The long awaited Kitchen Renovation: Part 2-'during'

The 'during' phase of our kitchen renovation was actually eighteen long months of 'nearly finished'. Once the cupboards were all installed, it was then a matter of waiting for each tradie and more $$ to finish off every.other.element.

going...

...going....

gone! ( Ok forgot to get a completely 'gone' photo so this will have to do)

new cupboards have arrived! Picture me squealing with absolute delight here!

The kitchen was installed on New Years Eve, 2011. A great end to a crappy year and a fresh new start for 2012!

I could show you more of the 'during' pics. Like what it looked like once all the cupboards were in but before the plastering was finished, before the glass splash back was on and, before our feature lighting was installed, but that would give away the ending!

But for now, how about a sneak peak?

Lisa xx

The long awaited Kitchen Renovation: Part 1-'before'

Many, many years ago in a little beach side town, way down South in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, a guy bought a block of land and had a little house built to put on it. That guy and his young girlfriend moved into that little 'starter' house with every intention of moving on to bigger and better things in the not-so-distant future.....

TWELVE LONG YEARS have passed since then and that guy and his girlfriend (who is now his wife) are STILL THERE! But now they have two children and a pup as well. All living (squishing) in to the little house.

The wife had never liked the kitchen or the bathrooms. Timber veneer cupboards with black 'marble' laminate. Really? What was he thinking?? So when the wife came to the very sad realisation that they may have to continue living in the little house for a year (or 5!) more due to the husbands hugely scary, risk-fuelled, self-employment status (note: sarcasm, banks are stupid!) she hatched a little plan to make the little house a little more comfortable. The kitchen was by far the most menacing, ugly, impractical, way-too-small-to-be-functional space in the house. It had.to.go!

But as always, there was a budget to consider. A very tight budget. The wife started perusing her huge stash of decorating mags and pinning images to her 'kitchen reno' pinterest page. They checked out ikea, bunnings and various instal-it-yourself kitchen companies. When the wife finally had the husband convinced to proceed, he pulled out the old 'well actually I know a guy that could come and build us a kitchen relatively cheap' card and voila, wheels in motion. 

Kitchen guy came over and within minutes, the wife knew they were on the same page. He had all these amazing ideas, ones she hadn't even considered. He went away and a few days later texted the husband with a rough price. It was nearly double what they were hoping to spend with the DIY approach but the husband really values his own time and to him, the extra $$ were worth it. Besides, in the grand scheme of kitchen reno's, this was still waaaaaay cheap!

So, what did it look like before......??

It was a dark, u-shaped kitchen with an angled bench and a built-in-pantry. It had one set of cutlery drawers, a useless corner cupboard and no over-head cupboards to speak of. The bench had no over-hang so it didn't have the dual purpose of being a breakfast bar as well. And the worst part of all, it didn't have a dishwasher! And, as mentioned before, orangey timber veneered cupboards with a black benchtop and white tiled splashback. 

dark and cluttered

View from the dining room
The corner pantry was huge, but it blocked a lot of natural light coming in from the sliding doors to the left of it

The view from the living room

Want to see what it looks like now? Check back in for Part 2-'during' and Part 3-'after'


Lisa xx
Wow, this is my third post in three days. On.a.roll!