Kitchen Remodel Before and After

The kitchen remodel came to completion last year!


This is but a distant memory.

Recycling Old Wood For Kitchen Island

Taking down all the old wood shelving and partition walls in the basement...

... then recycling the old wood for our new butcher block(esque) kitchen island, which Peter will build...

... seems to be the destiny of this wood which has been recycled before by the previous owner out of crates from local textile mills.

Kitchen -Ceiling Can Lights are up

All the Ceiling Can Lights are up...

...they're all on dimmer switches, divided up in four sections...

...so the kitchen can be blindingly bright or be flooded with a warm evening light.

Creating a New Kitchen

Creating a new kitchen...., now more like "waiting" for a new and free kitchen..., well free cabinets that is. We've heard it happens, people ripping out brand new cabinetry. Old cabinets would be fine too as long as they're good quality wood -that's something we can work with. Until then we live with the kitchen as is.

So the floor is finished now, all patched up and repaired with original wood planks salvaged from underneath the fridge and other places. Next will be the installation all the can lights as well as a door for the washer/dryer unit that you see on the far right. Just imagine an L-shaped counter top along the wall and where the couch is, left to the sink a stove/oven, right to the sink a dishwasher and in place of the table a large magnificent kitchen island with two bar stools.

Some Kitchen Ideas:

It's either this sink (seen at BHG -click image) or an undermounted more traditional one. These windows just look like the ones in our kitchen!

I like this island style from House to Home. It feels spacious and offers a comfortable seating area.

Or this simple butcher block island from Coastal Living (without the sink). This stage of creating a new kitchen is fun...and I'm sure I'll be collecting more ideas.

A Weekend of Labor -The Old Wood Entry Door and Kitchen Ceiling

But it's labor of love...and there was some sightseeing going on too as well as eating the best fried clams ever! This was the end run of stripping off the green paint. And our awesome entry door is now ready to be painted the same blue as the back door (by me).


Even though Peter had cut out the holes with the template that came with the light cans the holes weren't big enough. One more time I hung plastic to avoid dust to coat our entire kitchen area. So this is P. cutting the holes wider.

Creating a new Kitchen -The Light will be Bright

The kitchen is our last major interior project...
and this weekend's remodel goal only required a couple of hours. Summer just isn't the time to breathe dust (if there ever is a good time for that). So while I did some touch up floor sanding to prepare for clear coating, Peter wired up more can lights and dimmer switch boxes. And off we went to the beach.
Note: can lights in the kitchen are the best.

Theme of the Week is the Shower Stall Drain Leak

The last few days I've been doing what I like doing most, making rooms look pretty. This time it's the corner room in the kitchen that houses the washer/dryer that got beautified. Peter on the other hand is not so lucky. Every evening he's been fixing the shower stall drain and with that an unusual amount of work gets dumped onto the bath tub, which might or might not walk out on us on its claw feet if it doesn't get its peace and quiet back soon; it's had a very busy winter.

Painting Kitchen Walls

In a snap I transformed this part of the kitchen (before and after below) with the help of a ladder, fluffy roller and a gallon of Behr washable flat Silver Drop 790C-2. And may I add, the ceiling of course was primed and painted too as well as the heater covers. I was on a roll for two days and the rest of the week I spent in awe over all the work we've done.

Kitchen Marathon: Old Wood Floor Repair, Edge Sanding, New Window Moldings and Misc

We put in a full work day on Saturday. A start right after breakfast and keep going without a significant break till sunset kind of day, which I haven't done for a long time. I can still feel it in my legs, all the kneeling from edge sanding the old wood floor. Peter on the other hand enjoyed a healthy workout going up and down the stairs leading into the basement workshop a zillion times, cutting wood pieces to repair the kitchen floor as well as fitting new moldings for the two windows above the sink. We did get to soak in the last evening sun rays over a Bass Ale and mixed nuts though, initiating the porch for the season. Here are the pictures:
The black vent covers had to go since additional baseboard heaters are planned to run along the wall.




This is where the wall was, and the repair here is temporary. We still have to figure out how we are going to bring the two different wood floors together.



And brand new moldings for these windows.

The Zen of Spackling

Every day, after work, Peter has been spackling the kitchen ceiling in those very thin layers for a couple of hours, matching and blending into the old ceiling of the front room with its character of age.

More Wallpaper to Remove

I didn't think that I had to remove wallpaper (ever) again but the crown moldings came off in the room that is now part of the kitchen (since the wall is gone) and there it was, an old bridle very green wallpaper border that needs to be removed. And while I'm scraping along, antique dust landing on my head and on every surface below, memories of me balancing on a very tall ladder stripping off all the wallpaper in the hallway pass by.

Kitchen Ceiling: My Husband the Spackle Master

The same way that I am unable of making a small or medium size salad -they always turn out huge, I can't get myself to spread a thin layer of spackle onto the drywall. That's why Peter is the spackle master in our team of two. It absolutely amazes me how thin and perfect each run turns out. Once he is done, my job begins. I'm the master painter and I will slam the paint on thick, transforming the kitchen (just like all the other rooms) with one coat of paint.

Kitchen Ceiling: Holes for Can Lights

When I came home yesterday from my meditation getaway I found all the holes cut out on the kitchen ceiling for the can lights and the support beam has been sheetrocked and coated with joint compound. The dust that was spinning around while drilling those holes was unreal, so I hear. I can still smell it. I am glad I missed that part. There is no compound left so in order to continue finishing the ceiling and the walls we have to re-stock. Perhaps I do some plant research in the meantime.

Sheetrock goes up -Kitchen Ceiling in the Making

We needed some extra help today to get the sheetrock up, so Peter made these two beams to do the heavy lifting. How we got each panel to that stage though was quite a bouncing act.

The Beginning of Spring

Funny, how I don't find it the least bit annoying to live with this kitchen that is missing its counter top, stove, oven,..., well, the picture tells the story. Maybe it's because my parents took me camping each summer, or because there is not much I need to clean (or both). I just replaced the old plastic table cloth that still had the Christmas theme going with this fresh yellow that marks the beginning of Spring.

Creating the New Kitchen -Wall Patching

Last night one ceiling sheet went up and we need to get more angles in order to continue. I have been patching up the walls which is an easy job with lots of down time since the joint compound has to really be dry before applying the next coat.

New Drop Ceiling Structure is going up

The electric for the can lights is solved, the drop ceiling structure (light guage galvanized steel angles) will be done today and an the new ceiling is ready to go up.

More Prep Work for Drop Ceiling Installation with Can Lights

Some more prep work for the Drop Ceiling Installation has been done. The spacing is marked and most of the electric wires are in place. We also bought all the Can Lights (17). There is not much I can do right now in the kitchen until all the wiring is done, then I can start finishing the walls up. Of course there is all the small stuff such as cleaning up the walls around the stairway that leads into the basement, some more window detailing too, but I have chosen to deal with the taxes among other things. And soon it will be warm enough to work outside...

Drop Ceiling Installation using Drywall

The preparation for the Drop Drywall Ceiling Installation has begun and some of the first framing angles went up along the wall. Since all the new plumbing for the added master bathroom above runs here in the kitchen we need to install a Drop Ceiling to cover it all up and we'll end up with 8 feet in height for this room.

Wiring for the new Kitchen

Before all the walls can be closed up there is still some more wiring to do for the planned ceiling can lights, and that is quite a project.