Wow! Quite the transformation and it turned out beautifully.
I especially love your lights in you kitchen and tile backsplash. It must feel like a new house.

How wonderful!
It sounds like you've got the Home of your dreams! Kids and grandkids running in and out, being part of the hoopla even while getting meals together. Yelling back and forth, and lots of laughter.

Enjoy it, Amy. Looks absolutely beautiful.

Truly stunning! Enjoy!

What an enjoyable photo journey. Thank you! That backsplash is something special to be sure. And I remember seeing your mixer/FP cabinet around the post before. I was trying to describe it to someone. Couldn't figure out how to find you. :)

Congratulations! What a wonderful home.

I was a brave one and popped into your photobucket! Amazing transformation! I appreciate your meticulous documentation, and had to laugh at your photo captions. At first I thought your last name was "During"... then I realized I too have photos labelled Before:XXX, During:XXX and After:XXX!
Beautiful job; enjoy!

Wow!!! I love how you transformed the space!! The backsplash in your kitchen is out of this world!! So fun, lively and happy :-)

Usually I jump right to the pictures & then go back & read the details but this time i read all the details. I was not expecting a white kitchen & was happily surprised. I love your new kitchen & the backsplash is stunning.
For some reason (me, most likely) I'm having trouble copying & pasting your photobucket link. If someone could post a link, thanks in advance.
Congratualtions Amy!

Thanks so much, everyone, for the very kind and encouraging words. It was a long labor of love but so worth it. I'd do it again in a flash. ;)

Romy, I fixed the link. I did not do it correctly when I first posted. Thanks for your interest in seeing more pictures. I appreciate everyone's interest.

Happy 4th!
Amy

Talk of the ugly duckling turning into a gorgeous swan. That is one beautiful kitchen :-) The storage space above the refrigerator is neat as are the appliances storage space.

Wish you and yours all happiness and many many hours of joy in the space.

Very beautiful and so much work. Your detailed pictures are awesome and will be great to look back on to remember (as if you could forget! lol) went you went through to have this gorgeous space.
Congrats! btw love the backsplash even more after looking at the close up photo of it. Color and texture of the glass is very rich.

A gorgeous transformation! The photos tell the story of a real-life renovation. And yours was a big one!

It looks great! What a transformation! I love your choices and how you took down the wall. I am sure that made it feel so much more open and breezy and just bigger! I am so glad that you got to move closer to family. That is so important. I've lived away from family since college days and not a day goes by that I haven't missed being near them. I'm happy for you! It all looks great and you definitely did the right thing by moving to Virginia. Such a beautiful area. In the before pictures, I just have to ask was that a tile backslash? Also, kudos for doing so much of the paint and finishing work yourself, that helps a lot with the budget and there is that pride of accomplishment factor as well. Beautiful!

What an immense and beautiful transformation of space and sufaces! Thank you for the great slide show with all the details. I especially liked the shots of how the new support beams and columns went in and integrated to the existing structure, the pets nesting in the drop cloths, and the beautiful kids! Amazing job on that monster slab of granite on the island. Please put a close-up of your GORGEOUS backsplash tiles into this thread as one totally doesn't get to appreciate them from a distance. GORGEOUS wall of windows over the sink run! And I love how you integrated a cabinetry storage column around your support column!

Love the horizontal and vertical lines poppin' everywhere in the handles, tiles, fixtures (pendants, hood, etc.) It makes the space spicy and interesting in a quiet, classy way. Very nice choice of pendants.

* Did you live in the home during the renovations?
* Were you able to re-purpose the beautiful oak harwood floors?
* Have you had any issues with the bamboo floor expanding during humidity (I've read reports of this material being very expansive with humidity)?
* What is the thing pictured under the sink, the grey box with flex water lines coming out of it and a "Moen" sticker on it?

Enjoy your wonderful new family home, for years to come!

This post was edited by beautybutdebtfree on Sat, Jul 5, 14 at 7:47

Thank you for sharing. Just beautiful, and a true labor of love!
Usually we only see such transformations on HGTV.

I am curious as to the width of the "double" pullout next to your ovens. How wide is each component? It is very clever.

