I have a lot of pictures of our kitchen renovations, so I'm going to split them up into a few posts. These are all from the day we got the condo.
This one is standing just to the side of our front door. That little hallway looking opening is the kitchen, and the two doors on either side are small closets. Probably a coat closet and a pantry. Down the hall is the bathroom and baby's room. If you're bored try counting how many different wallpapers the picture has. Four would be the correct answer, though the wallpaper designer is just plain wrong.
Here's a shot straight into the kitchen. The fridge is behind the closet on the right. The ceiling is so low, the lighting leaves much to be desired (along with an awful bulging patch job), and the entire kitchen is just cramped and nasty. This was
definitely not my dream kitchen. But still, it has
potential.
A closet look in, check out the amazing variety of tiles. Sarcasm intended.
The view from the dining room. Wallpaper the back of cabinets? And maybe a door or two? You better believe it. They knew how to not let anything go to waste. In this case, probably not the best trait. The kitchen has a snack bar (is that what it's called?) and some light blocking cabinets hanging in the '
pass through'.
It would have been nice to be able to live with the kitchen a while before we tore it out. But it was
disgusting. No amount of cleaning could help it. Case in point. The lovely glued-on-top of the original counter tiling job. Who does that? What was wrong with the counter before?! The poor tile job left plenty of room for all sorts of food and
nastiness to be stuck everywhere.
Check out this close up of the sink. They just. stopped. tiling. Most of the tile isn't even grouted, if it looks like it is, that's just because it's filled with
nastiness. Beyond weird.
And then the floor tile. Because the
linoleum must have been so bad they decided it would be a better idea to cover it with outdoor tiles. Just crazy glued to the linoleum. No tile saw? No problem, just snap 'em and fit what you can. Grouting seem like a crazy thing to do? Just caulk 'em! (Yeah, they CAULKED the spaces between the tile!). Wanting a
seamless effect? Cover it all with
Terra cotta outdoor paint.
Weird.
And here's the after! Taking down the closets made the hugest difference, and raising the ceiling and adding can lights really opens up the space too! Oops, I still need to put the air vent cover on! I opted out of a dishwasher (I know, I know!) for more cabinet space and Eli was able to put in a gas line so we could use our gas stove. The original stove was on the left side of the kitchen, and we also moved the fridge to the spot that was previously a closet. 
The before view from the dining room: 
And the after! We gained a little more counterspace by getting a microwave/hood in one and while I love the look of a nice hood vent, this works for us. I don't like the gap that's between the last cabinet on the right and the fridge, and am hoping to come up with something creative to make it look a little more finished. A tall skinny wine rack maybe? 
Rather than keeping the same set-up with the snack bar (don't know if that's the right name for it), I choose to have a large extended countertop with lots of drawers facing the dining room. The drawers are smaller/shorter...only 12 inches deep rather than the standard 24 which would have been too deep for the space. They are perfect for storing all of my baking things, linens and some tableware. And the extra big counter space is awesome for rolling out cookies! I have shelves to hang up to the left of where the last upper cabinet (above the cake stand). Just have to do it! 
I have a thrifted frame that ended up being the perfect size for this little piece of wall and am planning to turn it into a chalk/magnet board.
And here's extra storage we were able to create by hanging a few shelves. We keep a few small appliances and Hez's food, dishes and bottles here for easy access. And under the shelves is a perfect spot to tuck away a trash can.
I couldn't put cabinets above the fridge because of the attic access door, so I keep two big baskets on top that usually hold things like paper towels and wine. If the attic access looks like it's falling, that's probably because it sort of is. It still needs to be nailed in, so it's just kind of sitting there right now.
The biggest thing we have left is the backsplash. I'm not looking forward to spending the money on it, but am trying to keep an eye out at Home Depot for clearance tile. I picked up some little subway glass tiles for the bathroom for around $2.50 sq/ft and would love if I could find another deal like that, but it might take a while since the kitchen needs quite a bit of tile! I think eventually it might be cool to hang something in front of the little shelving nook, but as long as it stays uncluttered I'm not to worried about it. I also need to finish the teapot canvas painting, I started them when Hez was just a newborn and still have to do some final painting on it. At least it's hung up?
And it was a huge ongoing project for the next several months, although to date it still is not finished. Here's the view from the dining room. 
