Complete Kitchen Renovation

ironmiketython

58909

Finished photos first.

Finished photos first...

Foyer finished, moulding up and caulked

Finished foyer, runner and moulding up. Bought flexible quarter round on Amazon to bend around that bottom stair

Finished foyer, had to cut down the steel wrapped front door (didn't want to replace yet, that's next summer)

Original kitchen (finished family room in the back...maybe another post on that in the future)

Original kitchen, the whole house was painted this color yellow...you can see us playing with the idea of an island (blue tape) but we decided against it.

Opened up the doorway from the kitchen to the dining room. When we bought the house there were four doors in the kitchen. One closing off the family room, one closing off the foyer (this one baffled me) and then closing the laundry room and basement. We removed the doors into the family room and between the kitchen and they foyer

Ripped out the top cabinets and soffit, just had to reroute the electrical through the joists. Took out the old fluorescent light there in the middle and while I had the soffit open it was easy to fish wires through the ceiling for the four recessed lights I put in

Bought a ton of tile and hardibacker from HD. Didn't realize how heavy it was until I loaded my dad's pickup and it dropped about a foot lower. Did the math afterwards and definitely wasn't safe, but fortunately HD is about a mile from my house.

Ripped up the wood floor in the foyer (it was installed much later than the original floors and was engineered and didn't match) and laid hardibacker and thinset on the seams.

Tile is laid. Laying tile is my absolute least favorite home improvement task

Not going to lie, pretty proud of this cut. Definitely thought I would need a couple tries but got it first time.

Tile laid, transitions to wood floor not installed yet

Took a break from the kitchen and installed the runner when it was delivered.

ripped up the first layer of old floor and laid hardibacker over what I assume was the original floor. I don't know what the first floor was made out of but didn't want to risk disturbing it. Also, here you can see the four can lights I installed

Hardibacker down and ready to tile. Sheetrock up (mold resistant sheetrock I just had leftover from the master bath reno...maybe another post on that in the future). All new GFCI outlets installed since the old kitchen didn't have any. That junction box for the dishwasher was also later turned into a wall outlet because from what I understand code now requires a plug for the dishwasher and not hard wired. Also had to move the fridge outlet over because that was and still is on a dedicated circuit.

Tile is laid and my back is screaming. Can also see the new chandelier here for the eating area.

Still giant blisters on my hands despite the gloves. Knee pads were a godsend, they were a last minute pickup on a HD run.

Grouting down, removing some of the haze the next day

Taping and spackling done. One of the few things I paid for because I know a union taper who is very fair (read: cheap) on price

Had him spackle before I realized I had to build out the soffit for the new cabinets.

Moved that outlet up the wall for the coffee maker/s.

Now that I'm thinking of replacing all the windows in my house, I wish I replaced the ones in rooms that I remodeled but at the time if I added one more thing to the list of things to do I may have cracked.

New door up for the foyer closet, not painted yet. Replaced every door in the house with these.

moulding up in foyer and transition piece to dining room in place, starting to caulk

Had to bump out this soffit to ensure it matched the new cabinets. Did the spackling myself on this one, you can tell...

Doors back up to laundry room and basement (you can see our temporary food storage in the living room)

all painted

Something else I paid to have done. The pipe needed to be moved back about 6 inches I really didn't want to mess with the gas pipe until I got some quotes. I wrestled with the idea of doing it myself for weeks (while doing other stuff in the kitchen) until I finally broke down and paid someone since we were so under budget anyway

Mockup for new cabinets

New cabinets delivered...

No space in the garage anymore

This is where I realized I had to bump out the soffit

Starting to put the cabinets up, had to install blocking on the top so the crown risers had something to grab onto

Getting there

We wanted to base cabinet on the left there to be shallow given the placement between two walkways so we ordered a wall cabinet and I built base for it to "rest" on and for the base moulding

Appliances in

Brought the fridge through the front door by myself, what a nightmare.

New light over kitchen sink

Wife started decorating before the granite and backsplash were even installed. Also we bought different hardware for the cabinets and drawers since they came with the modern thin handles.

Backsplash from HD. Thought the sheets would be easy. We originally wanted to do grey grout but I quickly realized that spacing between every tile needed to be uniform and despite the mesh backing there was a lot of movement. More on this later...

Granite we picked out for the 3rd time. First time, they sold our slab. Second time, the place realized their slabs were too small to cut our kitchen from one slab so the guy we bought it from subbed it out to someone else who had bigger slabs in this color, so we went and picked out our slab a third time. However, when they cut and came to install it I realized it wasn't the slab we picked out because there was a large "stain" right next to the sink so I told them to take it with them and leave. After some stern phone calls I received a call to actually go to the place where they were cutting it to approve before hand.

Finally have granite

Granite installed, waiting on a door panel for that garbage cabinet. Also in the family room there you can see our "temporary kitchen" which consisted of a keurig, toaster oven and microwave on a folding table. Probably only a couple weeks without major appliances but for two people who like to eat homecooked meals it got old quick.

faucet and reverse osmosis system installed. Also some filets on the counter there, reno took place during the summer so the grill was utilized often

So tired at this point and really didn't want to install the backsplash.

I didn't want to use the extension piece on the back of the stove so I had the granite guy cut a 2" piece for the back of the stove, I'm really happy with how it came out.

I got super tired and really didn't feel like putting up the backsplash so I thought I would sub it out since I was so under budget. Had a couple guys come out, one was a guy doing it on the side another a guy who had a licensed and insured business. Went with the business and this is the garbage they started to put up. They came over after a full day at another job and tried to rush it and I said something twice that the spacing needed to be even and better cuts. I fired them after a sleepless night and ripped this down. Since they put half of it up already I was forced to rip out individual tiles and make the best of it so I didnt' have to buy more tile. I decided to use white grout because of this.

One of the few microwaves we could find that wasn't too deep for this cabinet.

Hood is up. Time for vacation. Vacation was planned for after the remodel but I was behind by a week so I had to grout and caulk when I got back.

Drilling through porcelain was impossible even with the special drill bit. Ended up smashing individual tiles that would be hidden behind vent anyway to secure the hood to the wall.