Our budget kitchen make-over

When Derek and I were house hunting we saw our house online and I told him I didn't even want to see the house because I hated the kitchen so much. But when we walked through it, we really liked the house... except the horrid kitchen. When I agreed to buy the house the deal was that something would be done with the kitchen. In February that "something" started when we began restaining our kitchen cabinets. It has been a very long project. The kitchen also desperately needed new countertops and the sad, tile backsplash needed updating also. The dishwasher and fridge are both new, but we're not replacing the microwave and oven just yet.

Here's what the kitchen looked like before we bought the house. I really, REALLY, disliked the cabinets over the penninsula.

So one day in February 2008, the Buell's came to visit and helped us take them down. And no, I do not miss the cabinet space.

In February of 2009 we started restaining and our kitchen was taken apart in sections while we took the doors and drawers down to the basement to work on them. This was a long process, and while it wasn't difficult, it was time consuming because it was about an hour of work every night after the kids went to bed.

When the cabinets were finally done we replaced the old brass and porcelain pulls with stainless ones.

We splurged on the pantry and had roll out drawers installed, which made my pantry actually usable!

Our friend Troy helped Derek install canned lighting where the cabinets used to be. It helps make the soffit there look like it has more of a purpose.After removing the cabinets above the counter we had weird spacing on the wall. So we had a custom cabinet made for the space. I really love the seedy glass in the doors. We also took down the valence over the window, which opened things up and modernized it also.

We took out the old porcelain sink and put in a new stainless steel sink. This was a nightmare. Let's just say it took installing, then uninstalling one crappy new sink, buying and returning another and finally installing and keeping a third before it was all settled. This was approximately 15 hours of plumbing hell for Derek.

In May we hired someone to put in new countertops and tile backsplash. We had several granite quotes but balked at the idea of paying $4000 for new countertops. Laminate is fine with us. Both turned out great and finished the kitchen off very nicely. Here's the finished product.
For those who are interested in how we stained the cabinets, here it is. We lightly sanded the wood just to scuff it up, then used General Finishes Gel Stain in Candlelight. I think it's technically a glaze. I'll never use a minwax type product again - the gel stain was odorless and easy to use, I brushed it on and Derek wiped it off. We did two coats then applied two poly urethane coats. I did not love the General Finishes poly, it was stinky and drippy, but it does look nice. We went through a lot of latex gloves and foam brushes during the process. Here is the link that got me started: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0112173522421.html