Our Kitchen: Then and Now

I thought I would begin by sharing my kitchen...

When we bought our house I said I DID NOT want a fixer upper.  I wanted a house that was move in ready.  However, my husband Jay found this house online and really wanted to see it.  When I took a look at the pictures I was turned off.  I told him there was no way I would live in that house, but I decided to humor him and go take a look at the house.  The minute I walked in, I knew this was my house.  Here is how the kitchen looked when we first saw the house:

Isn't the brown and orange paisley carpet just stunning...

and check out that amazing orangish brown drop in stove...

Despite the obvious need to updating I fell in love with the house.  I thought I would never buy a home that needed a lot of work, but the layout of this house had me convinced that it would be perfect for our first home. 

Once we got the keys we started the renovations.  We removed the lovely stove and moved the cabinet over to accommodate a new stove.  Then we ripped up that gorgeous carpet, and put in a new tile floor. 

Next came new counter tops/stove and painting the cabinets. 

The final product: (can you find our cat Spot? :-)  )

For three and a half years this kitchen suited us very well.  However, we were missing one thing... can you guess what it is??? 

Yup that's right we had NO...

Dishwasher!!

After years of pruney fingers and sinkfuls of unwashed dirty dishes, we decided to do something about our lack of a dishwasher.  By this time, our beautiful white cabinets had started to chip and every time you took out a pot or dish you had to wipe paint chips out before using it. 

Because of budget reasons we couldn't afford brand new cabinets (plus our counter tops were new and in great condition and the floor doesn't go under the cabinets), so we found a great company that resurfaces kitchen cabinets.  They put new maple doors on and refaced our cabinet boxes with maple as well.  I am so glad that our kitchen is finally complete and I really love not having to wash dishes for an hour after I try a new recipe. 

The FINAL final product:

close up of the new cabinets:

 It's not drastically different... but they are well made, don't chip, all the doors close beautifully, and most importantly I LOVE them!