My New Kitchen at Last!

In case you didn't know, we have been remodeling our tiny little cottage. Starting with the kitchen. It had a half wall separating it from the dining/living area, and I tried 3 tables in there..nothing worked. I liked the white cabinets, and the budget would not allow a total teardown and start over, so down came the wall, up came 3 layers of yukky linoleoum, only to find that horrid old asphalt tile. The rest of the house has laminate floors, so we continued that into the kitchen. Next a new wall oven. Then, off came the old ugly green laminate countertops and the stainless steel sink that was only 6 inches deep, and every time I turned on the water, it splashed all over the counter, my windows and my curtains. The time finally came to do the measurements for the counter, the company came out, and before they left, checked to make suure the new sink I bought would fit....well guess what? No way..my cabinets are homemade and not the standard size. I wanted an undermount sink, and that required 2 inches at the front edge to make sure the granite would stay intact. Well this sink was too big...no biggie, go exchange it and get another, right? Wrong.....that sink was 22" from front to back, I needed no more than 19" from front to back.....no such thing...unless I wanted to put a plastic rv sink in...sheesh! So 5 weeks went by with no sink, no counters, no cooktop...we searched, and searched and searched. As you all know I am an ebay addict, and lo and behold....the perfect size sink on ebay...limited edition from Germany! The price was 139.00....35.00 shipping...I couldn't believe it! I nabbed it right away, and rescheduled the granite counter install. I wanted a white based granite, and found the perfect one at Home Depot...called "Antique Bianco." Of course, the one I picked turned out to be the most expensive...oh well...I saved on the sink, didn't I? Anyway, we had ordered 2 base cabinets, which had to be custom made since you cannot get the door style on our cabinets anymore.... hubby put those together to make the base for our island....I'm torn....I may still paint them white to match the cabinets, but will live with it awhile first. Then I decided I needed another cabinet in a corner off our kitchen, it was just a dead space and I could use more storage. So...we custom ordered a cabinet made for that corner. While waiting for our granite install, I found my faucet on ebay, in an oiled bronze. Now we had to change all the hinges and knobs to match. Well, that was 22 knobs and 44 hinges...yikes...that would be expensive...so...back to ebay...found them .99 each...they matched the sink perfectly! So that is what we have been doing for the past 6 months! We still have to take out the ceiling fan and install the chandelier...but we are taking a well deserved break, and besides, we really don't want to climb into that attic with the blown in insulation just yet! :)

Finally, installation day arrives! The counter is in, the sink is in, the cooktop is in! I can cook again! But wait, Christmas is next week....oh, dear, I really cut it close! Anyway, here is the before and after, hubby even put up an old mantle I had in the garage...I love that! What do you think of the Roman Shades I made??

In the before, you can hardly see it, its behind my son and dog, and after....makes me very happy...still small, but oh, so much more efficient!