From Horror to Homey

The first time that we came to see this house before buying it I was sceptical. The add said wonderful things - in our price range (red flag: something we want that we can afford!? Yeah, right.) Then when we pulled up, I was even more doubtful.

It wasn't until we got to the kitchen that I was SURE I could never live here. I was silently thanking God that I'd never have to live in such a dump.

The above picture is from our second actual walk through before we bought it (the kitchen really is a good representation of how the whole house looked - a disaster!) I was no more excited the second time around! A couple of my favorite aspects were the hole in the floor and the cracked and peeling counter tops. Please do notice the beauty of the drop down ceiling. My sis-in-law stood up on the counter and poked her head up there one of our first days of living here, and announced that there was a reason someone ingeniously covered it up. The ceiling was falling down.

The very first thing that we did was replace the counter tops. I had dreams of granite but that quickly ended when I found out how much it would really cost to install. Even the second and third choices were ridiculously pricey so I decided I did love laminate after all, at $30 for our whole kitchen from the stock colors at home depot. It was super easy to do too.

Then Mr. Right and I tried out his new tile cutter and put up a new back splash all around. I picked the classic white subway tiles, it looked really easy to do. It ended up being a little bit of a challenge because the walls are not even. Anywhere.

I painted all of the cupboards inside with a new coat of glossy white. I love them because they are the original with the bead board inside. We bought an above range microwave and had two additional cupboards made, one to go on the side of the microwave, long and narrow to fit all of my cookie sheets. The other with a bubble glass front above the microwave that is wired for lighting. I took the handles off of all the cupboards at least a year ago, thinking that painting cupboards was easy. It's not. We had someone working on them last year but he quit the job after doing a few. I have cute knobs waiting in the wings for when that project is finished.

I think you can tell from the after picture that we no longer have that horrid drop down ceiling. That went and so did the old plaster and lath. That was a mess!!! Mr. Right put up drywall.

As you see, he also finished the floor (go here to see before pics). There was one bad spot in front of the sink, where water has been dripping for 100 years. But, I am happy with it overall. It looks a little rustic.

Thanks for visiting my new old kitchen. Come again!