Midway before and after

Progress is moving slowly as life has taken over.  But I wanted to share the small pieces of progress we are making. The tile is finished, grouted and sealed.  I also decided to take a stab at staining the cabinets.  The top cabinets are finished, and we are pretty pleased with them.  We just went darker with a gel stain, and it turned out pretty nice.  We also replaced the handles with a simple black handle.

Here is kind of a full kitchen view of the progress we have made so far.

Scott had a nice moment the other day, he found his original "to-do" list for the kitchen renovation, and he had 90% of the items finished.  There is still a lot to do, but at least now it is mostly just little, non messy things.

Things left to do:

• Add trim to top of cabinets
• Finish staining cabinets
• replace all cabinet hardware
• put the chimney on the hood
• replace the drawers below the gas stove
• remove wall paper and paint
• purchase and install pendant lights above the island
• paint ceiling
• replace the ugly white coffee pot :)

It might be a while until the final before and after shots are taken, but here is a preview of the transformation made so far.  It is hard to tell from the photos, but we have an extra foot of ceiling height, since Scott removed the drop ceiling and ugly fluorescent light.

Quite a nice change, if you ask me.

Stay tuned, hopefully we will have a final picture sooner than later.

The hood is up

A preview of the almost, well at least much closer to finished kitchen.  The hood is finally in place, finally giving us an idea of the final layout.  I never knew appliances could make a person so happy :)

Adding Tile

After a break from rennovating, Scott found some time to jump back in and get started on some tile work with help from his dad. They hung the cabinets back up and got some of the tile up. 

Below are pictures of the finished drywall.  Scott was once again, bound and determined to to do it himself, and it turned out great.

We are getting closer, and it is starting to come together.  The tile work has been started, and we hope to have it finished soon. 

Here is a preview, hard to tell since it hasn't been grouted, but gives you an idea of the colors.

The top cabinets are back up, looking more and more like the finished product. 

And I finally got to contribute.  I painted the island black this weekend. I am pretty happy with it. We aren't sure what we are going to do with the other cabinets.  If anyone has ideas, please share.  We are not replacing them, but would like to darken them.

Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon, of finished tile work and an installed chimney hood. 

Stay tuned....