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16 Apr 2014

Kitchen Reno Part One

We have decided to go ahead with our kitchen renovation!  I know I blogged about perhaps waiting to see what the new Ikea kitchen line will be next winter, but we found a cabinet solution that jives perfectly with our DIY mentality.  I am designing my own cabinets and having them made by a CNC manufacturer.  What this means is that I get a custom kitchen (plywood cabinets, dove tail drawers, Blum hardware and doors of my own design) for about the cost of Ikea.  Crazy, good deal!  So what we're basically doing is skipping the custom kitchen company and going directly to the person who makes the cabinets for the kitchen companies.  The only drawback is that I have to design everything myself (i.e., cabinet box sizes, drawer placement, fillers, kick plates, crown, etc.).  It has been very time consuming to do this and this explains my spotty blogging over the past little while.  Every evening I've been pouring over kitchen plans and options.  I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end!  

The other major factor in deciding to go ahead with the kitchen now is that we have to build our deck this spring and the new walkout from the kitchen impacts the placement of the deck.  We really can't live with a mud pit in the backyard with Nalle, our dog and the boys.  So the kitchen reno is on and today I'm going to show you what we have done so far.

First, let's look at the initial reno idea I had a couple of months ago:

Here is the plan we are going with now:

New Kitchen Plan

It really hasn't changed that much other than I decided not to go with an opening to the living room.  I decided that I really like having the kitchen in a separate area.

When we started to demo our kitchen a couple of weeks ago, we knew that our cabinets would still take several weeks before they would be ready and that our window would take a couple of months.  This meant that we had to plan the demo so that we could still use our kitchen while we wait for the new cabinets to be made.  We decided to relocate our old kitchen cabinets and counters into the new kitchen layout.  Everything went so well that we didn't lose our plumbing or gas for even a day!  Here are a few pictures of our kitchen before the demo.



Here is what we have done so far.  The cabinets that were under the window are now in the place where the new island will be.  The placement of the stove and fridge also changed. 

We had to open up one side of the opening to the dining room so that we would have enough clearance to get by the island to the walkout (which will be where the window is now) and to have enough space to walk through to our basement staircase.  Co-pilot is checking out the hole in the flooring where the wall use to be.  We will have to get the flooring patched here, but I would love to refinish all the floors in the house to something lighter and less orangey.  If we refinish the floors, the flooring boards across the opening could be feathered in making the transition seamless.

The window is where the new walkout will be.  We're planning to make the opening slightly wider as well.  I think it will be so nice to see the patio right through the walkout and it will really extend the living space.

Just another view of the opening and our messy dining room. :)

We scored this built-in fridge for a super deal.  It will hopefully look completely seamless on what will be the new pantry wall.  It's a Thermador (the current model) and we purchased it from an appliance repair guy who said it had been in someone's house for only a couple of days.  It was super clean when we brought it home and still had some of the packaging intact on the inside.  We also picked up a Miele panel ready dishwasher from the same guy.  It's working like a dream.  Love it!  So far so good with our new used appliances.  The savings were so good that we thought it was worth taking the risk with these used appliances.  I'll have to write an update at some point to let you know how they fare.

So that's where we are at with our kitchen reno.  Our kitchen is functioning, but definitely not pretty.  I'll be back with another post or two with the details on the kitchen design.  I have a few finishing ideas still swimming in my head that I'd love to share with you as well.  I can give you a hint of where I'm going…It'll have white, black and wood and be pretty minimal/simple in design.  Although, that's probably what most of you would expect from me anyway. :)

The new hall is being put to good use already:

Thanks to everyone who have been so patient with me while I have flip-flopped back and forth with this reno.  I really appreciate that you're following along!

18 comments:

  1. Great that you can still use your kitchen while renovating it! Can't wait to see the result!

    I'm waiting to see my new kitchen next week, we also decided to plan it ourselves and carpenter makes it for us. Luckily I didn't have to draw the cabinets etc., he came over to take all measurements and listened what I wanted. I did draw a simple picture of every cabinet on paper, but he did all the computer work :) I saw the cabinets last week, but they weren't painted yet, so it's exciting to see them in colours. I wanted an old 50's style kitchen, and I'm sure it's going to be very homey and cosy :)

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  2. I still can't believe this but now that I see it, it makes total sense and will be so so good

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  3. What a terrific plan Anu. It is going to be spectacular. Sounds like you got a great deal on both the appliances and the custom cabinets. I can't wait to hear more about that. We got a quote from a guy who builds custom cabinets himself, but is not a designer, but still the quote came in 4-5 times that of an IKEA kitchen. Ouch...

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    1. Thanks Katja! It was a real blessing to get the deals on the appliances and cabinets. I think taking our time with sourcing and planning helped a lot.

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  4. Wow, creating your own kitchen is a huge undertaking. I'm sure it'll be so satisfying once it's installed. Hehe, what a cute photo of your little one inspecting the floors : ]

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    1. It has been a huge job already and we're just getting started. :) Little ones are curious about everything! :)

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  5. So very exciting!!! I can't wait to see things start to come together. I think those new doors are going to make such a dramatic difference in the space!!

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  6. It is going to be so beautiful! How cool you get to design your cabinets!!! xo Kristin

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  7. Looking so bright and open in there! Can't wait to see it all come together! And I'm impressed that you've worked it out so that your kitchen stays useable the whole time :)

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  8. It's going to look so awesome in there! So excited that you're taking the plunge! Enjoy!

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    1. I hope so! I'm excited to see the final result. I really enjoyed watching your kitchen reno too.

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  9. Your kitchen looked beautiful before so I can imagine that this reno is going to be AH-mazing! I LOVE the idea to put in a walkout!! Can't wait to see :D

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  10. Cant wait to see the after! It already looked pretty darn cute before so I can only imagine!

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    1. Thanks Caroline. I'm a little nervous of this project since I am doing so much of it myself. I can't wait to see what I designed in real life though. :)

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  11. I'm fascinated by going direct to the manufacturer. Never heard of such a thing, but I'm looking forward to following along.

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  12. Kitchen renos are a lot of work. But you seem to have yours very much under control. I lost it almost every day during ours. I could have washed dishes with all the tears I cried haha

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  13. I would love to know how you did the fridge!

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    1. I still have to write a post about the details of the pantry wall and I think I should add it to my schedule of posts soon. :) We basically built a small cabinet above the fridge and had the fridge panel built so that it extends past the top of the fridge hiding the cabinet. The little cubby/cabinet above the fridge is actually really practical for serving trays etc.

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