Kitchen Makeover - Before and Afters!

Ok so FINALLY I am posting some before and afters of the house!  Wow - we've lived here how long now?  Also at one point in this blog I insinuated that this was going to turn in to a house remodeling blog.  And 1 year later I am doing the first post.

But check out our remodeled kitchen!  The only thing that stayed the same is the floor.  We redid the cabinets (painted by myself and my mom), the counter tops (Ikea butcher block), the appliances (mostly all from craigslist) and the bascksplash (white tile installed by Dave and my dad).

Here are the before and afters:

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are some more details:

Toaster, Flour and Sugar, and Kitchen-aid - all within easy reach

Stainless steel appliances found on craigslist!

Mail Sorter and Cooking Utensils 

We loved this hardware for the cabinet doors

  New Pendant Light above the Bar and Drum Shade above the Table

We Love this Long Breakfast Bar

Sink and Bottle Making Station

Bread Basket and Fruit Stand

Now here it is in the making!

 There wasn't much cooking going on in this kitchen.  But here is Dave installing the new stove and dishwasher.

Old cabinets and Rudy's cup :)

Cute hubs. Check out the newly installed stove.

Cute mom cleaning the stove.

Time to Paint the Cabinets 

(which was a 4 day adventure by the way - not as easy as HGTV makes it sound)

We sanded, labeled, and stacked all the cupboards and drawers.

 Looking back, I would suggest using a small electric sander.  But we cleaned the cabinets hard core with TSP before hand.  Good thing I wasn't pregnant, pretty sure this stuff is toxic to humans just by looking at it.

 Then we sanded some more...

And more...

Look at my mom's tan legs by the way, nice!

And kept on sanding for 1 1/2 days!  We didn't even paint until the second day. 

Ok Day 2, now we paint:

 Oil Based Primer first (nasty crap but good crap).

Which stinks and is hard to clean up after.  

 

 All primed and ready for the first coat of latex paint.  Once primed they had to sit for 1 whole day AND we sanded after we primed before the first coat of paint.

Now the real paint, Mascarpone by Benjamin Moore.  Beautiful white with yellowish cream undertones.  Perfect for the kitchen.  Not too yellow and not too white.

We did thick even brush strokes with a brush not a roller.

They had to sit for a whole day before the second coat.

Second coat went on and looked great (we sanded again in between the 2 coats of paint).

ALL DONE!

 Now this is the hard part - WAITING!  They have to sit for at least 4 days before you hang them again.  Otherwise they will be sticky every time you open them.

But finally they were up and the hardware went in.  It looked so nice!

It was quite the project.  Probably tied with the hardwood floors that Dave put in.  Which will be another blog post. :)

Holding Hands

Look at this sweet photo of my littles holding hands.  Just saying, I didn't even make them do this:

6 Months Old

I can't believe I have two 6 month old babies.  I have always thought of 6 months as the point where babies are no longer newborns.  It's true.  They don't like to lay down on the ground anymore, they need to be sitting or on their stomachs playing.  They don't like to be cradled in your arms when they eat, they would rather be looking around. 

But they are still my little bebes. 

They will still fall asleep in my arms, smile when they see me, turn to hear my voice, and even whine when I leave the room (which I'm sure I won't find cute for very much longer).

Here are some photos I took of them before church on Sunday to remember them at 6 months old.  Pretty sure this is officially the cutest they have ever been (so far).