Kitchen Remodel with pics :)

September 3rd, 2010 the original kitchen drain pipes corroded and leaked. The leak went downstairs in the family room, into the kitchen cabinets, drywall, insulation and the under-layment of the floor to the other side of the room. Needless to say, this was a insurance claim.  But we decided to take the money and remodel the kitchen the way we wanted it.  That meant that we would be doing most of the work ourselves and I do mean, hard, physical labor.  Plus, all this time we would be cooking outdoors as shown: http://herbalmommasda.blogspot.com/search/label/Kitchen

Nine weeks later and $2000 of our own money ($5000 insurance), the kitchen was finished. It is beautiful, more functional and has a lot more counter space and cabinets.  We figured that this type of remodel would have cost over $25,000 to have done.

Here's a good view of the pipe "culprits".

 The demo: Jacob & Emily had a great time tearing down the old soffets and the old sheet-rock.  It was harder than they thought it would be.

Here's our gutted, newly sheetrocked kitchen with additional electrical outlets.  Scott did the electrical and taught Jacob to wire the outlets.

Scott, my DH, was in Mississippi when the floor had to be put down, so our contractor friend could put up the cabinets and we could stay on schedule.

So the kids and I prepped the wood (2x8' planks) by sanding and staining them in the garage. We purchased the wood from  Home Depot.  The floor cost us $800 for 330 square feet, plus a lot of sweat labor.

And by laying the floor.  We first leveled the floor with  Fix-All, then laid roofing tar paper and finally screwed the flooring down.

Here the cabinets are just installed and the floor is completely laid.  Notice that I didn't say the floor was finished.  Scott returned home and we worked hard setting all the screws, touch patching the holes and any gaps.  Then we re-stained the  floors.

Here we are so happy to be putting on the last of the 3 layers of finish coat!

I built the bookcase for a end-cap of the refrigerator. We reused all of our appliances.  They all work well and there was not enough funds to replace them. Scott was very meticulous at getting the dishwasher box and the refrigerator hole just perfect.

Here is a closeup of our beautiful kitchen counters.  They are made of white concrete with recycled glass.
They are smooth and have perfectly rounded edges.  They were made by Shae Glasscock.

This is the opposite side of the kitchen, the end of our dinning room.  Scott purchased the antique cookstove for me as a Valentine's & Anniversary present.  He and Phil Griffin of Olympic Energy installed it.

When our power was out for 13 hours we cooked on it. In January I will be only using it to cook with, so I can really practice.  Watch out for those blog articles.

Here we are with our beautifully done kitchen.  Special thanks go to my sweetheart Scott, Jacob, Emily and Adam for all their hardwork and patience with our cooking situation.

We also want to thank:

Phil Griffin (friend & contractor) for his advice, counsel and hardwork.
Olympic Energy  253-335-9142
Shae Glasscock (and family) for the wonderful counter-tops.

And Wok & Teriyaki House 420 Ellingson Road Suite 102, Pacific, WA  253-333-8323
(especially Kae) for feeding us wonderful, fresh and delicious Chinese food when cooking outdoors was just too much.  They have the best and most generous servings too.  Let them know Kristine sent you.

And some dear friends, who brought food occasionally, came to check on our progress and visited us in our mess. :)