as much as we could carry and kept on going.

Flooring out of the kitchen area.  Time to move on to the rest of the room.

Sometimes the carpet would peel up without the linoleum.  Isn't this pattern lovely?  I can't imagine what this room looked like when it was covered with this stuff.  The color and pattern would have hurt my eyes :)  Seriously, imagine about 400 sq. ft. of this stuff- scary!

Our fireplace is going to look so much better without all this ugly flooring around it.

Demo complete!

At this point we still had many hours of floor grinding ahead of us to prep for the new flooring.  It was a little depressing that floor prep took longer than all the demo, but I guess it couldn't all be so easy.
I can't wait to see the finished result and share it with you!  It's seriously hard for me to walk through this room without jumping up and down right now.  Things are looking soooo good!
Stay tuned...

Top 10 Reasons Our Kitchen Needs an Update

Well, we have finally begun our kitchen remodel.  We have been planning and saving and buying for a few years, and the time has finally come!  Our house was built in 1965 and most of the kitchen shows it.
Here are the top 10 reasons we are remodeling our kitchen:

#1 Waste of space

Soffits above cabinets = waste of space!

Corner cabinets that make it impossible to reach the far corners- waste of space!

Solution:  Taller cabinets that reach the ceiling and add an extra shelf, corner cabinets with lazy susans 

#2  Inconveniences

This drawer cannot open without opening the dishwasher.  Also, the refrigerator cannot sit against the cabinets because then the dishwasher can't open.  Who came up with this plan!?!

Solution:  We are moving the dishwasher to the other side of the sink.  Easy fix!

#3  Worn out countertops

This laminate countertop is stained, chipped, cracked and UGLY!  The same laminate continues up the walls as a backsplash.

Solution:  New granite countertops!

#4  Lack of view 

As I cook at the stove, this is my view of the next room.  I have to crouch down to see into the living room.

This is the view from the other side.  Can't wait to open all this up!

Solution:  All upper cabinets above this peninsula are outta here!

#5  Carpet in the kitchen!!

Who puts carpet in the kitchen!?!

Solution:  All new wood grain tile will be installed in the kitchen, dining room, entry way, half bath, and fireplace room.  Currently this space has 4 different floorings!

#6  Lack of symmetry

This off-centered sink cabinet bugs me!

Again, with the off-centered cabinets

Solution:  New cabinets!

 #7  Too low upper cabinets

When loading my dish rack, even normal size plates cannot sit on the portion that goes under the upper cabinets.

 
Solution:  New upper cabinets will be installed higher so that we have several more inches in this space.

#8  Getting hooked

We are constantly snagging our pants on these drawer and door handles.

Solution:  New hardware will not have any overhang to get snagged on.

 #9- Wasted wall

This wall could be used much more efficiently.

Solution:  New 18" deep cabinets will be installed along this wall.

#10  Dated kitchen

In general, this kitchen is just dated and needs an update.

Solution:  Completely gut the kitchen and start from scratch!

We can't wait to see the kitchen put back together the way we've been dreaming and planning!  Stay tuned...

Homecoming 2013

Josh and I don't usually participate in much during homecoming weekend.  In fact, we usually avoid campus altogether because it is so crazy!  Last year, we completely left town.  For some reason, we jumped right in this year.  We attended the chemistry circus on Friday night (we usually do this), the homecoming parade Saturday morning, and the football game in the afternoon.  Titus and I actually walked in the parade while Josh took pictures.  We did this one other time a few years ago, but we haven't been to the parade since then.  Neither of us had been to an ACU football game since we were students, so that was fun too.  Here are a few pictures from our weekend.  I didn't take any at the circus because the lights were off for the cool parts and those pictures never turn out anyway.

Caffeine!

Titus with some of our students

Enjoying the parade with my "Chemistry Lab Lab."  Titus was a huge hit, and most of the people understood what his lab coat meant :)

ACU's Big Purple Marching Band

ACU

Here come the Wildcats!

On their way to another touchdown!  It would have been more interesting to see our huge crowd in the background instead of the empty visitor's side.

We won!