Thought I would mix things up a little here this week. Don't want to get to predictable and boring! So today we're doing a little remodeling.
Hubby and I purchased a home recently that was built in 1895! It is an old farm house on the top of a hill overlooking our city. After doing a little research and talking to the neighbor who's parents had owned the house since the 40's I found out that it was the oldest house in the area. It used to sit on the acreage that is now a lot of the neighborhood.
We took it down to the studs and replaced all the major systems, electrical, plumbing, heating, etc. We insulated, sheet rocked, replaced windows, and refinished the hardwood floors. We put up crown molding and polished old hardware...
We were not going to do the kitchen because of budget restraints. But after the rest of the house got a total makeover we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave it...
It is a very small kitchen for a house that is so roomy everywhere else. It was just 6' x 4'! We added another 1.5' to one counter, but it is still a tiny kitchen. We determined that we could afford another $750 but that was it for the kitchen.
So we made of list of what we felt would be the best use of our money...
Countertops
Sink
Dishwasher
Window
The cabinets would not be replaced, neither would the hardware or the frig or stove.
I removed all the cabinet doors to paint and prime...
One coat of primer and three coats of semi-gloss paint.
The cabinet boxes themselves which were original to the house were in great shape. The same could not be said for the inside walls which were in really poor condition...
There was even a large whole in one that you could see the back of the siding through!
I decided the easiest and most economical way to fix the walls was to cover it with bead board. One 4' x 8' sheet did the whole kitchen.
I love how it turned out!
Next I chose a shelf paper that was classic and befitting an old kitchen.
Here it is with the counters and tile in place...I love this paper!
Then there were those lovely Formica countertops to deal with!
We removed it from the counters and the walls...
Since the counter space was so small we splurged and decided on black granite for the main body of the countertops...a bit of drama in our old kitchen!
You can also see in the picture that we extended and bumped out the end of the counters on the left to accommodate a dishwasher...we have also replaced the old aluminum window with a new vinyl one.
Knowing that all black would just be to overwhelming for such a small place we used white subway tiles on the wall and white for the counter edges. This was an interesting process because we ended up with black grout on the countertops and white on the wall...a first for us, but we love how it turned out. We both felt black grout on the wall would make it too busy, but black on the counters was necessary to not have to fight stains for the next 30 years.
We also decided to trim the bottom of the kitchen window in tile.
Next we put in a new sink and faucet. Now if it had been in the budget a porcelain farmhouse sink would have been just charming but alas the budget could not stand such an extravagance!
Come back tomorrow when I'll hang the freshly painted cabinet doors, put on the old hardware, install the dishwasher and let your see the kitchen all finished. I will also give you a break down of the money spent and let you see if we made it within our very limited budget!
And just for the record...I'm digging black granite!
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Oh and if anyone is wondering about the old porcelain sink...I'm using in my garden!
