Kitchen Remodel, Part 1

The house we live in is the oldest one on the Etnos property and through the years it has been updated, remodeled, fixed, and modified by whomever happened to be living here at the time.  After leaving it pretty well alone for over a year, we've decided to dirty our hands on it as well.

It started with finishing the guest bedroom upstairs, a project I did in December and January during the summer break.  We have been tossing around ideas to remodel the kitchen for a year now and decided to take advantage of my dad being here.

The biggest problem with the kitchen was that the cabinets were not built for this space.  They came from somewhere else and were just made to work.  It wasn't terrible, but there were several things about it that were annoying and made it feel like it was half-done.

The fridge was in front of the window at the left

The biggest problem was the placement of the fridge:  in front of the window, blocking the door (visually), and about 12 feet from the oven.  Also, our fridge has the hinge on the right and cannot be swapped, so it opens into the doorway instead of into the kitchen.

In reality, it needed updating anyway:  the Formica was stained and had holes in it and the sink wasn't sealed well and was starting to rot the cabinet.

We contemplated pulling everything out and having new cabinets built, but decided that it would be best to make the most of what we had.  We threw some ideas around, had some fun with my design software, and decided to go with Kaylee's idea of splitting the corner cabinet and moving everything over.  This is what it should look like, more or less:

The corner cabinet gets split, everything moves left to the doorway, bringing the sink under the window.  The oven moves into the hole created, and the fridge moves over to where the oven was.  It's not perfect, but it puts everything within reach and makes the space look more "finished."

We started on February 26 by getting the counter tops off and having a look at the cabinets, then splitting the corner.

Because I have to juggle my class and academic responsibilities, my dad is actually doing most of the work.  He put backs on the cabinets, rebuilt the corner where we cut it, and made tops for them all.  We looked into installing granite, but it was going to be $1000 and a lot of hassle, so we went the cheaper, easier route of Formica.  We made the tops 4 inches wider than they were, so there's more counter space, leaving a gap in the back.

Corner cab with new side and back

Thankfully, he has lots of Formica experience!

So, here we are a month later, with only 2 weeks left to work!  At this point, we need to set the tile backsplash, paint, and get the gas line moved.  I have been dedicating myself to plastering the walls in between class work and we have taken some time off to do some gardening and make some changes to the girls' room.

Here's where we're at!

We made the island wider as well, for more work space and so the bar stools fit better