The Total Kitchen Make-Over

  As I posted about once before, we began working on stripping our kitchen cabinets down to wood this past July. We have painted them twice in the years we have lived here because the paint eventually wears off:

 We knew there was oak under all that paint. So with a heat gun and putty knife we went to work:

  It took forever a while, and some cabinets were much harder than others, but most of the paint came off:

We were afraid that the paint in those crevices would not come off. But in the evenings after work, Nathan started sanding. Tediously. Each cabinet door took him about half an hour. Then after four coats of varnish (which was finished less than two weeks ago) ...

   We were amazed! Mom said, "If I had known it would come out that nicely, I think I would have started this a long time ago!"

   On the twelfth of this month, the guys started sanding the cabinet frames. They hung a drop cloth over the kitchen doorway to keep most of the sawdust from the rest of the house, but that didn't stop some dust from getting all over every surface available. We girls spent quite a bit of time cleaning in between the time the guys were able to work on the kitchen.

Everything from the kitchen was moved out to the living room. For three days. It was interesting just making coffee in the morning, let along fixing meals. We did use Melinda's kitchen in the basement several times, which was nice.

 
Nathan took out the partial wall between the kitchen and dining room on Saturday. He always enjoyed demolition. {Surprise, Surprise}
Dad cut the new counters that weekend as well. There were a couple very difficult cuts that he had to make  on the piece that fit over the sink. Unfortunately, the cut was not good, and we had to get another counter top. His second try was perfect, but when they put that countertop in, they realized it was different from the others. Just ever so slightly different. Unless the two kinds were right next to one another, you would never tell. But they were right next to each other, and they were definitely different. That was the disastrous Saturday, and I'm glad that I was not at home! =P
But three is the charm, and the third time worked out fine. =)

 The rest of that week Dad and Nate had work elsewhere. But the week of Christmas, when of course no one else wants them messing up their house, they got back to work on our's. Monday, the 22nd, they scraped the popcorn off the ceiling and painted the ceiling. And sent more dust throughout the whole house! But I have to admit the flat ceiling looks much better than the popcorn ceiling. We made Bethany's birthday meal and celebrated downstairs with Andrew and Melinda since, obviously, we weren't making anything in our kitchen:

  Tuesday, we broke out the paint cans. {Oh, did I mention we had previously scraped all the wallpaper off the kitchen walls?} The kitchen and dining room were both getting a color change and a fresh coat of paint.

{dining room walls before}

{dining room walls after}
actually I'm not so sure the top part was
done at this point, but it was changed
from white to cream, the same color
the kitchen was painted in

Nate putting the crown molding back up

Oh, and while we started painting that morning, Mom quickly made the gingerbread dough so that we would be able to make them the next day. A little bit of everything going on in the kitchen.

The cabinet doors were put back on that day, and Tuesday evening, Dad got the "peninsula" put in. Though the wood was white oak, not red like the others, with a couple coats of stain and varnish they turned out almost exactly the same!

Wednesday was some finishing touches {cleaning again!} and the dishwasher. Dishwasher number two. Our old dishwasher was falling apart and Dad had found one in a house he fixed up. When he installed it on Tuesday however, it leaked. He managed to find another one on craigslist {exactly like it, by the way} and installed it Wednesday. As we tried to work around him baking the gingerbread and pies:

The side of the pantry we decided to make into a chalkboard and found a chalkboard paint that almost exactly matches the bottom part of the dining room. Beth painted it and is enjoying writing all sorts of creations on it.

  Christmas day couldn't pass without Nathan having to put trim pieces and the toe kick on. But Mom had said she would like to have it done for Christmas, and it was. With zero time to spare, but it was. =)

For a full unveiling, you need to see a "before" picture. It's been so many months, I had about forgotten what it looked like myself! I managed to find a picture from several years ago that showed the cabinets and counters pretty well

Before:

After:

Panorama on my phone creates everything with a curved look, but at least you can see it all together

Oh, Oh! Just noticed, the drawer and door handles haven't been put on the peninsula yet. 

But there's always something that needs done. Dad is already planning the next project in this house...