[emilymch]

This is kind of a retroactive progess blog - we're pretty much done. But we didn't have an internet connection while we were doing the work, and it was a pretty whirlwind renovation, so I'm only now getting around to posting photos. Oh well!

We took ownership of our house on a Saturday, at which time the kitchen looked pretty much like this (everything in there is the seller's stuff. we bought from my in-laws, and I guess they thought that meant they could leave us all their junk :?):

the view from the living room:


the view from the steps, looking down:


and one more view:


And yes, in case you were wondering, that IS where they kept their houseplants year round. :shock:

Now, in addition to what they left in the kitchen, they left a ton of stuff in the rest of the house - all the furniture that they couldn't/wouldn't take with them. And none of it was our style, or anything we needed. We had planned for this, though, and advertised a yard sale in the local paper. The yard sale was *supposed* to take place on sunday, the day after we got the house. I had advertised that the kitchen cabinets were for sale, among other things. Well, those yard salers were a bit over-eager, because a bunch of them showed up on saturday - minutes after the In-laws had left for their drive to Texas to their new home! EEP!

It was a completely crazy day, but by the end of it, we had sold the kitchen cabinets for $100, and the guy who bought them helped take them out and took them away! He paid US to do our demo work for us! Anyway, here's what it looked like at the end of the first day:



Note the knotty pine beadboard ceiling and the awful fluorescent fixture that was recessed into the beadboard.


We owned the house for less than 24 hours at that point.

[emilymch]

Ok, so then some time passed. We painted the the basement, the bedrooms, the living room, and the kitchen. We got new carpets installed on the second floor and basement. And we painted the knotty pine beadboard ceiling a lovely white. (We tend toward a very modern aesthetic, so the pine was just not working for us.) We gave away the appliances on Freecycle (after trying to sell them on craigslist, but not getting any bites), but otherwise the kitchen stayed as it was while we worked on other parts of the house.

On day two of actual kitchen work (aside from painting), we did the lighting and electrical.

Here you can see the pendants for over the island, and our solution to the big hole that was left in the beadboard from the flourescent fixture:


We bought an MDF shelf (they just happened to be the right size) at Lowe's to mount over the hole left by the old fixture, and then mounted the halogen Ikea fixture (i'm blanking on the name) onto the board. I have some trim to put around the edges of that to finish it, but we haven't gotten around to doing that just yet.

And here you can see the ceiling fan that i'm absolutely in love with:



Also a good view of the painted ceiling and the wall color. Those are our countertops in the background, leaned against the wall. (And um, a Vanilla Ice doll. standing on top of the countertops. We found him when cleaning out the house, and he was a running joke during the whole project. You'll see him in various pictures. I take no responsibility for his actions! )

[emilymch]

Day three:

The uppers go up! This was so exciting - it was so great to see something so good looking in that room!





You can see the marker line on the floor where i marked off the location of the new island. Ah, what fun!

[emilymch]

Day 4 and 5 were devoted to laying the new floor - natural vertical bamboo that we ordered from builddirect.com. My husband and dad did the work, and got most of it done on day 4, and finished up the flooring and put in the buffet on day 5.

The "buffet", as i've been calling it, is actually a row of 4 30x24 uppers mounted at, well, buffet height, on the far wall of the kitchen, opposite the appliance wall.



And here is a closer shot, which shows the colors more accurately:



And a look at the buffet from the other angle:



We also put together the base cabinets for the appliance wall that day, but didn't get them all positioned:

[emilymch]

Day 6, a monday, was when the appliances were delivered, we put together the island, and put on the countertops. I kind of slacked off on taking pictures, so this is probably like day 7 or so...I can't really remember! I know it was a day or two before I got the handles on, but who knows!

The view from the steps:


The side of the island that faces the appliance wall (before i made the template for the long lansa handles):


A closeup of the formica that we used for the counters (beluga beige, in case you're wondering!):

[emilymch]

And here's a few shots of what it currently looks like. We're done with all the substantive stuff, and just have cosmetic things to do - paint touch-up, tiling the backsplash (which will be lovely tumbled marble tiles), crown and shoe moulding, and a bunch of other teeny details - i'm sure you all know how that goes!



the view from the living room, straight back. The french doors go to a little deck:


The far side of the island, looking towards the buffet:


The island with all its handles:


The view from the buffet (note the uppers used as lowers under the breakfast bar overhang - yay storage!):


And the view from the kitchen back towards the living room:

[fisheggs]

Wow. That looks fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous. What type of dining table is going in there? The buffet is perfect for that space.

[DesignDiva]

Very nice! I love the whole look, very clean and modern and chic.

Where did you get your counterstools? Crate and Barrel maybe?

[emilymch]

Eva - the barstools are from Room & Board. They appear pretty yellow in the photos - they're less so in real life.

Fisheggs - actually, we're not putting any dining table in there. We're keeping the nice wide open space between the buffet and island, and the dining table is in the living room/dining room. I can post a photo (after i take one!) for reference.

[fisheggs]

That will be cool! It's so rare to have any breathing room in the houses I've lived in, and the idea of some open space fits in well with the modern lines you've chosen.