A Work In Progress my kitchen gets a face-lift!

Here are some Before and After shots of the kitchen...well i say "after", but it's really a "during" shot because there is still sooo much more to do! But here is an update...i think it is coming along really nicely.

How about that floor? That's GLITTERED ceramic tile baby! I used a chisel, a rubber mallet and goggles to pound that out piece by piece! The brown, blue and orange indoor/outdoor carpet (in the kitchen) came up with much more ease, but the mildew problem in the subfloor was pretty nasty. The peach wallpaper was vinyl and was applied directly to the drywall...actually it was applied directly to 3 other layers of wallpaper in various shades of avacado green, baby blue and harvest gold.

View from the dining room. I'll post all those pics another time...perhaps when i complete the "sink" side of the countertop and kitchen...which will hopefully be this weekend.

The outlet on the far right is the one i got electrocuted on. I think it was the spirit of Dorothy (the old lady who used to live here, who probably hand picked that brown carpet) coming back to haunt me for scraping down and re-texturing her precious popcorn cottage cheese ceilings.

These pictures were all taken the week we bought the house a year and a half ago. Reese was only 11 months old in this pic.

much better, yes? New floors (aaron helped me put that in in ONE weekend), new ceiling, new wains cot on the cabinets, paint for cabinets, updated hardware, new paint for walls, new light fixtures (which also would have been an opportunity for me to be electrocuted, but luckily my superhero dad shut the power off before we got started on those) new baseboards, and I installed venetian plaster, bead board and new chair rail/casing in the entryway. (shown in the background...yay)

I cut and laid ALL 720 ceramic tiles MYSELF! yeah, I know right? I don't want to sound cocky...well ok, yes i do... i'm feeling awesome right now.. My hands, back and shoulders however, are currently NOT awesome though...they hurt. Cutting tile is not easy on your body. I still have to add in a few tiles, clean everything up and Grout everything-that's why it still looks a little spacey, there's no grout yet. I haven't decided on a color yet, any suggestions?
















I'm also going to distress the cabinets a little. Aaron's aunt valle did her cabinets like this also and her painter distressed them, (her kitchen is BEAUTIFUL!!) so i think i'll do the same. I also just got my uppercase living order in...i have the words for bread, milk, flour sugar, eggs, knife, fork, spoon, oil, butter, etc. all in french in a 4 inch black swirly script (vinyl lettering..it looks like stencil, but better) to go on the 1 ft wall space across the tops of my cabinets...it will be the finishing touch once we decide if we like the wall color, right now aaron doesn't care for the color.

By the way, just for bragging sake...this ENTIRE transformation, from start to finish, including 3 new light fixtures, an air compressor, a desk, curtains, wall lettering nail gun and hitachi compound meiter saw (which i would have bought in pink if it were available) and all the materials for the above shown projects...for UNDER $1300 bucks. I got a smokin' deal on my floor and the tile...and did EVERYthing myself. Dad...are you proud? I think i'm ready for my hot pink toolbelt now.