Fixer Upper Kitchen

Don't we all love a fixer upper kitchen?

Or fixer upper anything?

I surely do.

When we moved to South Florida,

we had to look for a fixer upper house.

That's what we could afford.

before

before

It seems a challenge for some people to look past what they see.

before

Not everyone has a vision of what could be.

Fortunately for me, 

I am a visionary at heart.

Always have and always will.

We lived in the house for about 5 months before we started the gut job.

During those months, I ripped up the floor and replaced it with the laminate 

(here what I used).

I changed out knobs and pulls and also replaced the appliances. 

In addition to that we went ahead and added new cabinets (that you see in the background in the following picture) in what was going to be the new kitchen expansion. 

demolition

demolition

I knew what I wanted to do with this kitchen, 

and I had most of the material priced, 

picked out (and even bought) 

before we ever 

moved in the house.

demolition

Thing is,

kitchens are not cheap,

but you can always be frugal about it.

And that was my plan.

demolition

Nothing too extravagant and within our budget.

New cabinets being installed

New cabinets being installed

New cabinets being installed

New cabinets and trim being installed

trim

Please make sure you do have a budget for everything you do...

and always plan for the unexpected.

I was definitely blessed to have a good friend who does remodeling. 

Doctor Renovate 

(check out his work!)

He can fix, build and replace pretty much anything.
He has hands of gold and pays so much attention to little details.

action shot

He definitely knows what he is doing and most times I can follow directions.

So that was a good deal for us. 

my first tiling job

We had to update electrical, new lighting, ceiling patching and popcorn ceiling scraping, plumbing, kitchen demo, wall knocked down, floor patching, drywall, tiling...you name it.

We ended up doubling up the size of the kitchen 

and adding much needed counter space,

 cabinet space and a nice size kitchen island.

You can call it my dream kitchen,

although my life dreams are much bigger than a kitchen.

Just saying.

With the added lights and the lighter cabinets this space looks much more inviting.

Sweat equity at it's finest.

Considering how much I enjoy cooking and having people over, 

this project is definitely a winner in my book.

Listing picture. The before

In progress

The new kitchen

material used:
floor- Nucore in "mixed grays"
cabinets- off white color
counter- Granite, Bahamas White
appliances- Frigidaire stainless
backsplash- subway tiles with dark gray grout

Stay Frugal,

Daniela
Frugal Ain't Cheap on Etsy