Our Kitchen Before and After

Confession: I have been putting this post off for quite some time now. In my head I was going to do a huge deep cleaning before I took some after photos of our kitchen, so that everything would be sparkling and brand new looking. "I will just do it all during nap time!" My optimistic (or more like unrealistic) mind thought. Well, every time I attempted this planned "deep clean" I would only get part of the way done before the reality of two daughters that hate naps and love messes would set in. Not to mention a dish-soaking-is-totally-doing-the-dishes husband. So, I finally just gave up on the deep clean idea, did a quick wipe down and hoped that the smudged fingerprints wouldn't show too much in photos. If they did they would only add character, right? So here it is! Our mostly IKEA kitchen remodel! 

First I will share some before photos of what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house. 

Mmm isn't that linoleum yummy? Okay so it really wasn't THAT bad, just a little outdated. We had visions of a more open concept though, and I had a bright white kitchen with an undermount sink on the mind, so Kevin got to work taking down the cabinets. 

Then things got real and walls started coming down...no turning back now!

It was a long, hot summer. No, I'm not talking about the passionate, sexy kind. I'm talking about the sweaty, swollen, moody and pregnant kind. It was a long road to get it all done, but it was all worth it in the end. We could not have done it without the help of so many family and friends, a HUGE thank you to all of you. At 7-9 months pregnant I accomplished several days and late nights building cabinets, sanding trim and painting with the help of frappuccinos, slurpees and the good company of Kelci (who probably spent more time working than I did) and Kevin. I can't even begin to count the number of hours that Kevin spent working on the house. And this was after already long work days spent in the "office" known as my old bedroom at my parent's house (thanks mom and dad for housing us for a few months by the way.) All to bring this vision that I had in my head to life. He's pretty amazing to say the least.

Here's the final result!

I love putting this peachy pink color in the new kitchen. The previous owners were apparently rose lovers, and we have at least 10 bushes around the yard.

I'm in love with my huge BLANCO sink and faucet! Emery likes her new bath spot too :)

A close up of the backsplash that was apparently a huge pain to install. Sorry Kevin and Brian!

It was so much fun to have a vision in my head and see it come to life. It was a TON of work, especially with a toddler and another beeb on the way. In fact it was basically like a bad episode of a house flipping show on DIY network most of the time, but it all worked out in the end. Thank you so much again to all of the friends and family that helped make it all happen. More after photos of the house to come!