The Kitchen Reno - A 6 Day Whirlwind

Exactly 13 days ago we received the keys to our house. Immediately upon receiving those keys we (by we, I mean our contractors) went right to work on demoing and renovating our kitchen.

Let's take a quick look at what was (or wasn't) the kitchen BEFORE:

PHOTO BOMB!

Those cabinets are from 1979. I'm not even kidding. The counter is tile. TILE! Have you EVER in your life tried to clean tile counter in a kitchen?? OHMYGOSH it is THE WORST THING EVER. Getting that grout clean? For get it, impossible. Our former town home had tile counter tops and I DESPISED them. Getting different counters was nonnegotiable in my world.

After talking with our contractor about what we were hoping for in a kitchen he drew up a floor plan.

Just seeing the potential our kitchen held had us excited. 

During the transformations I took a picture at the end of each day.

Totally gutted. Doesn't it already look better?!

Island installed, and cabinets in.

Partial counter top installation, and partial hardware added to cabinets.

PHOTO BOMB!
Counter tops installed, hardware installed, moulding up, and electrical work complete.

Back splash installed and faucet installed.

For 24 hours we couldn't touch the back splash/grout, and couldn't use the sink, as the caulking had to dry. While we waited for all that we moved in immediately, cautiously unpacking and giving every kitchen item a home. 

It blew my mind how quickly and efficiently the contractor and laborers worked. In less than a week our kitchen was complete. 

We realized town home living wouldn't give us a huge kitchen. With that in mind we tried to utilize every inch of workable space. Here are a few details and features that we feel make the best use of the space provided. 

Left: A few cabinet doors with glass and decorative etching. Before now I'd never taken our china out of their boxes. I can now display them!
Middle top: A DISHWASHER! Prior to the new kitchen we had been hand washing dishes for the past four months.
Middle bottom: Pull out pantry cabinets. LOVE.
Top right: Pull out spice rack, gas burning stove, and a double oven.
Middle right: A place to hide our trash.
Bottom right: Under-cabinet lighting, and our backsplash. The lights are such a fabulous feature, and I love our pearl glass Subway tiles.

FINALLY - a fully functioning kitchen!