And...we have a kitchen!

After 5 months of living with a few sad and broken cabinets, no dishwasher, and too much wood, we (mostly) have a new kitchen! There are some finishing touches still to do, but we're most of the way there. Hallelujah!



Before
Like with the bathroom, it is slightly unfair because these photos are from our inspection with the previous owners' decor - although their kitchen choices were less egregious than their bathroom ones. These people had three dining tables but nowhere to cook! A great mystery.

In Progress
This was certainly our biggest DIY undertaking to date. Colin did the vast majority of the work, since most of it was too strenuous for the pregnant lady to take on. We had about 5 hours of help from two builders to handle the final demolition and counter-top installation, plus visits from an electrician and plumber. Once you get the hang of how Ikea works, the whole installation process is pretty easy. We'd definitely do it again!

Removing textured 80's wallpaper was a great Reece and Mommy job

The Ikea delivery - not as many boxes as we had expected. Colin got right to work building cabinets and had them ready pretty quickly, especially with a few hours of help from our favorite brother-in-law Will.

Covering the faux-wood vinyl with snazzy new black and white vinyl. We decided that at $134 with quick and easy installation, this couldn't be beat!

Papa spent the day after Christmas on our demolition team. A fantastic present!

We painted and had a bit of trial and error with the right height for the hanging cabinet track. We finally figured it out and got upper cabinets hung with the help of another work weekend visit from Nana and Papa.

Playing in the base cabinets was really fun.

If Reece thinks it's a good game, then so does Nell!

Finishing touches on the last cabinet was of course the hardest - but Colin was cool, collected, and determined throughout, pausing only to make sure that I wasn't posting this photo to Facebook.

After
Here she is! Bright, sunny, with a dishwasher and a microwave! It was only a month from the delivery to be (mostly) finished, faster than we expected. We're still hunting around the basement for our wine rack to go above the shelf and need to finish the back of the peninsula. But it's now a happy, functional space for Colin to cook amazing meals and me to cook lame ones, but do so more joyfully.

Now...onto the hardwood floors in the rest of the house!