The Big Reveal!

Well, after 50 days, my kitchen is officially open for business and I want to thank my wonderful contractors Scott and Steve from All Equity Construction for a BEAUTIFUL job! And trust me when I tell you they really went above and beyond! I just think they were a little disappointed that I couldn't cook for them while they were here working like I could when they renovated my bathroom last year, but I promised to make it up to them when all the dust settles (literally!). I still can't use the cooktop as I'm waiting for the propane company to come to hook up the lines and the town to come for approval but everything else is ready. I even created my first experiment yesterday, an appetizer (this was the most popular vote for my poll last week on the blog and Facebook), which I will be sharing with you shortly!

As for the kitchen, let me first start by saying that we saved and waited 12 years for this renovation to happen. When we first moved into our home, it literally had a padlock on the door and our family and friends wondered why we would buy this house in the shape it was in. But we saw potential to make it our own and little by little we renovated one room at a time. Our home was built in 1965 and still had the original cabinets, which were a really dark mahogany. I sanded them all down, painted them white, updated the hardware and at least it was clean. At one point, another owner had decided to start a renovation and had updated the floor to white tile (which I HATED!) and gray countertops (yeah, hated them too!) and installed skylights, which leaked with every rain storm we had. But, I couldn't bare the thought of living without a kitchen so we kept it going. That is until the drawer faces LITERALLY started to come off in my hand when I tried to open them, the cabinet doors no longer shut on their own and there were always at least 3-4 doors open at a time.

We decided to keep the same footprint but change the layout to keep costs down and even though I would have loved knocking down walls to create a master kitchen suite, it just wasn't affordable. We ordered the cabinets through Lowes and they are called Whiskey Black Glaze from Diamond, opted for Kitchen Aid appliances in stainless steel from Karl's Appliances, slate-looking tile from Wayne Tile, and Chestnut Granite from Tri-State Stone and Tile. I am EXTREMELY happy with the way it came out and finally got everything put away in it's proper place...at least for now until I get my flow back!

Here are some before and after pictures and thank you all for visiting even when I couldn't cook. Here's to the NEW and IMPROVED Carrie's Experimental Kitchen! xoxo

The kitchen before...

...and after

The cooktop on the island.

Where the refrigerator was before.

And new refrigerator. I love the separate drawer for the fruits and vegetables
but the bottom freezer is going to take some getting used to! :)

Where the stove was before. 

The new double convection wall oven. It even has a setting for proofing bread
so guess what I'll be experimenting with in the coming months! :)

This was a desk area a.k.a junk collector! 

New beverage area with a wine refrigerator. =)