Kitchen Remodel

Here are the before and after photos of our kitchen remodel. I hated my old kitchen. It is still small but much more functional and way prettier than the old days. New appliances, sink, granite, tumbled marble back splash, black granite sink, new tile floor, removed part of a wall, added recessed lighting, new custom made (by Jason) cabinets except for pantry and top cabinets on one side, under cabinet lights. Jason just built new doors so you can't tell...oh and he removed the dreaded scallop detail at the bottom of the cabinets.  

 We had the wall area where the oven is removed and made into a breakfast bar.

 TA-DA!

 Much better? Under the bar area on this side of the stove, Jason added deep drawers...where I keep my utensils, pots, pans, baking pans and cookie sheets...all have their own drawer. You can see our hardwood stacked in the dining room ready to go in next week!

 New matching refrigerator...

 Gorgeous granite sink and check out that back splash!

The stove was a big splurge...GE Profile but our neighborhood appliance store blew every one's pricing out of the water! The microwave and dishwasher are not new but they match and work well (after a little tweaking from Jason).

 This is my coffee/hot chocolate bar...see, coffee, hot chocolate packets and marshmallows! I am about to change this out to tea bags and crystal light packages for warmer months...

 Pantry cabinet detail...

As you can imagine we are thrilled with the transformation. Next up the laundry room! It is finished and the new hot water tank went in yesterday!

Linking up to Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday and Remodelaholic

Bathroom Reveal

I have been too busy to blog lately but I am going to try to update more often. For example, we updated (gutted) our bathroom in August of 2010 and I am just now getting around to posting.  Since my bathroom was icky, I never really took good before pictures. The demolition took place while we were in Colorado last summer so the days just prior to were filled with packing and planning not thinking about before pictures.  This bathroom had white original 1965 tile with gold trim. It was nostalgic because the house I grew up in had the same tile. Ours sadly was also full of cracks and had glue on the floor tiles from when the bathroom had carpet. YUCK! To me carpet in a bathroom is just about the grossest thing on earth.  That was the first thing to go when we moved in 15 years ago. I thought I could live with the icky stained tile underneath and I did for 15 years. I had to place rugs in strategic places to cover the cracks and other things.  There was also brown and gold wallpaper with bird nests...just ugly.  I have pictures of that somewhere but my scanner died...maybe someday.

Jason, our trusty contractor and friend sent this photo to us while we were in Colorado...this man does not fool around when it comes to demolition! So there is no turning back now! That same day we got word from the supplier that our tub was on back order for 4-6 weeks. Jason found us a tub and we were back in business. The tub is actually a post all by itself. We wanted fixtures in a color called linen which is lighter than almond but not as stark as white. Hence, the hullabaloo. It is really a beautiful color as you will see below.

New granite, light fixtures and custom cabinets (built by Jason our contractor). Just so you know, Jason is a Pandora's Box of talent and ideas...all better than our original plans.

Hand held shower...essential for my thick curly hair and assisting the little girl rinse her hair as well. 

Also good for dog washing.

The insets (just like the other bathroom)...all Jason's suggestion.

The tub. Love this tub...not fancy but pretty

This is an old house with a hall bath so I have to share this with my little girl. So nice to have 2 sinks!

This mirror is the only thing original to the bathroom...It was really nice and thick so rather than 2 separate mirrors we saved a little by keeping this one.  It was kind of grody around the edges but Jason to the rescue again...built this pretty frame for it. Also notice the cabinets...Jason built these too...I will post about the cabinets and other details at sometime in the future...lots of drawers to hold my stuff. The cabinets were his design as well.

I have kept things fairly neutral because after that stark white and gross blue this felt serene to me. I found the dragonfly towels and shower curtain on clearance at Dillards and bought 6 handtowels, 4 bathtowels and the shower curtain for less than 100.00...how awesome is that?

I forgot to take pics of the floor but you can see here that the tile is pretty as well...same as in the shower.

I have enjoyed this bathroom more than you can imagine! I still need some decor but we are changing every room in the house so decorating can come later.

So far we have completed our master bathroom (a term used loosely), the hall bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. We are putting hardwoods in the entire house except for wet areas. The floors have been installed in the hall and bedrooms and the rest of the floors will be completed next week as well as a new hot water tank. (Jason's turn to go to Colorado). The paneling in our den and breakfast room is a thing of the past...only a distant memory! Next I will post about the kitchen transformation...truly amazing!

Master Bath Remodel

We have been renovating our house a room at a time since early June. Renovation can be scary but you need to look at it as an adventure. In the past we have replaced our patio, added a door and replaced our patio door...nothing too scary...well, there were a few moments during our patio replacement that were more crazy than scary considering our contractor's helper put his foot through our ceiling twice! Not really a big deal since Jason, our contractor fixed the problem quickly.  The other problem is that we had a full grown rooster running around the back yard that summer. That is a long and stupid story for another time but it involved baby chicks from Sydney's first grade class.

On to Rick's bath. When we made the decision to renovate, we started at the back of the house in the worst room ever built. There is only one word to describe our master bathroom...small, ugly and pink! Oh that 's three words isn't it.  It has been a problem we tried to work around our "vintage" bathroom but there is only one cure for this kind of ugly!  At the time our house was built in 1965 most homes didn't have what we now consider a "master bath". They were typically a shower, toilet and sink...think powder room with a shower. That's what we have and my husband is the primary user. I just tried to pretend it wasn't there. So this is where our adventure begins...

Pink shower with white trim from a previous repair

 I warned you it was ugly what you can't see here is the pink tiled floor. When we moved in there was carpet on the bathroom floor.  Don't get me started on how much bathroom carpet grosses me out!

 The beginning of the demolition derby

 Jason picked up a supervisor along the way...Romeo inspected every step of this project

 Ahhh...pretty and not one spec of pink! We started out with lighter grout and went to darker. Since this picture was taken we have colored the grout on the floor and it now matches the shower. Not much need for decorations since Rick uses this bathroom. Brown towels are all he really wants. And  I moved my Pottery Barn Pub mirror in there for him.

 Perfection! We do have a fabulous glass shower door but for some reason I don't have a photo.  Maybe later...I also just noticed this photo was before we painted the shower ceiling.

 A shower floor any man could appreciate

Jason put thesed cool inserts in for soap, shampoo etc....

After it was all said and done, we are thrilled with our newly renovated, bathroom complete with an exhaust fan (extremely emportant in this house)!

There you have it...we have also completed the hall bath renovation which was equally gross but in different ways.  We are 90% finished with the kitchen and it is a dream. The rest of the house involves new floors, removal of paneling and A LOT of painting. I will share the other bathroom with you soon.