The Kitchen (Part Two)

For this post we will be looking at the rest of the steps that I took to finish off my new kitchen.  Just as a refresher, here is what the kitchen looked like before:

Where we left off was right after installing all the cabinets in the kitchen.  

Once all the cabinets were installed I then needed to get counter tops.  I thought about just using a stone tile but after all this effort I decided to splurge on granite.  I found a company not too far from my house that sells slabs of counter tops that are already partially fabricated.  This saves a ton on the cost because you normally have to pay by the linear foot for stone counter tops to be fabricated.  This kitchen took four 10 foot long pieces and only cost me $3,600 installed.  The other quotes I had received were all around the $6,000 range.  The company I used was www.amcbuildingsupply.com/ They came out one weekend and took measurements and installed the next.  They really did a great job. 

The granite I decided on was called White Ice.  It has mostly tan and gray tones but also small veins of black.  Below is the kitchen with the granite installed.  

 
While the granite installers were at my house they also installed my gas cook top and a deep double sink.  The faucet I chose was a modern commercial type faucet.  We have been putting these in the kitchens of the apartments that my community is remodeling.  They are normally about $250 but I found one with an open box on amazon for $60. 

Once the counter tops were in, I needed to find a back splash tile.  There are some very neat back splash tiles on the market but it seems that they are very trendy and can start to look dated after a few years.  They can also be upwards of $15 a square foot.  I do not want to always be changing my back splash so I went for a more timeless gray subway tile.  The entire kitchen only cost me about $150 too. Below is all the tile installed.





After the tile was installed, I was ready to add my exhaust hood for over the gas stove.  There was no hood in this location before so I had to run new ducting across the ceiling to the outside.  This hood was an amazon purchase as well for about $120.



Before I could finish up all the cabinet trim I needed to lay the tile floor.  I looked at many flooring options but actually decided on a tile from Home Depot.  I found a nice gray tile that has a little pattern that matched great with the counter tops.  There is a little over 150 square feet of tile in the kitchen and nook area.  





The grout is actually a darker color than above, it just had not been sealed yet.  The next step was to finish all the toe-kick molding under the cabinets as well as the paneling on the back of the island. I ordered extra paneling and trim pieces and then I just cut it to fit so it would match the rest of the cabinets. The last step was adding all the cabinet hardware.  I ordered all the cabinet hardware on e-bay since it was a lot cheaper.  I used multiple sizes depending on the door height to give the kitchen an even more custom look as well as used brushed stainless steel to match the appliances.  Below was just part of all the hardware. 

 

Below is the completed product.  It turned out better than I ever expected.  It was a ton of work but really did change the whole feel of my house.  



 

I have been working on the master bathroom, family room, and stairwell as well and am almost done with those projects so I will have quite a few new posts soon.  

It is kind of crazy that many of the big projects are almost done and the end is in sight.  After nearly two years of construction I hope to be done about June.  I realize this project has taken forever but I only get to work on my house on the weekends and my plans became much bigger after I started.  I really am excited to be done with the construction but after two years of working on weekends on my house I am not sure what I will do with free time.  Maybe it is time to look at buying another house :)