Wow! I'm beyond words! It's fantastic! I love that you enclosed the support post with cabinetry. It just belongs now, it doesn't look out of place. And the window above the sink! And the french doors!

Gorgeous, what a great space!

Amy, you did a wonderful job. I love how your kitchen works within the open concept space. All your material choices really work well together. Congrats!

What a transformation!! Love it. Your backsplash is gorgeous!

Beautiful transformation! I like how you have so many 2 deep drawer stacks surrounding your cooking area. Do you miss having shallow drawers for cutlery and small items or do you have those also?

Thanks for all the great comments and questions. It's a little intimidating to open your home to such design heavy-hitters. It's fun when the people whose opinions you've come to respect like your project! :) Let me see if I can answer some of the questions.

cal_quail: how nice that you noticed our mixer cabinet before and liked it. I love the configuration and the ease of use.

Gemcap: ugly duckling would have been kind. It was pretty bad. We do love our gorgeous swan.

Tinker1121 and beautybutdebtfree: the backsplash tile wall was our big splurge. I tried to take some close-up pix tonight to post but the lighting just does not do it justice. I'll try to do that tomorrow. Since it is handmade, it is quirky. The colors vary in depth and the iridescence in intensity. It is both subtle and striking in real life. I am generally not one to like the traditional style mosaic layout, but with these tiles it was just different.

gr8day: in the before pix, yes, it was a tile mosaic backsplash made of broken tile pieces. Pretty cool artistically, but not so great to live with every day in your kitchen, especially when it was not your choice for design. And it is really rewarding to do as much of the hands on work as possible.

beauty: love your questions. *Yes, we lived in. We are empty nesters so it was easy. If we had littles at home it would have been quite the ride. We were without a kitchen for 6 months. We had quite a few delays--initially with the city approving our plans for permits, then my cabinet maker was sick quite a bit in the fall and our install kept getting pushed back. I learned to roll with just about anything that came our way. *We did reuse 80-90% of the old flooring. We took it to my parents in NC and they installed it all in their house. *Bamboo flooring--no problems with expanding so far. I have just in the past week noticed a few new squeaks and thought it might be from the humidity. Will be interesting to see how it all settles in as the summer continues. I have to say, that wood was all in our house for months before install and was exposed to humidity, etc. I think it was more acclimated than might have been otherwise. That may be our saving grace in this. Also, I LOVE not worrying about the floor with 2 grandsons. The bamboo is so tough and the hand scraped treatment means the dings of everyday life just blend in. So freeing. *The grey Moen box is the control unit for the MotionSense faucet. It is plugged in (we purchased the AC adaptor for the unit) under the sink. Love the touchless feature. Finally, the windows are so amazing. It often takes my breath away that I have the privilege of enjoying this view, in this kitchen. Blessed indeed.

wilson853: you are too kind to compare our reno to those on HGTV. The big difference? HGTV would have been done in 4-6 weeks vs 10 months! :) Re the double pull-out. It is actually a 12'' wide cabinet. The front spice rack pull-out my dad made for me is only about 3'' deep. The remaining space is for the clearance and the back shelves. I can fit those jumbo spice bottles from Costco sideways in the back rack, the big square spice bottles from Costco face forward. My dad's spice rack fits the standard glass spice bottles. Hope that helps.

juddgirl2: I am very happy with the deep drawers near the opens and cooktop. If you did not check out the Photobucket pix (or make it through ALL of them) you may have missed my OCD drawers. The 4 top drawers in the dark blue island are all for utensils, cutlery, etc. It is literally 2 steps from the cooktop to the drawers. I have crocks on the counter next to the cooktop with my spoons, etc. I am one of those gadget-people, and my divided drawers in the island make me sooooo happy.

Thanks again everyone!

Congratulations, what a beauty! My very favorite aspect is that you considered carefully your needs and placed emphasis on exactly the function you needed. And it is gorgeous to boot!

Thanks for the reality check! That is one beautiful home! I really like how you managed the post.

Sum5463,

Love your amazing backsplash, your spice rack, gorgeous new large windows and beautiful island and floors. I really enjoyed seeing your reveal pictures and reading your captions.

What a stunning transformation, thank you for letting us see the work behind it.

Best,

Oldbat2be