Kitchen Renovation Finish!

As promised here is the "before and after" post upon completion of our kitchen/dining transformation, as of yesterday it is complete. Wow, how long has it been? I had to look back at last year's posts to confirm that the first day of demolition was November 12th. so two months for a complete "gut" of this area is not bad. DH accomplished a marathon job in all the hidden work, demolition, trenching, plumbing, lighting, electrical, tiling etc, replacing a window with French doors, and actually everything but the cabinets and the granite! I helped with repainting.

The vision was mine and the search for and acquisition of all the "accoutrements" [at the best price of course] was also mine. We had a very talented carpenter, David Kobe from "Wood You Want" in Tempe A.Z. whose ideas enhanced the cabinetry design and ergonomics, and that of the island, and Jesus Ortiz from "City Of Stone" also in Tempe, whose stonework created the beautiful island top and counter tops. Each of these talented craftsmen deserve high praise for the quality and ethical professionalism of their work.

David also "built in" the wine fridge and our small freezer so they are incorporated into the cabinets and the island. The cabinets are a soft white with caramel glaze, the island color is a cherry blend stain. The appliances are fairly new so we chose not to replace them at this time, saving thousands of dollars.

No more messy, unfriendly shelves in the lower cabs, but lots of drawers for pots, small appliances etc. The drawers are "soft close", what a difference!

Together we took a small, inconvenient and dated area and transformed it into a fabulous, roomy, convenient space with more useable cabinets and counters, two ways in and out of the kitchen area, an extra "prep sink" and comfortable seating for ten people. And on a fairly tight budget too, monitored by yours truly!

What follows are before and after comparisons, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Before........

after.

Before...........

after.

Before..........

after.

Before...........

after.

Here is a view of the corner where by moving the stove 12" to the right, David was able to give us a fabulous corner with a lazy susan underneath, appliance garage on the counter and a huge corner cabinet above, which before was all empty useless corner space! A gain of about 15 cu.ft. in cabinet space here.

This "garage" hides the toaster, stand mixer, coffee grinder and some utensils that I use daily.

I chose dentil molding, more work for David, but he is so obliging, and it is the icing on the cake, sets off the lovely, simple cabinetry perfectly.

The rain glass I love too, and it will be even nicer when we have lighting installed. I have ordered many feet of LED lighting for under cabinets and eventually under the edge of the island granite. More work for my very patient [long-suffering he would probably say] DH.

An unexpected surprise from Jesus, a cutting board from a piece of the counter granite. He carefully planned the cuts for each area to maximize use of the color and "movement" on the granite slabs. About 95% of two entire slabs of granite was used for this renovation. The island granite is "Misty Mountain" and the counters are "White Spring" both from Brazil.

It looks, feels and lives much larger and I am a very happy camper you can be sure, you may hear my yips of glee from where ever you are! I do like to cook and have family and friends around and it's so much more fun now.

Thank you, thank you, David Kobe, Jesus Ortiz and my hard working husband.