What a tease! I want to see the finished product!!! Come on, give it up!

Working on it!! I do have some pics posted on the Finally thread but I thought I would get them all together here.

Big changes, huh?
More to come!

Does your gas cooktop not need to be vented?

wow! You did a great job! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

It's amazing when you have a vision that others can't see, isn't it?

It must feel good to have come so far. I do feel a little sorry for the dog to have lost the great "snack room." :) But a lot nicer for the human members of the family. Congratulations on persevering through four years of preliminary work (can't imagine having cabinets in living room for a year). It must be so great to be able to finally have the new kitchen come together.

waterdamage~ the cooktop is a downdraft. Our home is small and anything we can do to visually make it feel larger is a plus. A vent hood would have made it feel like the wall never went away.

love the floor! Did not think it was vinyl!

Nice! Tell us about your cabinets and countertops. Groutable vinyl tile, never heard of that. It looks just like real tile. Good job.

I think it looks great! My only concern is the wall color seems to make the white appliances seem too white. I'd try for a soft tone in a non-beige. I think a mellow yellow, blue, green or basically anything not in the brown/cream family would work.... It could also work with a medium or dark gray/pewter tone....

The cabinets are Kraftmaid Hickory in a Praline finish. DH and I have always loved interesting graining and hickory has it in spades!

The countertops are Wilsonart HD laminate in Deepstar Flint. Love, love, love that I cannot see every little spot like I could with my old counter. The pencil bevel adds just the right amount of class to this budget driven kitchen.

Counter space! You got counter space!

Having lived on sailboats, we have a real issue with wasted space. The cookbook cupboard came to be when the countertop area was made substantially bigger.

dianalo~the wall color is actually a very saturated tan. MS Reed. It looks completely different depending upon lighting. I promise that there is nothing offwhite about it.

Other than the fact that yours is done, and you bought cabinets, we've had a similar live-with-it experience.

My kitchen sink was on the garage floor for 4 years. My cabinets come and go as I find more substantial ones (Currently have 3 base in the LR, and about 25 walls in the MBR, which I use for a workshop.)
Living without walls made it easier when I could finally hire an electrician. The drywall guy, who comes once in awhile, was pleased with the bare spaces, and disgusted with the already, badly hung stuff. ah well.

I love how your kitchen is coming together. I hate wasted space, too. Brilliant!

Guess I should have read that closer. IRL the appliances don't pop the way they do in photos. At some point I will think about changing the wall color in the kitchen but our primary focus was to get it done!!

CEFreeman~I am lucky enough to be married to a multitalented man. That helped hold our costs down considerably as we had lots of wires that had to be relocated. Yours truly got to fish around in the ceiling insulation to pull wires to new areas.
Living with it was tolerable because I knew the end product would be well worth it, sort of like childbirth!

It is looking lovely, and so wonderful to have an open, useable space. I'm shocked that the tile is vinyl- you certainly can't tell from photos. The entire space feels welcoming, and I love the color choices.

I had to laugh at "cabinets were ordered and lived in my living room for well over a year. Long story" and the sink story. Great way to do a budget reno, if you have the space. My cabinets sat on my back porch for nearly 3 years while waiting to be installed, as did many of the supplies for the new kitchen. Now that that space is open again, it feels so huge!

Good for you! Enjoy it!

The nice thing about that vinyl tile is that it was peel and stick. DH got it laid and grouted all in one day.

Now that the roads are navigable again after the snow and ice, the carpets in the living/dining area get cleaned tomorrow and I'll be able to move furniture back. It has been such a long time since I had normal that I am going to feel like i am living in a different house! Once the furniture is in place I'll take pictures from the 'Command Center' looking out. HUGE before and after difference.

Oooh how beautiful that wood is! Did you ask for premium hickory so that you have some variation but not extreme changes in color? Someday I hope to have hickory cabinets like yours.

Do you mind sharing the measurement of your kitchen footprint? I ask because my kitchen space is not large and a wall oven will most likely have to be sacrificed to have enough counterspace. Thanks for any information you can give me.

