Getting There

I've never undertaken such an extensive renovation project before. This one is progressing slowly but we're getting there.

The honey oak cupboards were very stylish in 1983 when the house was built. The doors were solid wood but the MDF cabinets were dirty and showing their wear. I had to rebuild the cutlery drawer to the left of the fridge a couple of years ago.

In spite of the fact that there was going to be a full backsplash, I couldn't just leave the walls so dirty.

I washed them with TSP, rinsed them and repainted.

The cabinets went in on the fresh walls except for a couple of pieces that needed to be remade. Then measurements were taken for the new countertop. Barb helped me load the cupboards back up from all their contents strewn all over the dining room. 

With more storage space and a lot of purging, I even have some empty shelves now!

The new, lightly veined, quartz countertop and new faucet were installed yesterday and measurements were taken for the backsplash.

There have been some bumps along the way - a few surprises - but I'm told by others who have been through the process that this is normal. 

There is a small list of things to be completed/reinstalled/connected but I am sure it will all get done. In the meantime, I'm still microwaving and doing dishes in the laundry room.

Before and after: