Kitchen Remodel 2009

These pictures are long overdue! I have a whole section on renovation and yet I had not posted any "after" pictures! To be perfectly honest, I have not even taken all the "after" pictures because this little place is constantly in remodel or one more project is always on the horizon. 

I thought I better start updating as many projects current status and then even more picture updates to come as we finish various projects.

Welcome to our Kitchen!

from the "before" picture on the left, you can tell that we had to start over! We tore everything out...even the walls and designed the kitchen into a U shape with a large open bar on one side. We had to move around all the wiring and plumbing to make room for the appliances we wanted.

This wall was the step down entrance into the "den", but a portion of the den became the laundry room so that is where we put a cut out wall for the pantry and refrigerator to set. 

The entrance into the kitchen was a small door which we eliminated as well and made a large archway over the bar to give the room a good open floor plan. This was crucial for the layout of the house, since the house is only 1000 sq feet we wanted to make sure to make it as open as possible to make it "feel" larger :)

*notice Peaches standing on our back deck railing ;)

We installed the cabinets, appliances and plumbing ourselves, but had the counter tops installed by a granite company. We were able to take our time and find several sales on cabinets and counter tops and got a custom kitchen for a fraction of the cost!!

This was a tremendous amount of work, but well worth it in the end!! 

If I had to do it again, would I do anything different? Nope :)

Home Remodel...we had no idea what we got ourselves into!!

*Note: all the pictures in this post are photos from before we started the renovation...I will post current pictures later :) There are just a few pictures in this post but I have thousands that I had to choose from. This renovation took 6 months and I took as many pictures as I could along the way.

Our little homestead began with the purchase of this small abandoned 3 bedroom 1 bath house in October 2008. It was a bank forclosure and we had dreams to restore the property, but we had no idea the potential this small city lot could offer!

We had never done anything like this before (renovating a house!) so it was an adventure every step of the way. The renovation took us 6 months and countless hours ... and there are still loose ends we are trying to tie up!

The siding was missing in some places and most windows were rotted out (some worse than others)...which brought about the excessive mold damage throughout the entire house.

First, we rented a dumpster and began demolition and extensive mold remediation throughout the entire house...

We tore out the 2 old chimneys and installed new wood stove piping, new roof and gutters, repaired siding, new windows and trim, new doors, painted siding and trim, tore out several trees, trimmed trees and shrubs, ...

  

Stepping inside the house you could clearly see and smell the years of abandonment this house had experienced. We tore out 2 walls to open up the main rooms, removed the red carpet, reparied and refinished the hardwood flooring, installed a wood burning stove, tore out and repaired the exterior wall, installed new doors and windows...

The kitchen was in utter disrepair so we tore it out and put in new walls, new kitchen cabinets and countertops, textured and painted the walls and ceiling, all new energy star lighting fixtures and appliances....

 The Den was an attached garage (with the garage door still inside supporting the wall). The only exit to the backyard was through the door at the back of hte den beside the utility room, we made that a window and moved the exit into the kitchen. We took out all the wood paneling, vaulted the ceilings and put in a loft (Great Idea Dad!!), raised and insulated the floor then installed new hardwood flooring, installed all new electrical wiring and fixtures, expanded the utility room and made it a full laundry and storage room.

We expanded the utility room, took out the sliding glass door and put in a new window, water heater and appliances and new flooring....

The 3 bedrooms were covered in multiple layers of moldy wallpaper & paint (walls, ceilings, and closets). We put in new windows & doors, scraped the wallpaper & paint, textured & painted the walls, new light fixtures, refinished the hardwood flooring...

In the bathroom we put in new windows, doors, flooring, cabinets, shower, electrical wiring and fixtures, toilet & sink, plumbing & fixtures, textured & painted the walls...

 From the back of the house we moved and removed a few doors and windows and built a back deck...

This A-frame metal swing set was completely rusted over...but it will come in handy later as a greenhouse :) ...we didnt have that in mind at the time, but I sure am glad we kept it!

 

 

A few years before we bought the house this huge tree fell under the pressure of an ice storm and demolished the garage...leaving only a concrete slab and a huge tree that was rotten from termite damage and covered in poison ivy...so we tore down the tree and built a garage...

The backyard is in constant remodel....We put in a privacy fence, new garage, new/used playset, tore out a couple trees and shrubs, vegetable garden with drip irrigation, chicken coop, goat barn, compost rotation...with much more every weekend... We had no idea the potential that this yard would bring!!