The Kitchen Before...

I've decided it's time to get those "before" photos up. I will tell you that our kitchen is about 85% done right now. We only need the countertop, backsplash, and custom shelving done (all of which we are doing ourselves) and we will be able to have the plumber come in and turn on the water. To let you know how momentous of on occasion this will be, I must tell you that we have been without running water in our kitchen since June 2004.

During that time, we have been carrying tubs of dishes down to the basement to wash in the laundry tub- tons of fun let me tell you. Nothing like coming home from a hard day at the salt mines to hunch over a tub in a dimly lit basement washing caked food off plates, bowls and pots! We also had the world's biggest work triangle for a while with our work station, microwave and coffee maker in our den, fridge in the dining room, and stove in the kitchen (often covered with drop cloths) Some days are easier than others of course.

Looking at these "before" photos, you can easily see we had a little work to do!
Highlights of the old kitchen:
Duct taped doors on cabinets
Drab green band around the ceiling left over when we removed the drop ceiling with florescent lighting
Industrial vinyl tile
cracking plaster
inconveniently located outlets
no ceiling light- like the spotlight we used for a while?
missing woodwork

This is the longest project we have done so far. We started in Easter last year and will be done soon. Our bathroom took us 9 months and we took a year off major projects after that. Just so you don't think us fools (or maybe this will make you think us fools) we do most everything ourselves except for heavy plumbing and electric. Next post I'll list steps we took thus far and show progressive pics too. It will be so great when it's done- really really great...

Duct taped cabinets!


View towards the dining room and the so-called civilized part of our home


lots of woodwork to strip!



We had the window bricked up and pulled the radiator for much needed counter space.
As you can see we went the way of vinyl clad windows. Much to our regret we couldn't afford wood windows, maybe someday!