Kitchen Renovations - Trying to Make Art Next to Murder Room Construction

Over the past two months we have had our kitchen completely gutted and rebuilt. This included new plumbing and electric being added, ceilings scrapped and refinished (including the ceilings of most of the public spaces in the house), and of course all new cabinets, counters, appliances, and lighting (including new lighting in most of the public spaces in the house). It was a huge undertaking for us and was something we have saved up for a very long time. While the vast majority of the work was being done to kitchen the rest of the house was constantly being effected, including my ability to make art. I am now a bit behind schedule in the greater scheme of things, but the kitchen needed to be done and now that it is completed I can get back to work with some stability to the house. I have a bunch of images that document the ups and downs of the process. ENJOY...

When the murder room was in its most murder roominess.

But I am jumping ahead of things...

Here is the kitchen as it was.

The house was built in 1979 and most of the kitchen has remained as it was originally. Dear Wife did paint the cabinets after we moved in to breath a few more years of life into them.

Dig that 1979 Harvest Gold drop-in stove.

The bane of our existence. It is 2 inches smaller than the standard size stove, so if we ever wanted to replace it we had to change the cabinets and counters. The stove needed to go decades ago.

We had replaced the refrigerator and dishwasher a couple months ago as we worked up to the full renovation. There is a whole side store of how we were going to have Home Depot do the kitchen renovation but they did such a HORRIBLE job delivering and installing the two appliances that we ended up going with a local firm that our electrician suggested. The fact that the plumber that Home Depot sent out to install the dish washer started a fire in our brand new dish washer should tell you everything you need to know...

Demolition day!

It is amazing how quick tearing everything out is and how long it takes to put all the new stuff in.

Bare bones... for a while we had a working sink still in the kitchen, but that did not last long. Not surprising, the wiring and electrical set up from 1979 was in no way up to code now.

Things are taking shape.

Lots of holes in the walls for wires and pipes.

Lots of boxes with cabinets and shelves.

Dear Wife would like to murder all grout, so we now has a smooth seamless surface of Formica as a back-splash and wall covering. Clean up is now super easy and everything is turquoise.

It is getting there... slowly.

Still no plumbing in kitchen, but we have counter tops.

A bit of electrical still to do.

I have had a stove in my studio area for over a month at this point.

At least all the boxes full of cabinet parts are gone.

Home stretch!

Plumbing is done. Electrical is done.

Just waiting on the person to install the stove...

Turns out the first guy they sent out did not pull the stove in all the way so it was not working correctly, so they sent out a second guy and he tried everything to get it to work before checking the plug.

TAH-DAH!

Finally all done! Pictures really do not do it justice.

It feels so much bigger and there is so much more room and storage space.

The microwave is now above the stove and almost everything is now off the counter tops. There is now new crown molding that runs throughout the entire room and really finishes it off nicely.

The cabinet footprint is a lot larger now and there is a lot more storage while still feeling like there is more room to stand in the kitchen itself. The addition of a TON of new lighting really helps. Most of the lights are on dimmers too, so there are a lot of options for unique lighting experiences.

Last, but not least, is a good ole before and after image of the kitchen.

 
That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here one Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com