Kitchen – Before/After

The pictures on the left are before shots.
anywhere from around 2000 – the after picture (2011)

Inside the doorway looking towards the sink.

 Jennie and Autumn baking – I hope that they will enjoy cooking in our new kitchen.

 Christy with our old curtains in the background – now I need to get our new curtains made.

 This shows how we swapped the placement of the stove and the refrigerator.

 The pantry.

 The backdoor lock – we upgraded to a keypad on the new lock.

 This shows the entrance to the basement that we used prior to the renovaton – filled in with wonderful cabinets and counter top now.

  JUNK on top of the frig – not now with the 2′ wide deep cabinet.

View towards the back wall – much more open since we moved the refrigerator.

 Sink area – the before counter top is not very representative – I usually never had it that clean and clear of junk.

  The cabinet to the left of the sink.

   Two of my little granddaughters
Autumn (left) is now 8 years old – V (right) is 1 1/2 yrs old.

  View between the end of the cabinets and the dishwasher.

  Autumn helping with dinner many years ago –
shows how moving the frig really opened up the kitchen area.

 Overall view of both before and after kitchens.

The cabinets along the wall.

 View of the corner area of the kitchen.

 Zephyr getting into the chocolate chips – he may be disappointed his next visit (no chocolate chips in the draw now).

 Emily and Chuck sitting in front of the island  – V standing in front of the island.

 View of rocking chair – Still need to make the new cushions.

 Doorbell  – we moved it to over the doorway to the dining room.

 Autumn making something at Grandma’s with our old TV in the background – new TV hanging on the wall.

 Ty making sugar cookie with junkie desk in the background – neat and clean desk now!

Autumn and Prairie decorating cookies (see the junkie desk in the background – pretty usual state) – new office area on the left.  Now to keep it clear of junk!

 Close-up of the old desk (one of the occasional times that is was neat and organized) – the new office area.

  Entrance into the basement (we kept this door closed with a recline in front of it (see below) – the orange walls were a whoops – stay-tune to see the real color.

The entrance to the basement – it will look even nicer when we refinish the wood.

Powder Room – Before/After

 Here is the sink area in the powder room (the after picture is missing come base and has some unfinished painting).

The cabinet over the toilet.

The toilet paper holders.

We are loving our kitchen and enjoy entertaining in it!

Sunday, December 9

This is our first meal cooked in our new kitchen.  The stove is still not hooked up, but we made stuffed green peppers in the microwave.  It was kind of a pain cooking in here because all of our stuff is still in the living room.

this is

Saturday, Dec. 3

Tom and I arrived home from Utah late Sunday evening.

We found that one wall had been tiled.

Pedro chipped out the wall behind this small piece of the baseborad to try and make it better for the door on the frig to open.

Baseboard around the back door was installed.

Larger view of the door with the casing.

The baseboard was re-installed.  It looks pretty rough right now.  I think I have my work cut out for me to getting it looking really nice.

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2012

Peedro installed the ceiling fan.

On Monday I discovered that we had a BIG problem with the desk drawers – they were not big enough for files.  The is a big problem.  Pedro is a true problem solver and rebuild the drawers and now the frame and files fit in the drawer and they will close.  YAH!!!!

The Garbage pull-out rack is also installed under the sink

Things are really getting pretty exciting.

Thursday, Dec. 8

Pedro does excellent work.  Here is the heat vent that he covered with wood that matched the inside of the cabinets.

Here is the cabinet with the drawers attached.

The idea that Pedro came up with to put the heat vent coming out above the microwave was such a good idea.

The tiles on the walls are installed.

I am getting really excited to use this kitchen!

Friday, Dec. 9

Getting ready to grout the tile.

Sacramento is doing the grout while Pedro……………

works on drilling the holes in the cabinets.

The holes are all drilled and we have…………

a few shelves in the cabinets.

Nov. 28 – Monday
Tom was very good about sending me picture updates of what was going on in the kitchen the week I was in Utah.  I just was not very good about posting them here on the blog.  So, better late than never.

Most of the doors are installed.

This drawer was installed because it is not a real drawer (under the sink).

Nov. 29 – Tuesday

Crown molding installed on the upper cabinets.



Drawer hardware installed.

Wednesday – Nov. 30

The wall tiles finally arrived.  There were REAL problems in getting this tile.  I had purchased it back in October to make sure that I was not the reason for a delay in the kitchen.  When I tried to pick it up a few times before I was leaving town I was told by Jamie that it would be available to pick-up in a few days.  Shame on me for believing him.  As it turned it he was not being honest with me.  When I went in to pick it up on the promised Friday before I was leaving – again it was not there.  I then told Jamie that I was leaving town and that this was not acceptable.  He told me that he would deliver the tile to my house when they installed the counter tops.  Well…………………..when he went to bring the promised tiles to my house they were THE WRONG TILE!  Needless to say – I was not very thrilled about all of this.

Not to worry, the Friday after Thanksgiving he sent a driver out to Long Island to pick up the correct tiles only to find out they were the wrong tiles also.  Now I am getting really worried.  As Jamie started to call around he was not finding any of the tiles that we had order.  He then expanded his search and ended up finding some down on the Jersey shore.

One good thing about the missing tiles – it was keeping the heat off of Pedro for a few days.

Here is the bull nose tiles that will be on the edge above the sink.

Dec. 1 – Thursday

The keyboard drawer is installed.

The file cabinets drawers

the kitchen drawers

and the doors on the pantry.

I LOVE the beautiful crown molding.  I am really pleased with the work that Pedro is doing.

Dec. 2 – Friday
The Appliances are Installed

The dishwasher………….

the stove (but the gas line will be attached after the wall is grouted and sealed)

and the refrigerator.

Overview of the kitchen with the appliances.

Here is a problem child, because of the thick thick casings we have it hits the frig door here on the corner.  Pedro and Tom are thinking that some brown wood there like it on the side of the cabinet (see below).  WRONG – I said that whatever they did it had to be something that would be white.

I am getting really excited to see all of this in person.  It has been hard to be away and know all of this work is going on – but I had a wonderful time with Emily, Ben and the kids.

(Sunday, Nov. 27)

Tom flew home on Saturday from Las Vegas and I flew to Utah.  I will spend the week here with Emily and her family.  On Friday Tom will fly back to the west (Salt Lake City).  We will attend Autumn’s baptism on Saturday and then both fly home to New York on Sunday (Dec. 4). 

When Tom arrived home and called with a report I was disappointed (but not surprised) to hear that nothing else had been done on the kitchen.  Time to call Pedro and see what was going on.  On Sunday morning Tom got up and left for church.  After church he visited a couple of people and then went home.  When he entered the front door he was greeted with a “Hello” from the kitchen.  Pedro was doing some work on the kitchen. As it had turned out –  Pedro’s son had dropped in for a surprise visit on Friday and Saturday so Pedro had spent some time with his family.  He decided to come on Sunday.

He dropped off most doors.

More doors and some of the crown molding.

Lots more doors, draw fronts and other supplies for the cabinets.  Thing are getting EXCITING!!!!!

Moved the electrical box for the problem fan.

Installed the faucet on the kitchen sink and …………….

and the bathroom sink.  The water was not hooked up because Pedro needs a different hose or different part for each faucet.  No water yet on the main floor.  Probably in a few days.