Sunday, August 9, 2015

So we're moving…again.

I figured it's about darn time I finished our renovation pictures because WE'RE MOVING. Again. We bought another dump about 20 minutes away and will be fixing it up.  I'll write about that one day soon and share the way God totally orchestrated the purchase of our new place and the sale of this house.


But in the  meantime it's been bugging me that I started documenting the renovation process and stopped before I could finish all of the "after" pics. ( I took a break from writing about our renovations because our daughter arrived prematurely in February.  You can read about that here.  Also, I just flat got lazy.)  So let's finish this!  Today I'll tackle the kitchen.


Since it's been a while, let's look back at the kitchen before:






And here is the kitchen now:


We are so happy with the way the kitchen turned out.  My father-in-law owns a high-end kitchen cabinet company and he hooked us up.  Together with my husband, he designed the layout of the kitchen in order to maximize our storage space.  (1800 square feet with 4 kids needs as much storage space as possible!).  We went with melamine cabinets, which is the cheapest option.  Our big "splurge" (of the entire house, actually) was the caesar stone island.  But even that was a remnant at the store and so we got it for cheaper than if we'd bought it new.

I need to pause right now and give my awesome sister-in-law HUGE props for helping with the design of the house.  Miranda is an interior designer and she made this process oh so easy for me. I rarely called my husband with questions; it was usually Miranda.  She met me and helped me envision almost every aspect of this house: lights, tile, paint, countertops, etc.  THANK YOU MIRANDA!!!




The pendant lights over the island were the first thing I bought after we closed on the house. I'd been eyeing these seeded glass globe pendants from West Elm.  They were a steal at $30 each and I love them.  Unfortunately they no longer sell them so I can't use them in the next house. (insert sad face emoji).



I should have mentioned that the island is actually not melamine.  Melamine cabinets only come in white. I wanted the island to be grey so these cabinets are actually wood and they are a shade called "lamplighter grey."  It's very subtle but I liked it.  To be honest though, I won't use it in the next house. But that's only because the island is such a high-traffic area and our kids have chipped and nicked the paint a ton. Next time I'll go with my sister-in-law's idea and either get the island stained or have it done with reclaimed wood. 







I'll tell ya right now the BIGGEST thing we regret in our house is buying these floors. They show EVERYTHING.  I literally vacuum at least 3-4 times a day.  Don't buy cheap floors friends. It'll cost you your sanity. 


Because of our budget, we couldn't afford to do caesar stone in the entire kitchen.  So on the perimeter I did a grey laminate. Laminate has come A LONG way! I love the marble-looking laminate in our master bathroom, for example. But this grey laminate…oh I do not like it at all. 



So there's our kitchen reno! Later this week I'll finish up our reno. 

Xo,
E




13 comments:

  1. Hey there! First, I love your reno! My hubby and have a split level fixer upper and I would like to recreate your kitchen layout. I am not sure though if we have enough space. It looks about the same so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing the dimensions of your kitchen and all the cabinets, fridge, stove, microwave, etc. I would greatly appreciated the help. (so so so much, I'm kind of obsessed with it. It's just so perfect!) Also, what material did you use for the walls in the front entry? Thank you for posting your beautiful ideas!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Rachel! Oh I'm so so sorry for not replying before now! This second Reno has been eating away at my time. Let's see--I don't have the dimensions but here are approximates: the kitchen was about 10x10 (pretty small). The microwave and trim kit were a standard size (they don't really come in tons of sizes). The fridge was 33" wide and the stove was also a standard size gas stove. As far as the entry way, it was 1x8 MDF. Hope that helps!!

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  3. Finally, you have been able to post these in your blog. Impressive renovation! Too bad you will have to say goodbye to it. At least you'll be able to apply your unique design and lighting in your new home. We look forward to seeing your reno work there.

    Robyn Harmon @ Hills Moving

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  4. Hello! I stumbled upon your blog while looking up split level redos. We are looking at possibly buying a house and are not sure if we want to move into a split level. The one we are looking at has the garage under the top level and therefore it seems like there is no storage except for one area in the garage and the closets in the rooms. What was the storage aspect like in this home and what sort of solutions did you come up with, if any. Thank you! And congrats on your little girl. We had two boys and just had a little girl of our own!

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    1. Hi! I'm glad you happened to find this little blog! Congrats on your girl--so fun aren't they?!

      To be honest--the house was only 1800 sq ft so there wasn't a ton of storage. When we ripped out the original kitchen, we moved some of the cabinets down to the garage and I used that as my outside storage for food and big things (like toilet paper, paper towels, and Costco goods). We also had our extra fridge and deep freeze in the garage. Inside the house, we turned a coat closet at the top of the stairs into another pantry/kitchen storage. We also had a large master bedroom/closet so we used the closet for extra storage. I'm not gonna lie--this was the smallest house we've lived in and it was tough---we ended up purging and re-purging. We got rid of LOTS and gave lots away. It's been really good!

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  5. Thanks for sharing your house remodel. We are yet more owners of the split level/entry home. Ours seems to be a similar size to yours as well. Did you come up with any ingenious storage ideas for the entry? Especially since it sounds like you ditched the hall at the top of the stairway for kitchen storage in lieu of coats. Inspiration is helpful!

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    1. Oh I wish I had ingenious ideas!! The only thing I did was, as you mentioned, use the coat closet at the top of the stairs as extra good storage. That's what Made the most sense for our family. But I know my father in-law, for example, really values having a coat closet. We just used the laundry room downstairs as our place to hang jackets and store shoes. Nothing ingenious there. Just practical. šŸ˜Š

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    2. That is still definitely a helpful idea on storing shoes and coats! Thanks!

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