Days 23-26 and the Big Reveal!

We're extremely excited to reveal our completed kitchen (almost as excited as we are to be cooking, baking, eating and hanging out in it!) to you all, but first, here's a look back on this past week:

On Day 23, Greg came and finished the crown molding over the cabinets.  It really made all the difference in making the cabinetry (and kitchen) look finished.

We also hung the dark bamboo blind that I purchased...and then declared it just too narrow. More on that later!

On Day 24, our microwave was delivered = one step closer to no longer microwaving things in our bedroom!

On Day 25, our Advantium microwave oven (on top) was installed. It's the newer version of the Advantium that we owned and loved in Durham. It's a pretty awesome machine...heats and defrosts food like a typical microwave, but also bakes cookies, cooks casseroles and does pretty much anything that a traditional oven can do. We're thrilled to have a "double oven" again and to say, "Sayonara!" to our old microwave.

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On Day 26, our larger bamboo blind arrived in the mail (thank you, Lowes.com). We took it over to Lowe's, they cut it down and we came back and replaced the first one (see above) that was about 2.5" too narrow.  This one fits much better and looks great! (It is a working shade, by the way, but we hid the cords in the shade. We probably won't lower and raise it all that often, but it's nice to have the option.)

And...that brings us to the big reveal! I should preface with the fact that the kitchen is 99%-almost-nearly-quite-just about-pretty-much complete because the backsplash will be added next month. So if you think the walls below the cabinets look unfinished (and still a bit scratched up from the granite installation), it's because they're going to be tiled over.  We're also still figuring out what will go/be displayed in our glass cabinets, so bear with us there!  So without further ado...here is our new kitchen!

The transformation is very obvious when you look at the kitchen before:

And now:

We absolutely love how open and large the room feels now.

A glass of wine, anyone?

We also have a pretty statement piece with tile below the fume hood to look forward to.

In case you're wondering, the chalkboard flower pots on the sill were a fun find on West Elm's sale page. Here's my first message.  :-D

So that's our new kitchen! We're over the moon with how smoothly the renovation went and how well all of the components came together. It really represents us and our transitional style--warm and cozy with traditional elements and a little bit of industrial thrown in, too.  Also, with the neutral colors we chose, our kitchen really is a blank slate for a few contrasting hues. I'll be looking for some cute tea towels soon...any suggestions on colors??

Oh! I should add that the 26 days that I posted about were the days when our renovation was actually happening. As for the total timeline, we started on Wednesday, August 28 and ended on Saturday, October 5....about 5 1/2 weeks total, though we didn't have workers here each and every day. Here are links to the prior 22 days of work, if you want to see the total transformation:
Days 1-3
Days 4-7
Days 8-13
Days 14-18
Days 19-22

In a future post, I will talk about some of the fun features we incorporated into the kitchen and discuss some of the victories and failures of our first (possibly last??) large renovation.

"Have we been having fun in the kitchen?" you ask? It's been wonderful to see how the kitchen (and island) has become the focus of everything our family does lately. And I love to have everyone nearby when I'm in there, even if it's just for washing a few dishes.

As soon as the backsplash tile is installed, we'll post some photos. We're very excited to see the tile on the walls...and to see the kitchen 100% complete!

P.S. In the process of renovating our kitchen, I was able to sort through a lot of our kitcheny stuff and determine whether we keep or toss certain things. I threw out old plastic cups and some party napkins that were looking sad, and made a box for Goodwill with things like never-used utensils and less favorite cookbooks. One thing that I'll never retire is this adorable cookbook that Grandma Lonia gave me in college. Isn't it classic?? It's definitely my personal, "No kitchen is complete without ___." item. Well, before you judge, just know that the chocolate fudge recipe in here is to die for, and it was a staple of my sorority sisters' diets (and mine) in 1999-2000 when I would make it on a regular basis.

Here's that recipe, if you'd like to try it! (Feel free to e-mail me if you need a better copy!)