Kitchen Remodel--part 1

I never really loved our kitchen.  There wasn't anything that I really hated, just a lot of things that I didn't love. 

 

The first thing that I hated was the range.  For some reason it was set lower than the rest of the counter tops and it was right at little kid height.  I was always worried about one of the kids touching the burners, turning them on, etc. 

You can't really see it, but the backsplash behind the range was just ugly--I'm sure someone paid good money to have that little scene installed, but it really was ugly.  The blue countertops weren't my favorite, but I probably could have lived with them.  I really wanted a double oven, but didn't know what to do with the mircowave if I got the double oven installed.

This picture shows two things that I really hated.  The first was the pull out cubbies on the end of the peninsula.  They seemed like such a great idea, but nothing fit (they sloped down in the back) and things were always falling out into the back of the cupboard that I couldn't really get to--the hinges started breaking  and just added to how much I hated them.   The other thing were these open display cabinets--besides the fact that they were painted orange, I couldn't put anything in them--the kids (Alex & Aaron) would have torn out anything I put in there and it bugged me to have them sit empty.

I really wanted to redo my kitchen but figured it would have to be put off for a long time.  When my sister remodeled her kitchen I realized that it might be something that I could do (especially since she gave me permission to copy all of her ideas!).  

After writing down what we wanted done I started getting recommendations on contractors and then calling for estimates.  The contractor I ended up going with was kind of a fluke recommendation--someone had recommended one company but when they called me they said they didn't do small remodel jobs but would refer some former employees to me.  I almost told them not to bother, but didn't.  After getting six estimates we ended up going with the secondary referral--they were terrific and made the whole process as easy as is possible with people in your house all day and your kitchen all torn up.

Kitchen Remodel part 2