It is beautiful and I know you are so proud of your families handy work. I enjoyed looking at the pictures, thanks for sharing!

What a transformation! Your kitchen is seasoned with love and all of you pitching in to bring your dream to life.
Loved your pics and hope you enjoy your beautiful new kitchen for many years.

oh dear - about 5 months like that? how many kids do you have? what a bear that'd be!

you were so lucky dh's is a plumber - what a savings and most likely he did good work so he won't have to repair it later - lol!
It turned out very beautiful tho - and so much lighter! bet you are so glad to have all of that dark wood gone.

How do you like your cabs? I think my sister's are woodmark and I love hers - i'm thinking of getting the same cabs. I'll check a few small shops too tho.
did you get a LS put in the corner cab? the island does look different - that's weird. does the end drop down on it?

what's next? bathroom pipes will freeze next winter? lol!

Lovely. The granite is gorgeous.
So when is the party ?

Congratulations laurielep!! You have every reason to be so proud of yourselves for pulling off this beautiful transformation. I hope you had a few $$ left for a bottle of bubbly to celebrate!

Wow .. nice job.

That old wallpaper was really cool, in a kitschy kind of way.

Very nice transformation - I like your island, too.

What a wonderful old house. Your nice new kitchen sink and cabinets with that wonderful deep kitchen ledge look wonderul. BTW, I love my garbage too... :)

I just love seeing the transformation pics! You now have a lovely space. Lucky you with the plumber husband!!

Thank you everyone!
When I found this forum I thought I would never be able to post finished pics!!

desertsteph, we love the cabinets. Our budget was only $4000 for cabs and I was able to stay just under that.
Yes, I have a LS in the corner. I love it. I put all my pots and pans in there.

We bought the island a year ago so we bought the cabs to match the island. The pics are very odd. The stool is a different color but the island is the same exact color as the cabs.
You can put beans or noodles or whatever in the front part of the island drawers. I didn't put them back in there yet. Yes, it folds down.

Old pic...

What a huge demolition project! Here in New England, I think it would have cost $20k just to do the demolition!!! I enjoyed seeing the photos too. You have a warm , welcoming kitchen. So special that it was you and your family that made it happen. Congratulations!

LaurieLep, the renovated kitchen is amazing looking especially for under $20,000! I love your floors that I was ready to ask what width and wood species when I noticed you mentioned it was a high quality laminate floor so I looked up the floor information and the width is slightly over 4". I really love the floors and your kitchen really looks beautiful. It gives me hope when I am ready to renovate my kitchen, maybe I can also keep within a budget. Thanks for sharing.

Love that cute island! A great piece around which to plan the kitchen. I enjoyed the anticipation of going through your photos, dying to see how it turned out. I think I teared up a little when you covered up the brick ;-), but I trust why you thought it should be and all that work paid off in a really lovely result. Enjoy!!

Rhome410, the only brick was put around the window as fill in back when they took the stone out to make a window.
If it was all brick, it would have stayed :)
It was just staggered pieces all over the outside of the window hole.

Beautiful! Love the island! You did a great job of making the kitchen work with it. :)

Wow, what an amazing transformation!

Great transformation! It looks wonderful!!

I love the calm feeling your kitchen has. Very warm and light filled. Beautiful!

Wow! Opening up that wall looked like a pain in the butt! Gorgeous result, and great house. Congratulations!

Fabulous! Your cabinets are wonderful. You must be so
excited. I am astonished you did this under 20K. I know
you had not planned to spend that much but truly you have
made a wonderful investment. That kitchen is stunning and
it will be a great place to work for many years.

The granite goes perfect with the cabinets and the island
is a adorable. Super choices for a functional and lovely
kitchen.

enjoy,
boxerpups

Great job! I loved the old wall paper with the vases. I wonder what the kitchen looked like back then.

Great job! Very warm and inviting. I looked through your photo album twice, relating the whole time. Even showed DH as we thought ours was a big DIY job. You have me beat! lol. My kids have been whining for 3 months with no kitchen. We do have a stove out in the barn. Not lucky enough to have the sink and dishwasher, though! Today, it happens. I loved the pics of your husband working. I should have caught some of those types of photos's when Dh was working on mine. But would not have wanted to have had sound, if you know what I mean! haha. Your kitchen is beautiful and your family will really love spending time together in there.

Beautiful job. Amazing for the budget!

Wish you happy cooking!

Great transformation and you got a lot for your budget. I'm glad you posted because I remembered your vent and trim issues and wondered how it was going.

Did your $19k budget include the window-to-door transformation and the new doors? If so, holy moley! Would you mind posting an itemized budget? It's amazing that so much work got shoehorned into such a reasonable budget. Congratulations!

Marvelous - Just an amazing before and after story, even more so that you were able to do so much on 19K. It's just such a warm and inviting kitchen - love the cabinets and the great island. Your backsplash will be a wonderful finishing touch. I really enjoyed looking through the album to follow the progress - especially liked the historical wall paper photos!

junicb,
Yes, that included the new doors and windows.
I was very anal and kept track of every cent on Excel. Here is my list
According to my bank account...I don't have everything listed...but it's pretty darn close!!
My husband did all demo, plumbing, electric, floor and cabinets. I painted and did back-splash (today!)
We saved so much money doing that ourselves. The things DH isn't good at we hired out for that. All trim work, hanging the sheet rock and spakling. So glad we did cause the kitchen still wouldn't be done yet!!

We hired someone to install doors and windows, we had 26 windows and 3 exterior doors installed so I just took a percentage of what the total installation was.

Slider $1350 (Anderson)
Exterior door 125 (Jeldwen)
Interior door 75 (Jeldwen)
Window 380 (Trimline)
Installation of slider exterior door and window - 600
Labor for sheetrock, spackle, crown, all trim 2000
Cabinets 4044 (American Woodmark)
Granite Countertops 1860
Backsplash 200 (American Olean)
Fridge 900 (Whirlpool)
Range 648 (Fridgadare)
Dishwasher 590 (Maytag)
Microwave 200 (Maytag)
Sink and Flange 250 (Kohler)
grates for sink 75
Garbage disposer 200 (Insinkerator septic assist)
Faucet 210 (Moen)
Knobs and Pulls 24 (Great Outdoors was going out of business, 90% off!)
Flooring 1300 (Shaw Laminate)
Crown, trim, base moulding 440
Recessed lighting & blubs 184
lighting - undercounter 291 (Kitchler)
Stove fan 75 (Braun)
paint & stain 80
Material for pointing stone outside of house 75
Material for walls, beams, subfloor, concrete, insulation, plumbing, electric, plus many other trips to supply house and HD. $1800
Garbage pull out 92 (Rev-a-shelf)
New pots for new stove 150

I am speechless. I watched the whole slideshow and could not believe the transformation. You are rightfully proud of your achievements.

WOW! Love it all

Enjoy your kitchen it looks Great!

OMG I am so happy for you. It looks absolutely beautiful. You should be soooo proud of yourself :) What a fun transformation, thanks so much for sharing all your pics. You must be pinching your self everyday.

What a lovely kitchen to come home to. GREAT JOB!

Wow! That was a huge renovation! Congratulations!!! I like how you managed your expenses and it's great that your husband is a plumber, especially after the pipes burst, yikes. I am very impressed with your choices and how your project turned out. I hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

AWESOME job! Your slide slow is GREAT and really captured the *process*. We did a 95% DIY kitchen reno recently, too, so I can RELATE!

Your house is gorgeous, and your kitchen is PERFECT!

Enjoy!