Our Kitchen Remodel

We had our kitchen “remodeled” a few years ago, if you consider new countertops a "remodel". I posted this on my personal site but wanted to move it here since you see a lot of our kitchen when we post food prep.

We had a builder (remodeling business) come out to give us a quote for the kitchen, guest bathroom, and master bathroom. We went with him because he did some work on Scott’s sister’s house. Well, it turned out to be a nightmare. Thankfully we did not pay him for the other rooms in advance because the kitchen countertops were the only thing he finished before we never heard from him again. We have since made our own updates and saved a lot of money anyway.

Although we want to eventually sell our house and move into a small house (I would say tiny but we don't want one of those 300 sq ft houses...just something much smaller than what we have!), we knew that we needed to update our countertops. While all of this was going on, in January, I spent an entire two weeks completely cleaning out our kitchen: throwing stuff away, organizing, scrubbing, etc. I was also without a kitchen for almost a week – my worst nightmare! We had been wanting to update the kitchen since we moved in almost 7 years ago because it was ALL white. You could see every little thing that was dropped on it and it stained instantly because of the type of surface. We finally bit the bullet and did it and I am so happy we did.

We were actually going to get the backsplash updated as well but every picture that I saw and liked online (aka Pinterest – you should really come pin with me there!) had a white backsplash. You should know how frugal I am by now so I wasn’t going to pay someone to scrap off the white tile we already had just to put another kind of white tile back up…even if it was a little different. Most of the white tile I liked was small rectangular pieces – ours is white squares…not a big difference! It was an instant savings for us!

Below is the “big picture” of the before and after!

This one is actually embarrassing for me but I guess you just don’t realize how dirty white grout gets! Since I spent DAYS cleaning this entire kitchen grout with a toothbrush. Since I spent so much personal time with my grout, I’ve noticed that other people who have white tile and grout have the same issue and sometimes I just want to clean it for them now! Ha! I used a toothbrush and a product called Polyblend Grout Renew. I have since used this on the floor in our guest and master bathrooms and it works great!

The sink was the main thing I was happy to see updated! We food prep every week because it makes our lives easier but trying to clean up after food prep with the old sink was very frustrating! Water and/or food would go everywhere because it wasn’t deep enough.

Now for the close-ups! I can’t stand things on counters (even appliances – they drive me crazy). I was so excited to find inexpensive matching baskets that I could use for different areas of the kitchen. Why are baskets so expensive? I don’t get it and I wasn’t about to pay a huge price for them. I found these for $5-$10 each and I love the way they look!

Of course 2 months after the countertops were installed our microwave quit working so we had to purchase a new one – stuff like that always happens…doesn’t it?!

This basket on the island holds our mail and other random things.

The basket on top of the toaster oven holds the things we typically use to make protein shakes or other drinks. Ours currently holds cocoa powder, stevia, turmeric, etc. We keep our Vitamix out because we use it all the time!

We elevated our soaps with a cake stand – it makes the area around the sink so much cleaner!

This is another close up shot of the soap dispensers. I LOVE them!

This is a “paper towel holder” I got for Christmas a few years ago and it has been the best thing ever. I think we only used 3 rolls of real paper towel per year now. These are basically just washclothes that have snaps on them so once they get dirty I just throw them in the washer. They were ordered from Etsy.

This was another Pinterest idea! I never liked the stainless steel utensil holder that came with our utensils so when I saw this on Pinterest I had to have it. It is just a white pitcher that I found at TJ Maxx.

This is another one of the baskets that holds the items that we use on a normal basis and sits next to the oven. It’s the perfect size for our Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, sea salt, pepper, cinnamon, and ACV.

Talk about a time saver! I put our commonly used dry goods in these glass canisters. Not only is it pretty but very convenient for us as we use them almost everyday. These hold gluten-free oats and gluten-free oat flour (sometimes we have a 3rd one with quinoa). These glass canisters were actually used at our wedding for our hot chocolate bar. They were originally purchased at Ikea. I also keep the measuring cup in them so that it’s just easy to scoop and go!

The builder loved the storage I had under our sink so I might as well share that too in case you are looking for ideas! All I did was purchase a shower curtain rod and hang it in the cabinet under the sink so that we could hang our bottles on it! It makes everything so much neater!

This is obviously not part of the remodel but something that Scott does. Seriously, does anyone else do this?!?! He even start doing it at the condos and houses we stay in while traveling. It’s like his mark and he’s been doing it since he was a kid!

So, there you have it. That's what our kitchen looks like now!