Our Kitchen DIY

I'm back! OK, not back to work yet, but in 3 short weeks I will be! In the meantime, I wanted to write a post about our kitchen resurfacing project.

For the last six months, every free weekend and vacation, my husband was hard at work making my plans come to life. Now keep in mind...we did have a baby through all of this too! Our 1960s kitchen just HAD to be tackled, however. But with little money to spend on the project, we made the most out of what we had. We did splurge on a new range to replace the old 24" wall oven and cook top--that's right, the oven was so small I couldn't fit a standard size cookie sheet inside! We also purchased new counter tops--which was the most expensive part of our remodel. I had no idea counter tops were so expensive!

We purchased a used dishwasher from a friend who was upgrading and saved a ton of money! Our "push to the sink and hook it up" dishwasher was driving me crazy, so this is my favorite part of our new kitchen!

The other issue that just had to be addressed was the fact that a line of cabinets were blocking the view to our dinning room, but we had an entire wall that had NOTHING on it...just a heating unit. A lot of older homes are similar, but in today's "open concept" era, it really dated our home. And so did the cabinets themselves!!! Just take a look.....

Small cabinet BEFORE

The "beast" that held the wall oven and blocked the view to the dinning room BEFORE...well, actually once it became my test cabinet for paint colors, that is!

Larger lower cabinet BEFORE

Counter tops BEFORE

Counter tops AFTER

Small upper cabinet AFTER

Sink cabinet side AFTER

The new view to the dinning area---complete with dishwasher AFTER!


I love our new kitchen and it seems so much larger!!! Not to mention, that the space is so much more user friendly! When we took out that line of cabinets to the dinning room, we extended the counter top to create a bar area, which is perfect for entertaining! And my oldest son can sit there when he comes home from Kindergarten this fall and do his homework while I make dinner! My husband and I can actually be in the same space at the same time too. Before, we would bump into each other because there wasn't enough counter space.

I would say our DIY was a success!