Our "little" project which kicked off in September has come to a close with the finale screw placed last night. Barney's blood, Mike's sweat and my tears have been poured into this project (don't worry, Barney is okay and I'm just a crybaby), so without anymore hesitation, let's show you around!
We went with the off-white cabinets to lighten up the space (even during the day it's completely dark in this area). It makes the space look so much bigger! You can't tell from the photos, but the cabinets go to the ceiling so we have a lot more storage space - and not a gallery of all our extra dishes. I originally wanted the butcher block counter tops. Then granite. In reality, as this is a rental, we knew laminate would probably be the best bet. Looks pretty close to granite though, right? It's called Labrador, and we purchased the pre-cut piece at Lowes.
Again, we added more storage by putting a cabinet above the washer and dryer. Originally we had not planned on getting new appliances, but the owners up the budget so we could get an energy efficient fridge, stove and range hood. It was a debate between black and stainless steel, but black won. We pretty much cut the appliances cost in half by not doing stainless steel and ultimately I think we made the right decision.
I'm telling you what, this sink has changed my life! Before our sink was 7" deep and the faucet leaked, and it was just ugly! The new sink is 9" deep, it's a cast-composite makeup which makes it super light - hopefully super durable too. I picked the pull down faucet style, which means no more Brita water filter (darn).
We have so much more built-in storage now. Since we couldn't re-install the dish rack, Barney came up with the pots and pans rack solution - which I love! We have space between the fridge and washer to store my (new) step stool and other miscellaneous items. There is a spice rack cabinet - which probably would have worked better on the bottom. The cutlery divider (came free with the cabinets) makes two drawers in one and saves a lot of space. My microwave shelf idea worked out well and our trash can drawer gets those nasty cans out of the open.
I started out with a $5,000 budget. After I was given the go-ahead on the appliances, it was bumped up to $6,000. Here's the breakdown.
$3,300 Custom-made cabinets with hardware and all built-in storage
$548 Refrigerator
$549 Oven
$69 Range Hood
$187 Sink and drain
$147 Faucet
$190 Counter top, toe kit, glue etc.
$100 Extra crown molding
$16 Shelf and brackets
$190 Tile, grout, glue, caulk
$150 Miscellaneous items (basin, buckets, gas line solution, outlet covers, nails, screws, etc.)
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$5,446 Total
Not bad, right? We're still under budget! So...the big question is...what's the next project!?