The Reveal - Kitchen Renovation 3.0: Part 2

After 2.5 weeks, too many lunches and dinners out and about, countless hours of DIY youtube videos and our blood, sweat and tears into this kitchen renovation - WE ARE DONE!!! I love the new look of the kitchen, it's a beautiful face lift and such a breathe of fresh air. Eric and I faced a couple mishaps during the demo process but we were able to fix everything that we encountered. The little leak from our old sink was replaced by a new cold water valve, and the crooked cabinets got "jacked" to an even level. We replaced those hideous outlets, and got some awesome new appliances. We were even able to add an additional outlet in the cabinets thus creating more space for our appliances. All in all, everything that went wrong or could possibly go right...it did, but it was all fixed because now anything can withstand this awesome gourmet kitchen.

During the last week of renovations, Eric and I had decided the final part to our renovation was upgrading the appliances. We uncovered a minor problem from not being able to move out the existing dishwasher and the solution was to replace it now versus at a later date. I thought we were only changing out the countertops and fixing the outlets. It was a nice surprise when Eric told me that I could finally get the oven of my dreams. I'm a foodie nutcase for my kitchen, and I already knew what I wanted...a convection 5 burner oven. (That translates to HEAVEN for a cook!) Nothing less, or fancier than that.
Funny story, I had nicknamed our fridge "Iron Man" because it was made out of steel and whenever you have the fridge open longer than 30 seconds - it beeps at you. So it was fitting that I would nickname my other "babies" with references to Iron Man. I nicknamed my gas stove "Mr. Sparks" (Michael Stark...almost close right?) and the dishwasher is nicknamed "Ms. Potts" (Pepper Potts). Some people have kids, and pets but I have kitchen appliances and tools. I'm a foodie nerd, that's my excuse okay!

I love our new sink from Ikea with the dish drainer on the side, and Eric gave it a "DJ" tweak by adding Dynamat to the bottom so you won't hear the thud of dishes being put inside the sink. It helps reduce the noise and it's an easy product to locate anywhere like Best Buy. Shopping for supplies for your kitchen sink at an electronics store is pretty ironic, but brilliant at the same time. We also got a single lever faucet with an extendable spout that makes cleaning dishes so much easier.

Seriously, my most favorite part of the kitchen renovation was that Eric was finally replacing those annoying unworkable outlets. I kept bugging him on when he was going to replace them...it was the only thing on my mind that I wanted to see completed before the granite and subway tile backsplash. But the granite countertops came out looking pretty fabulous and it pairs wonderfully with our cayenne pepper cabinets. The white subway tile backsplash gives a nice clean look, and I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the grout work on this area. The subway tiles were my small contribution of labor, but nothing compared to all the work Eric had done.

My beautiful 5 burner convection gas oven, aka Mr. Sparks, is my new love in the kitchen. We got a Frigidaire self-cleaning freestanding gas oven. Luckily I was able to sell my previous gas range on Craigslist, too. We bought a Frigidaire energy efficient dishwasher, aka Ms. Potts. It will be Eric's best friend whenever he is washing all those dishes and pots from the meals I'll be preparing for him. We recycled our old dishwasher and also we will be getting an energy credit for the upgrade. Luckily for us, our wonderful friends, Adrian and Monica gave us their stainless steel microwave from their newly bought house since it didn't match their white appliances. (We will go shopping for a new microwave for them in lieu of the lovely gift, too.) Shopping for new appliances was icing on the cake for this kitchen renovation.

Eric also installed blue-motion hinge adaptors to all the cabinet doors to prevent the slamming of them. He hated hearing the "thud" of the cabinet doors.  The only minor thing left is the installing the drawer slides for the three kitchen pull-out drawers. For the upcoming weeks, I'll be learning how to cook on my new babies, because its not quite like my old appliances. But I'll be cooking up some serious good eats and I can't wait to make a pot of chili/soup on the stove for some upcoming fall/winter meals. Or baking some sweet treats like cookies or fresh bread will bake evenly and possibly taste better.  I can't wait to see that beautiful golden brown from my sweet treats. I'm imagining that my roasted turkey or many casserole dishes can be prepared without a hitch in this oven.

Ahhh, the glory and love of it all after this kitchen renovation has us definitely in good spirits. This was seriously one of the hardest home projects that we have faced and completed. It was frustrating at times, but we never let this kitchen be the end of us. I was constantly cleaning the mess that we had made from concrete, paint and tiling. I'm so happy to come home to a clean house again, and to be able to use my kitchen sink without worries of a leak. I can't thank my husband enough for putting together such a gorgeous kitchen all for me. I better start working on some tasty home cooked meals for him! I wonder what home project we will tackle next, who knows?