Kitchen updates

When we purchased our new home we knew we would have to spend some money updating the kitchen to be more of what we liked.

This is the picture of the kitchen from the listing:

These are the things we knew we would have to change soon:

- replace the “beautiful” red laminate countertops.

- change all cabinet hardware

- replace black cast iron sink

- replace faucet – the one we had leaked. 

- replace black dishwasher

- replace black microwave

These things are now complete.

What we still need to do in the next little while:

- replace the ugly black ceiling fan that doesn’t work.  Light works, not fan.

- install a tile backsplash.

- replace black wall oven

What we may do in the future:

- paint kitchen cabinets white.  I’m still on the fence about this one but think I may do it at some point once I get more pressing things done.    I also want to mask the soffit above the cabinets with crown molding and paint it to match the white cabinets to look something like this.  Our house is very light with lots of white so I think it will work nicely if the cabinets are painted.  There are white shutters with large crown molding over each shutter and pretty wood windowsills (you can see a little of that in the listing picture above).  The paint is also a very cool color which I like and am getting used to.  Styles are a changing!

After:  new lighter countertops completely changed the look of the room.  Having the red gone made everything looks so much brighter.  The counter tops are called Giallo Ornamental Granite.   I knew what I wanted and hunted down that pattern with just about every shop in Utah.  I finally found it.  Yea!

This picture was taken after we replaced the dishwasher just before the new counters, sink, faucet went in.  The hardware had also been changed on all the cabinets.

I did not like having a black sink at all.  Plus, this sink had seen better days and was not polished anymore.  It was very worn.

All counters removed, brighter already.

To save money, Big Mister (with a little help from me) removed all the countertops.   Oh, and we replaced the countertops and cabinet hardware in both bathrooms on the main level, too.   They were ugly brown spotted laminate.

Guest bathroom.  (I photographer I am not!!)

Master Bathroom

More pictures of the after.

I love our new sink and faucet.  The sink is granite composite and doesn’t get black marks or scratches. 

And now for the hardware change. 

This house had worn black rustic curly looking cabinet pulls. 

When I unscrewed one of the handles I was surprised to find that the cabinets had cut outs in them where the handles went.  Ugh.  I worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a new handle that would hide that hole.  The new handle would have to be wide enough at the top and bottom of the handle to hide the hole.   There were not very many options, but I found something that worked just fine.

Before and after knobs.  The old knob used to be black.  They were very worn.

Well, that’s it for now.  We still have a ways to go but it’s fun.