Kitchen Remodel On A Budget: Part 5

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Welcome back to the Kitchen Remodel On A Budget series. Make sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 to see how things kicked off!

After finally getting the new countertops installed, the entire kitchen started feeling different. We now had the new design permanently installed, and we immediately felt the difference in adding twice the counter space to our small kitchen. And though we were enjoying the new feel immensely, there was still plenty of work to do.

Free Dishwasher!

Coming off our ridiculously awesome WIN with our free French-door stainless fridge, we also scored a free dishwasher! We already had a decent dishwasher, but saw a giveaway for a near brand-new Kenmore Elite dishwasher! We were gifted the washer with the understanding that it would need some fixing, but saving $1,000 on a new stainless dishwasher was too good to pass up! We put it in place, but waited on hooking it up because we had other work to do.

Connecting Our New Sink And Fridge

One of the best parts of getting our countertops installed was being able to use our beautiful new single-basin, 9-inch deep sink with new faucet! No more shallow sink spilling out with dirty dishes, and no more tiny faucet getting in the way. But all this shiny new goodness means I needed to plumb everything in.

As with all DIY tasks, I turned to my friend Youtube.com to find a few lessons on how to do kitchen sink plumbing. I watched a few, and made a list of parts I needed to buy. After picking up the parts, I got to work. It took a few hours, but I was able to get everything hooked up (thanks Youtube). I cannot tell you how glorious it was putting dishes in our brand new sink for the first time. We even enjoyed doing the dishes in it. It’s a wonder how having more sink space and a proper makes the painful task of daily dishes that much more bearable 🙂

My favorite part of the entire thing? Having fresh, cold water run through our refrigerator. GOODBYE BRITA! Plus, automatic ice maker. IT’S THE SMALL THINGS, PEOPLE!

New Hardware For The Cabinets

Everything was coming together nicely, but our new cabinets lacked that SHINE. Now that the cabinets were set and the drawers and doors were (mostly) painted and installed, it was time to pick out new cabinet and drawer hardware. My wife (our resident interior designer) ordered a few options on Amazon for only a few bucks so we could compare and see which we liked best.

After reviewing the options, we went with brushed nickel cabinet and drawer pulls that looked AWESOME! Overall, we spent just over $50 on hardware, but the visual difference was GOLD!

We still have to replace the hinges on a few of the cabinet doors and drill new holes in them for mounting. Our old hinges were visible, but since the new style cabinets had hidden hinges, we decided to make them all match. Michelle’s dad is a cabinet guy, so we’ll be looking to him to help get the new slots drilled for mounting the new hinges. WOOP!

New Shelf Liner For Drawers and Cabinet Shelves

One of the things we really wanted to do was to replace the NASTY shelf liner that was in all the drawers and old cabinets. Michelle found a few options online, and we both decided on a high quality one with a nice design to complement the theme of our new kitchen.

When we were painting the cabinets, Michelle stripped all the old paper off the drawers and shelves, and it was a PAIN to remove. Shelf paper is glued on, so it didn’t like coming off. Once everything was removed, she hand-painted the inside of the cabinets. In particular, our corner cabinet was very deep and was difficult to find things in. She painted the entire inside of it white so that light could get in and reflect better so we could see what the heck was in there.

Yup, I married a genius!

Once the new paper arrived, she got to work. She cut sections to perfectly fit each drawer and shelf, and smoothed it out as she attached it with a special tool. Once all the paper was in, the old, busted cabinet looked brand new!

Old and Nasty:

New Hotness:
        

What’s Next?

Things are shaping up nicely, and we have a fully functioning kitchen again, which is nice. But there is still plenty to do. Here’s a quick snapshot of our to-do list at this point.

• Install subway tile backsplash
• Replace outlets and light switches
• Hang microwave
• Build drawers
• Hook up new dishwasher
• Pick out 3″ crown molding for upper cabinets
• Install Lid Stay for cabinet above fridge
• Paint and install new trim below lower grey cabinets
• Get matching Cherry trim below lower cherry cabinets
• Paint inside edges of drawer holes
• Paint Pantry and Pantry door

I’m sure there’s a few more things in there, but we’ve still got work to do. Tune in next time to see the magical transformation of installing a subway tile backsplash!