To David with Love

This post is dedicated to my awesome hubby.  He bought us our house for our 15th anniversary, and then gave me the time by myself to go home and redo the kitchen, alone.  He had faith I could pull it off even though I had never ever done anything like that before.  Thanks Honey!!  (Also he has been nagging me for about 8 months to get a finished kitchen post up on the blog. Here ya go Babe, one long awaited blog post.) 

Today I was looking through all the pics of our little house in the 'hood that I took last summer.  Oh, how I miss my little house.  Don't get me wrong I love all our adventures living overseas, but just as much I love having a place that is unequivocally MINE. A place that is quietly waiting for me to come home, unlock the doors, throw open the windows, and breath life back into it. With summer coming up soon my little house has been on my mind a lot lately.

Last summer I went back well ahead of the kids and Dave to give the kitchen a facelift and make it the house just a little more ours.  I blogged the early stages of the renovation but once Dave and the boys caught up with me in Texas I sorta quit blogging. Ooops! Sorry about that.

I did eventually finish the kitchen, or more accurately I finished painting and put the cabinet doors back on then David showed up and put the finishing touches on the kitchen.  Little things like lighting, new shelves, and door handles.

A quick review since I haven't blogged in forever.  Here's the kitchen as it was when we bought the house.

There was nothing essentially wrong with the kitchen.  The cabinets were in reasonable decent shape. The appliances are old but still in good working conditions. I described it as builder grade ugly.  Boring cabinets, no door handles, cheap light fixtures.  Just blah.

I decided I could fix builder grade ugly with a little paint and creativity because Pinterest!  Dave and made arrangements for me to head home without him or the boys.  For the first time in 22 years I found myself on my own without kids.   For a while I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Most of May and into June the house looked like this.

The kitchen was torn apart and pretty much unusable, the dining room and living room became a makeshift painting studio for all the cabinet and drawer fronts.  I really thought that I had made a dreadful mistake and was never going to get this finished. I kept working at it because what else was I going to do?  Then all at once it began to come together.  By the time Dave and the kids arrived it looked pretty much like this. 

Not bad, better than it was, but not exactly what I had in mind.  David put his skills to work and took care of all the finishing touches needed to finally pull it all together.  

Now our kitchen looks amazing.  It's hard to believe it is the same kitchen.  It's really all paint and illusion.  There are no new appliances, no new cabinets, no new granite countertops, but it looks and feels brand-new and amazing.  I can't wait to be home cooking in my pretty new kitchen this summer.  

Drum Roll Please!  Here is the grand bloggy unveiling of our new and improved kitchen.

The sink side as viewed from back door. It shows perhaps the most important part of the kitchen, the coffee station.  

Same side viewed from the other direction.

Dave added door handles, crown molding and a pretty new school house style light over the kitchen sink. The brown thing next to the fridge is my antique 4-drawer card catalog that I use to store tea.  One of my favorite things, ever! Eventually we'll replace the sink with a white porcelain sink, the refrigerator with a counter depth European style (tall and narrow) fridge, the dishwasher with a Bosch and add under cabinet lighting. I still have no idea what to do about that fluorescent light. It's practical and gives off lots of light, but it's kinda ugly. I'll figure it out eventually.

Stove side viewed from the back door.

On the other side of the room you can see the glass shelves Dave added under the cabinets.  I use the open shelving for the stuff I use everyday: Plates, glasses,  coffee and coffee cups, spices for cooking.  The stuff I use less frequently is hidden away in the cabinets safe from dust.  I think moving the cabinets to the ceiling and eliminating the dust-collecting, wasted foot of space above them was the best idea I've had in a long time.  The kitchen works so much better now.

You can also see wine rack above the stove.  I couldn't move that cabinet because it has the plugs for the microwave inside it.  I had originally ordered a wine rack I thought would fit that space off the internet.  When Dave saw it, he threw it out and went to work with a jig saw and created this.  Amazing!  I couldn't be happier.

Both sides at once and my gorgeous carpet runner Dave brought back from Oman.

View from dining room table, and the only views that shows my tiny pantry across from the fridge and the back door.   

So my big reveal is nearly a year late.  At least I got it up before I flew home for this summer.  I really don't have any big home reno projects lined up for this year.  It's more an assortment of small projects.  Nothing very exciting, although for me just going to the hardware store and then doing it, what ever it is, all by myself without waiting for GSO to get around to it is excitement enough!