Evolution of a Kitchen

Yesterday was the moment I'd been waiting for preeeeetty much ever since we bought the house. When we bought this place, we could both see the potential in it. This house is old and full of character, and could one day be something truly special. But it was also old. And full of the BAD kind of character, too. Take the kitchen. It was... lovely.

I actually took those pictures the very first time we saw the house. The cabinets were in good shape, but they sort of clashed with the floor. And the walls. And then there were the counters... dated laminate that was a)ugly, and b) in terrible condition. But I don't know... Gus and I could see what it would become, with some time, money, and elbow grease. We were in love with the house and what it could be!

The first change came when I painted the walls. That happened fairly early on-- paint is cheap, and it was cold outside! I spent a lot of our first winter here painting walls. Two years later, I am still not done. It never ends!

Next, we replaced our dishwasher. We knew we wanted to get rid of all the white appliances and replace them with stainless, but the dishwasher started leaking and pushed us into action. And really, seeing that nice new appliance motivated us to buy others. Soon we had purchased a new refrigerator, freestanding range, and hood. But then these lovely appliances made the cabinets looks so much worse! I had sworn that I would never, ever paint kitchen cabinets again... but then I did. I knew what I was doing this time, though, and did a much better job. But then, of course, we needed cabinet hardware. Have you ever read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..."? Yeah. The same concept applies to home improvement projects. It never ends, really. Still, at that point, things were looking a lot better!

However, no matter what we did, the counters were still ugly. It was nice, in a way... I didn't worry about wrecking them, that's for sure! They were cut, burnt, and just generally awful. I let the kids color/paint/make messes on them with reckless abandon (maybe because I subconsciously hoped they would completely destroy them and I would get new ones?? haha). But the truth is, they were reeeeally ugly. And I spend a lot of time in the kitchen-- it is truly the hub of our house (literally and figuratively). And every day, I thought, "Wow, these are ugly. One day..."

Then, a few weeks ago, we got our check back from our childcare flex-spending account (preschool). That's the money we always forget about until it's here. And it was a nice sum! Nice enough that I suggested going to look at new counters, and Gus agreed. We had actually thought we might get new (much nicer) laminate counters. I am not a snob... I just wanted them to look nice, but didn't really care what they were made of. As it turned out, the counters we wanted ended up being very comparable in price to granite. And, well, granite trumps laminate pretty much every day of the week. And so we went for it!!!

The installers came yesterday. I am in love. Really, it is just so amazing!!

Close-up of the sink (and a better pic of the granite... it's called San Gabriel Black):

One of the best parts? We had them extend the kitchen island on two sides, so now we have seating for four people (possibly five). I love the bigger work area, but also love that we can all sit there together and eat breakfast!

Anyway, we are so, so happy with how our kitchen is turning out. Two years in, and it's looking great! And today, I just ordered a bunch of Bianco Carrara marble tiles for the backsplash. It should look something like this, which will be AWESOME!

Anyway, that's the biggest news around here. Snowstorm Nika brought us all a much-needed snow day today, and we never changed out of our pajamas! Life is good! :)