Enjoy your wonderful kitchen!

tea4all~We chose a stain color that would tame down the wide variation in color of the hickory without being too dark.

The inside footprint in the kitchen used to be 5' x 7' and is now 6' x 9'. Love the work triangle at this size.

Thanks kellied! I'm amazed -- and now encouraged there is hope for my kitchen.

Wha?!?! You didn't reuse the Harvest Gold vent hood?! That's a classic! ;-)

What a lovely, amazing transformation! Love the skylights and the openness of your new space. And all that counter! You must be in heaven. Enjoy!

oh, it's great! what a difference - it's so bright and open now! skylights are wonderful - I have 1 in my 'new' kitchen also. You're gonna love it every time you walk into it and it'll be a dream to cook in.

I love the floor too. not sure I want to do groutable sqs tho. it might kill me - lol! What brand is it? IRL is it more like it shows in the lighter pics or the darker pic (all floor showing)? are they 12x12? I'm having a terrible time deciding on flooring that I can afford - the whole place needs new flooring.

The flooring is 12"x12" squares. I believe the brand is Surface Solutions (something like that) available at HD. This one is called Cool Grey. I did find that each HD has different products. Two of the stores I frequent didn't have this one.
It is a lighter tile with a bit more detailing than this pic shows.
Word of warning. Not all groutable vinyl tiles are alike. The ones we found at Lowes are a lot thinner than the ones at HD.

I love how light and open your new kitchen is! Love your cabs, sink, and pendants, and the storage on the dining room side--great idea!! Enjoy!

What a lovely transformation! Kudos to you and your multitalented DH. I love the openness and skylights in your new space. Here's hoping it's a joy to work in!

Seeing the during pics really gives a good sense of how that awful "before" kitchen transformed to such a wonderfully open space. Having been in the "before" space, I can vouch for how awful it was. But...I knew you and J would work your magic to do something awesome!

What on earth will you do with all that counterspace? Your flooring worked out so well. That delay in your first choice really worked in your favor. Things do work out for a reason. I'd never have guessed those were vinyl tiles.

I can't wait to *really* see it. Keep that stool warm for me! Wait....do I need to BYOS? Bring Your Own Stool? Didn't see one in the pic. :)

thx for the info on the tile. I'll check it out - i have to go to one or the other soon, so i'll make it HD! I know the brand you mean - I would have hesitated to use it since I hadn't heard of it before and don't know anyone who has used it. Now I do!

desertsteph~we like the kitchen floor so much that we are going to use another color from this line in our hall bath.

For info only-Congoleum Duraceramic, Mannington Adura and Armstrong Alterna are higher end groutable vinyl tiles. I have seen them installed and, wow, are they beautiful.

BYOS! Hadn't thought of that, Breezygirl. No need to bring your own stool as I'll be picking one up after I leave your place tomorrow.

Great kitchen, Kelly! The wood color was a great choice--to me it's warm and inviting, and an all-round great mid-tone color. Can you specify which stain and doorstyle you used? I am looking at cabinets for my bathroom (I have granite left over). Also, I think there are a lot of people lurking here who never post and would want to know.

My pre-remodel kitchen was very similar to yours, especially the color. Wasn't it great to say goodbye?

Love the skylights. Fascinated by the photos of the process of building a skylight. Did your husband do it all? I ended up passing on that idea for our kitchen, but still holding out hope for a skylight the front bathroom. How crazy/hard was it to do?

The cabinets are Kraftmaid, the door style is Westwood, the wood is hickory and the stain is Praline. There, I said it in one breath!
We had the roofing company install the skylights when they put a roof on our new laundry room. This was well before the kitchen remodelso they were ready and waiting when we broke through the ceiling. After rerouting wires that ran right through the middle of the area I insulated the walls before the drywall went up. It was a bit involved but still not unreasonably so.

Okay, I made a mistake. The flooring we used was TrafficMaster Ceramica. I just picked up what we need for the bathroom today.

I'd like to hear about your groutable vinyl tile installation. I've read it can be a real bugger.... did you do it yourself? Any tips?