Step 1: Paint and antique cabinets.
In my brilliance, I forget to take before pictures of the cabinets and countertops, so you will have to see them in these other pictures. You can see the upper kitchen cabinets behind the blooming Christmas cactus.
And the lower kitchen cabinets behind the clutter and mess that occured during the installation of the hardwood flooring in our 3 bedrooms spring of 2008.
November 2008
Step 2: Demo the dividing wall!?
Before. View from inside the kitchen.
Remove drywall. We weren't sure originally if we were going to do just a window in the wall or more.
View from living room.
We opted for more than a window.
Remove more drywall: Ahh, that's better!
Remove 2x4's & rebuild ceiling (Don't worry these weren't supporting structures. We checked!)
December 2008
Poured the first 3 concrete countertops. The small one by the fridge, the one over the dishwasher, and the large one on the island divide.
February 2009
Installed our first 2 concrete countertops, the small fridge one and the large island divide one.
April 2009
Installed the last of the first 3 concrete countertops (the one over the dishwasher), and removed the rest of the formica countertop around the sink area.
May 2009
Poured the final 2 concrete countertops. The sink and the bar-top.
June 2009
Installed the last 2 concrete countertops, and picked out and installed the backsplash in less than a week!
In summary, the project took eight months, and many many steps!! As you can see, most of that time was spent pouring, curing, grinding and polishing our concrete countertops! The changes of note: removed dividing wall, added maching arch and pillar on left side of opening, new paint colors for kitchen and archway, pendant lighting, refinished cabinets, new cabinet hardware, rock display shelfs, new ceiling fan, upper and lower cabinet lighting, new backsplash, and new concrete countertops.
Our newest addition, and by far the most difficult to create and install, is the finished sink countertop.
The whole package. Our final, small task, is to install glass paneled doors on the far right upper cabinet, and possibly updated track lighting on the ceiling (still deciding about this). Then we will truly be finished with the kitchen/living room!!
View from kitchen into living room.
Bar-top and "island" divide between kitchen and living room.
We absolutely love our updated kitchen, and think it looks wonderful...even better than we could have imagined it!
