We have a kitchen!!!!

Yes, our kitchen is done! Well almost. They have one or two little finishes to do today and then we have to load all our stuff into the cabinets, but basically it's completed. We LOVE it! It looks better than we thought it would. Our 70's kitchen has now entered the 21st century. Here are the comparison shots.

Before

After

Our contractor, Remcon, started work on Tuesday, October 21 and they should be done today, November 20; just under 5 weeks to demolish, plumb, change the electricity, install new cabinets, appliances, countertops and flooring, re-drywall and paint. Not too bad! I'd heard so many horror stories about contractors being late that I was a little nervous that this wouldn't be done before baby's arrival. But I am very pleased! They did great work and we couldn't be happier. Very professional.

The planning process almost took longer than the constrcution. We started by picking out Ikea cabinets. A neighbor of ours used them in his place and we were impressed. We didn't want anything too ornate and Ikea had simple, modern designs that fit perfectly into our 922 sq. ft. condo. Remcon was referred to us by Ikea and from there we chose our Cesarstone countertops (like Silestone from Home Depot) and our flooring from Arizona Tile. We had saved some Home Depot gift certificates from our reception in May and purchased our appliances (range and dishwasher) with those (THANKS!). Bryan is very happy to have a convection oven and five burners to help create his culinary masterpieces. As the one who cleans up, I am very happy to have a quiet dishwasher and a flat stovetop (no more scrubbing under burners). While I love everything about it, I think my favorite part is that we can now see into the living room from the kitchen. We cut half of the hallway wall and created a little bar area between the two rooms. It makes everything feel more open and bigger somehow. No more cave kitchen! Along with the help of Remcon, it was all designed by Bryan on the Ikea software you can find on their Web site. Even with cutting the wall I don't think we lost too much cupboard space. We used lazy susans for both bottom corner cabinets and added cabinets above the sink. We'll see how it goes when we start loading up our dishes.

The work wasn't too disruptive...at first. There was always a lot of dust and we had the dining room table in the living room but really, it was bearable. That is, until they moved the refrigerator into the living room so that they could install the tile. That's when we started to feel a little cramped. By then we were also sick of eating out. There are only so many Rubio's fish tacos a girl can eat. Tonight is the first night we will able to skip the fastfood and cook for ourselves. We're so excited!

Here are some more pictures of before and after for your enjoyment. We flipped the stove to the other side and put the frig and pantry on the back wall.

Before

After

Before

After

And some more pics of the work in progress.

And in baby news...

My mom and my sister threw me an amazing shower on Sunday! I will tell you all more about that when some people send me the pictures (you know who you are :- ), but basically our friends and family spoiled us rotten and a good time was had by all.

Here's my 31-week belly shot from this morning. Only 9 weeks left! We're in the single digits. Scary. Now that the kitchen is done it's time to start turning the office into a nursery. It's never ending...