Home Renovation Update #14 – Kitchen Part 2

Come along with us as we renovate our 75-year-old home! Today’s home renovation update is the kitchen update part 2.

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Last week I shared the first part of our kitchen renovation. It was such as mess as it was being torn apart! I’ve never cooked all over the kitchen before, but I sure did then.

We had to keep moving the stove around the kitchen to work. And since I had no counter space, I had to do all my meal prep right on the stovetop.

At one point, the toaster was in the living room because it was the only space available to plug anything in!

The best part is that I can look back on it and laugh about cooking toast on the living room floor. But it wasn’t so funny in the middle of renovations.

It was just downright stressful!

However, it’s over and done with now and I cannot wait to share the kitchen update with you! It looks like a completely different kitchen! Well, I guess it kind of is since we gutted the entire thing.

Even though the kitchen isn’t completely done, I’m so glad that the majority of it is over. We still have to do the floors and the trim. But it’s one more room on our home renovation project that’s almost checked off.

Home renovation update: kitchen part 2

Last week I left off with us removing the floor. The first thing we had to do was replace that so we didn’t fall through to the basement.

We put in a new subfloor so now the floor will be all new, too.

We extended the wall and added new electrical boxes. We now have LED running under our cabinets to bring more light into the room.

The ceiling light in the kitchen didn’t put out a lot of light, so my husband decided to put in recessed lighting. He cut two holes in the ceiling and added electrical wires to connect them to the new switches he put in.

The hole to the old light was repaired and the ceiling was cleaned and painted.

Drywall was put up and prepped to be painted.

Next, the walls were primed and painted a light shade of grey.

Our back door was looking a little rough, but it was still in good shape. So we just removed it, sanded it, and repainted it.

The outside part of the door matches the shutters that we made for the outside of the house last year.

We painted the side of the door that faces the inside white. I think it made the room look bigger!

Next, the cabinets started going up.

Putting up cabinets isn’t the easiest task. And there’s no way one person could do it on their own. Even with two people it was still difficult.

Luckily, we had 3rd hand supports, which worked so well at holding the wall cabinets up. (The orange poles in the photo below are the 3rd hand supports.)

The cabinet doors were hung and the new microwave was put in place.

Next came the cabinets surrounding the refrigerator and the side cabinet.

Then the sink cabinets and sink went in.

And the drawer handles and cabinet knobs were put on.

We decided to save money by going with a butcher block countertop. And instead of tiling the backsplash, we used breadboard and painted it a greenish color.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was going to like that color after it went up. But, I ended up loving it!! It looks so good with the white and grey!

Here are the finished cabinets on the stove side. This photo was taken right before Christmas. You can see Henry the Elf with his plate of cookies!

We actually gained space by extending the wall, which meant we gained extra cabinet space.

One of the extra cabinets is beside the refrigerator. This has become my tiny coffee bar.

And to help you see the amazing change, here are some before and after pictures.

Next will be the kitchen floor and the trim, but that may take a little longer to do. It seems the price of flooring has increased recently. I guess Covid caused prices everywhere to go up.

Now we’re working on remodeling the third bedroom. It shouldn’t take as long since it doesn’t need a lot of work.

Have you ever taken on a kitchen renovation before?