Finish The Basement Or Update The Kitchen?

Well, Rhett wanted to finish the basement and I wanted to update the kitchen. Guess who won?

It's not that our kitchen was that bad. It functioned fine and everything worked just fine, but it was outdated. When we built our house 8 years ago we were poor so we put money into upgrades that we knew we couldn't change after the fact - structural upgrades. So our kitchen ended up with "builder-grade" everything - meaning basic and cheap.

And when I worked full-time, it didn't really bother me since I was never home. I worked between 6-8 hours and had about a 2 1/2 hour commute each day. So I didn't cook much or spend much time in the kitchen at all. But now that I am a stay-at-home mom, we spend lots of time in the kitchen so I wanted a nice one. Selfish and materialistic? Yes, but since we plan on staying here, I want to make it as nice a home for our family as I can-and that includes a nice up-to-date kitchen. :)

Shameless plug: Thanks to my wonderful neighbor, Jannah, we got a great deal on everything! Jannah is a supplier and does model home kitchen design and interior decorating. It is thanks to her that we were able to do it in a reasonable amount of time (about 10 days)and for a reasonable amount of money! Her website is http://www.idcwholesale.com/.

Here are some before and after pics., as well as some in-between.

Since I didn't think about recording this event on film until we had already torn out most of the kitchen, I had to scan the photo below from when we first moved in 8 years ago, hence the wonderful quality of the pic. And sadly, in 8 years not much had changed in the kitchen area except for a new table, chairs and stools.

To save money on labor we (and when I say 'we' I mean my mom, dad, Rhett and myself) pulled out the old cabinets and the flooring ourselves. We also painted and will eventually tile the back splash. These pics are of Logan pulling out staples from the sub-floor in preparation for wood flooring.

Getting ready to tear out the rest of the cabinets, and disconnect all the plumbing. Time to say good-bye to my dishwasher for a while! :(


New kitchen practically done....


Finally...
The new kitchen-minus the back splash. Who new picking out tile could be so hard?! We put in new knotty alder cabinets painted in a toffee color, hand-scraped hickory engineered wood flooring, carmel colored quartz counter tops, a granite composite black sink, and an oil rubbed bronze faucet as well as oil rubbed bronze drawer pulls and nobs.

I love it and couldn't be happier with how it turned out! One day I would like to get new appliances in black, but couldn't justify spending the money for them yet since I did go a little over budget and everything we already have works so well - dang it! But maybe next year...