Maxi Kitchen Makeover!!

Okay, so you want to see some progress on the back kitchen? See here for the original starting point of this morphing makeover. Well, you should never say you are "just  going to paint the cabinets" because  we are now into……..well, I'll let you take a look!

Yes, we have officially moved the reno into the main kitchen and I can NOT wait to show you how much better it looks already. I often complain that the homeowners before us loved themselves some DIY they just were not exactly exacting when it came to their DIY. Which actually usually really works out for us when we are going to re-do something because it just comes apart veeerrrrry easily. Like the floor came up in about an hour. They loved that green tile so much, they put two, TWO, layers of it on the floor. I feel like the Count from Sesame Street. "Two, Two beautiful layers of hospital green tile!" 

The other downside about that floor was no matter how hard I scrubbed or what cleaner I used, the floor was never clean. Never. It made me want to scream sometimes in all the futility and wasted time on my hands and knees. Now I can truly say that the time I have spent on my hands and knees putting in the new floor, grueling as well but not futile and NOT wasted!

Why did we decide to go Maxi Makeover when Mini Makeover was moving at a good clip? 

Well, I knew we would have to buy enough flooring to do both rooms any way since we might not be able to find the same flooring in the future when we eventually got around to doing the main kitchen floor so we needed to buy it now and let it collect dust in the basement. So I knew we were at least going to buy the flooring which of course made me itch to just get it done but I wanted my ANdrew's consent since he really didn't have any say in the back kitchen makeover. He said "Hmmmm, let me think about it for a little bit ok?", to which he came back downstairs about 15 minutes later and "I hate that floor. Let's do it."

 Hallejujah 

 Here we are mid roll of the underlayment. So far this had taken us two days just to get to this point! 

 

The back kitchen floor took us all day Saturday because, first of all, we had to install a new subfloor cuz' I ripped up a perfectly good one thinking I was gonna find some awesome original hardwoods underneath all that carpet crap. Then we had to chisel out all of the tile up to the toe kick to get a solid flat surface to start our click vinyl flooring. Starting the first row was the absolute hardest thing I have every had to deal with. We, meaning I, almost gave up I was so frustrated. My husband, sweet man, was in it to win it (not sure what he thought he was gonna win but hey, he thought something was gonna be good!) so he pushed me to find a solution while he went and got fast food for the kids. He was very encouraging and said "That is what you do! You figure things out. You can do this!" Well, maybe not so peppy but he was dealing with tears at this point so he had to scramble. So I pulled up my big girl panties and my jeans (because my kids were having a field day, all day, saying "don't you know Crack kills mom?" and then laughing hysterically while I hiked the jeans up one more time) and got to work! The solution was to slide it under the false wood filler piece on the left of the cabinet most left and that way it was butted up against something so the rest of the tiles wouldn't move. You can also see in the picture below that I used little scrap pieces under the cabinets and against the right wall to hold things in place as well. 

Then I just went to town clicking and snapping and pounding and pulling up my jeans after each row!  I will never laugh at another plumber again in my life. It's just not kind and I have come to find there is truly nothing you can do about it until you stand up again!

Big difference eh?

This little 4 x 10 area took almost 3 hours just because of all of the  cuts that needed to be made with the radiator, two doorways, cutting under and around the doorjams and multiple bumpouts. Sometimes I long for a regular new house with 4 square corners and ranch trim. But I always love it when it is done, it just takes a freaking long time to make it look good when your house is 100 years old. 

Now here are a few more problems that I need to fix. 

Cover the radiator. It would have cost $400 to have it removed and then re-installed. 

Not.

And my light above the sink is desperate in need of something. Oh, look, it's still snowing! 

 but I will show you the simple solution I came up with for this and the toe kick of my cabinets since they were pretty nasty as well.

Stay tuned for further breaking news about my morphing kitchens.

Yes that is plural for "Two, Two Wonderful Kitchen makeovers!"

Thanks Count! 

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/01/that-diy-party-10/#xgMAcRCgRocl5vmh.99       

 

 

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