Our current kitchen is much beloved, but it has certainly seen WAY better days. We're giddy for the changes ahead, although nervous that we're making the right decisions.
Sliding Glass Door
The door was beginning to actually rot out at the bottom (as are some of our windows, which is a project we foresee needing to address in the near future as well), so that was the first thing to be changed out. We hired this done, as the door was entirely too heavy for Mark to lift alone, but considering I'm now entering into my second trimester, I'm not really much help without pulling muscles left and right. It turned out to be a great decision for us!
See before:
The door itself was very dated, but the worst part was how it was rotting along the bottom from getting so much moisture in from a bad seal:
After:
The new door doesn't solve the awful flooring issue, but it does look significantly better! Still waiting for the window treatments (which I'll get to next).
See before:
The door itself was very dated, but the worst part was how it was rotting along the bottom from getting so much moisture in from a bad seal:
After:
The new door doesn't solve the awful flooring issue, but it does look significantly better! Still waiting for the window treatments (which I'll get to next).
Window Treatments
Of course, the natural progression with the door being replaced was to decide what to do with the blinds. I've never hated them, but they do irritate me on the level that both of our kids just love to play with them and I'm just waiting for the day when they come crashing down as a result. That, and they add NO color or warmth to the room. They also ended up cutting the doors down to about 2/3 the size they really are, since they all bunch up on one side. We decided on curtains with a rod that extends about 6 inches past on either side of the window so that we could truly open things up and let a lot more light in.
When I went to pick out the curtains, a lot came into play, but a lot of that had to do with the tile backsplash we had picked out back at the beginning of July. We LOVED the backsplash and thought it'd be great to tie in some of the colors from that across the room at the window. So here's what we went with:
Product link on Menards.com
We decided to match up the darker blue color in the tile for the curtains, so we went with these from JCP
Curtains at JCPenney
Curtain rod at JCPenney
When I went to pick out the curtains, a lot came into play, but a lot of that had to do with the tile backsplash we had picked out back at the beginning of July. We LOVED the backsplash and thought it'd be great to tie in some of the colors from that across the room at the window. So here's what we went with:
Product link on Menards.com
We decided to match up the darker blue color in the tile for the curtains, so we went with these from JCP
Curtains at JCPenney
Curtain rod at JCPenney
Flooring
Flooring for the kitchen has been quite the headache, truthfully. We always kind of were leaning towards hardwood or engineered hardwood, but really started struggling with that decision when we thought about trying to match up the different colors of wood in our house: From blonde cabinets to medium-grain stairs and a different color medium-grain trim throughout the house. We initially decided to go with DuraCeramic tiles, a tile composite type product that looked really great when we ordered it (and the salesman also just raved about).
However, once we went back to pick up our order, the company had discontinued the product, which gave us pause. We should have looked up the reviews before placing the order, because had we done so, we would have realized that it had HORRIBLE reviews. We took it back a couple weeks later and choked down the 25% restock fee. We figured we'd rather be out a couple hundred dollars in stupid tax than to go to all the trouble of putting back down flooring that we weren't satisfied with.
We went back to the drawing board, and I picked up a few samples when I was in Mankato with my friend Angie once again, except this time we had a PERFECT fit! We found this flooring and it complements all the other wood in our house PERFECTLY, which is hard to envision. Not only does it go with the cabinets, trim and stairs, but it also complements our wood dining room furniture that we've got for the time being until our kids stop ruining things. (haha- will that be "ever"??)
Link to the hardwood flooring from Menards.com
In this particular picture, it looks a little more wild than in real life, but this room also appears to have significantly more light than our living room gets, and we also intend to tone it down a bit with an area rug in the TBD future.
We're really excited to get the ball rolling on the flooring, as our current flooring (linoleum and a lighter colored berber carpet) is 18 years old, stained, and very (very, very) disgusting. See exhibits A and B:
Okay, that above picture doesn't do the condition justice, as it's not a high-traffic area like the one below:
Other projects that we may possibly tackle down the road would be cabinets and counter tops, but quite frankly, we're just trying to tackle the necessities at the current time. The more urgent needs after these initial changes will be replacing more windows in the house, as many of them are starting to rot out. However, once we went back to pick up our order, the company had discontinued the product, which gave us pause. We should have looked up the reviews before placing the order, because had we done so, we would have realized that it had HORRIBLE reviews. We took it back a couple weeks later and choked down the 25% restock fee. We figured we'd rather be out a couple hundred dollars in stupid tax than to go to all the trouble of putting back down flooring that we weren't satisfied with.
We went back to the drawing board, and I picked up a few samples when I was in Mankato with my friend Angie once again, except this time we had a PERFECT fit! We found this flooring and it complements all the other wood in our house PERFECTLY, which is hard to envision. Not only does it go with the cabinets, trim and stairs, but it also complements our wood dining room furniture that we've got for the time being until our kids stop ruining things. (haha- will that be "ever"??)
Link to the hardwood flooring from Menards.com
In this particular picture, it looks a little more wild than in real life, but this room also appears to have significantly more light than our living room gets, and we also intend to tone it down a bit with an area rug in the TBD future.
We're really excited to get the ball rolling on the flooring, as our current flooring (linoleum and a lighter colored berber carpet) is 18 years old, stained, and very (very, very) disgusting. See exhibits A and B:
Okay, that above picture doesn't do the condition justice, as it's not a high-traffic area like the one below:
Oh, the joys of home ownership :)
Stay tuned for an update in a few weeks!
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