Love It!

So, 2 weeks turned into 5 weeks but our kitchen reno is finally complete (well almost). I knew going into this reno that we would live with layers of drywall dust, dirt, and only a half functioning kitchen. I can say that it was definitely worth the wait. We absolutely love the finished product. Of course there are little things that still need to be done but the BIG stuff is done! YAHOOOO.

For some of you...the inside of this house is no stranger. I suppose that is what we get for buying a house from friends. One of the biggest things I wanted to make sure of was that when friends who know the previous owners came to our home they would see it as our home not the other people's home. I think with this renovation there will be no mistaking the fact that this is our home now. I do have to credit Karina in the fact that the reno that we have done was a dream of her's and she was part of the inspiration of doing the reno.

Without further ado....here are the before and after pictures of our new home.......

hope you enjoy....

Before......

This kitchen was functioning but did not have a lot of counterspace. What we wanted to do was open into a great room style and give ourselves more counterspace.

After.....

Oh, what a big different knocking out half a wall makes. I cannot tell you how much lighter this has made the living room and dining room. I now can be in the kitchen and see the boys in the living room playing. It will make it great for entertaining as there is lots of counter space and the ability to carry on a conversation with someone in the living room while you are working in the kitchen.

LOVE IT!

We moved the pantry cupboard and the fridge to the wall where the eating area use to be and now this is where my desk now sits. It was not going to work as an eating area anymore but we didn't really need two eating areas as there is a dining room off the kitchen. I know the lighting is not great in the picture but I hope it gives you a big of an idea of the layout.

This is standing in the dining room facing the living room.....

Before...
Before....

After..

I think this is my favourite view of the finished product. It show how open the entire area really is. We need to get higher bar stools right now as the ones we had from our previous place don't work so well. Just one of the smaller details that is still left to be completed.

Someone at church when they learned that we were doing a kitchen reno had asked me why because she thought that the kitchen was great the way it was....I replied it is nice but we are just trying to make it nicer. I think we have accomplished that. =)

One of the other smaller reno's that we did fairly soon after we moved in was the basement rec room. There was a mint green rock fireplace. The rock went all the way up the wall to the ceiling and then there was a hearth of the same mint green rock. It wasn't all that great looking and we knew that we would want to take it off and just clean it up a bit. So, we removed the rock on our own and then we had a friend come in and frame in the area and but drywall up. The fireplace is still there behind the drywall so that if we ever want to put in a gas fireplace we just have to cut a hole. But for now it works perfectly for our TV room. Our TV is in front of the fireplace area.....

And finally, when we bought the house the backyard fence was falling over in some areas so we knew that we would need to put in a new fence so that the kids could play safely and enjoy the entire backyard. We figured that the fence was the original fence when the house was built. Jamie literally pulled down the fence with his bare hands. It took a total of 45 minutes for the entire fence to come down. In spots, Jamie went to pull down one panel and 3 or 4 panels would come falling down. It was so rotted it needed to go.

It is amazing what a new fence can do to a backyard. It makes the entire backyard feel even bigger than before. It is so private. Our neighbors don't really spend a lot of time in their backyards so it is rather quiet when we go to enjoy ours. We had researched several different fence companies before picking Surrey Cedars. If anyone is looking to redo a fence I would highly recommend them. They came on a Saturday afternoon and finished the entire backyard that day. It was a crew of 6 guys and it took them just over 4 hours. They dug the post holes by hand! They were definitely a well oiled machine and knew what they were doing!

LOVE IT!
Hope you love it as much as I do =)