I Baked an Angel Food Cake (The Kitchen)

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Woohooo… go me, right? Oh… but… here’s where I mention that I baked an Angel Food Cake IN. MY. OWN. KITCHEN. WHAT!!??!!??

Yes! You read that correctly. I baked a cake in my kitchen. In my oven. So super exciting if you ask me!! Today I think I’ll focus on said kitchen. Then the next post will be about said Angel Food Cake. Deal?

The Original Kitchen

Guys, do you remember when I showed you the before pictures? This is where the kitchen started. This picture was actually taken the week before we signed papers. It was like the Monday before Thanksgiving or something like that. 

The floor under where the fridge sets has plywood for some reason. There was a screwdriver holding the dishwasher level. The dishwasher actually still had dishes in it. Those cabinets… um… the shelves were sagging. There was even some food in there, but not much. Remember, before we bought it, the listing realtor was responsible for having someone come in and clean it out. They got most of the stuff.

That first couple of days… we did this:

And then the kitchen sat in this stage for what felt like YEARS. I think a couple of weeks maybe. From the kitchen, the focus went to the bathroom. You know, since we didn’t have a working bathroom and we were tired of running down the road to my parent’s house. Or hanging our butts out for the interstate to see. Don’t ask.

Stir the Pot While on the Pot

So after the bathroom was torn out, we realized that there had been years of water damage. You could actually see through the wall to the back side of the siding. In case you didn’t know, that’s not a good thing. So we decided we were going to tear out the bathroom floor. Initially, we discussed tearing out the kitchen floor only. Then we decided on the bathroom floor instead. Not the kitchen floor. Yet, I came home to this one night. What? Well, the kitchen floor is completely torn out and the bathroom floor hadn’t been touched yet. At this point, there had been a lot of changes where I’d leave and come back to other thoughts that this didn’t even phase me. I just went to cleaning up the kitchen floor debris from under the house. Don’t want termites because of that stuff…

Eventually, after delving into it more, we wound up having to sturdy up the floor joists in the kitchen. That means it was a good thing we tore out the kitchen floor. So as they delve into it more, it came to surface that we needed to tear out the wall between the kitchen and bathroom. That’s when they started teasing me about having a bathroom/kitchen combo. That way you could stir the pot while on the pot. Ugh! 

When that wall came out, we had already ordered the kitchen cabinets. I kind of lectured them that that wall had to go right back up where it came from since cabinets had been ordered. 

We ordered our cabinets from Menards. They came in the first week of January and sat in the SCUBA trailer for a couple of months. Hubby was surprised that I wanted Hickory Cabinets.

Building Back

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we started building back the walls. Whew! To say I might have been a little worried about that kitchen/bathroom combo might be a little bit of a lie… but… With this bunch, you never know. Thankfully it wasn’t too close to April Fool’s or they might have tried to fool me…

I might have razzed them about getting the dividing wall back in place. Like I said, probably a good thing it wasn’t near April Fool’s Day. I might have been in for a rude awakening :). To say we have fun… that would be an understatement.

After the wall went up, we dove full force on that bathroom. Then it was on to rewiring. Guys, that felt like it took forever. Probably partially because you couldn’t see the progress. Yeah, every so often you saw a can light pop up into the ceiling, but really, that wasn’t impressive. There was also the HVAC that had to be installed. Again, you didn’t see much but once it was installed it at least got warm. Remember, we did all this in December/January/February (and of course we’re still working now).

Working on the HVAC we had to make sure to get the floor in quickly and the walls insulated.

Next

When it was finally time to work on the kitchen, it again seemed to take forever. I might have been impatient. Truthfully, I might still be. So after the insulation was in, it was time to hang sheetrock, mud, and tape the walls. If you’ve never experienced that, Gosh! You mud, tape, sand, mud, tape, sand, and you might even repeat that again.

And when you sand, you apparently turn your hair, arms, shirt, everything white. I actually found out what I’ll look like when I’m old and gray. Right now I’m just old… There, I beat someone to it…

After we were done mudding and taping, next came the texture. Oy. I had it in my head I wanted knockdown. And while I’m still very happy with my choice… I’ve had a few instances where I thought I should have my head examined. Super easy to do. Not really time-consuming either. But dang. I think I’ve said dang a lot. This is hard work… that’s all there is to it. Those flipping shows on HGTV make it seem so super simple. Yeah right!

The Appliances

I never thought the appliances were going to show up.

Instead of Black Friday deals, Lowe’s had Black Friday Month. The whole month of November. So we signed for our house what, the last day or second to last day of November. Well, the appliance deal was good through the day before that or something. We found out that we could order our appliances (they had to be ordered) and as long as we canceled before they arrived, we could cancel should the house deal not go through. We decided the weekend before to go ahead and order. They told us it would be Around the 1st week of January before they’d arrive. No big deal, we didn’t need them now anyway. Then the fun started.

Around the 1st week of January, we were contacted and told that they were back ordered until the end of March/first of April. We were hoping that we’d be in the house by then. So the lovely gal at Lowe’s helped us tremendously. She found us a step up in the stove and dishwasher, for the same price/same discount. She said they wouldn’t be in for 3-4 weeks. They arrived in the first week of February. Gosh, she was awesome.

In case your interested, we got:

Back to the Kitchen

If you’ve never painted fresh sheetrock, it’s thirsty. The better paints say they are paint/primer duos and you can do it in one coat. I call B.S. I would recommend priming first. You’ll thank me later. The other piece of advice is, use a spray gun… for sure for the primer anyway. Again, you’ll thank me. Wow! What took me a couple of hours to actually paint, we had almost the entire house primed in 2 hours. That was with breaks and all.

For primer I used Kilz. Just plain white Kilz. Nothing special there. Triston had a paint gun and we primed the living room, dining room, hallway, my bedroom, and one of the girl’s bedrooms in less than 2 hours. At 2 hours we were cleaned up… and white. Yup, we saw Triston with white hair too. I’m pretty sure the inside of our noses were also white.

The next day I had him paint the ceiling in the living room, dining room, and hallway. While I was waiting on him to show up, I hand rolled our bedroom ceiling. I should have waited. He had all those rooms painted in the time it took me to paint my ceiling twice. And that was 2 coats on his part too.

Ceiling color in all rooms but the bathroom and one of the girl’s rooms… Crème Fraîche, Valspar Semi-Gloss

Wall color is Casual Khaki, Valspar Semi-Gloss. The thing about the Casual Khaki is it was a Behr color from Home Depot that Lowe’s was able to match in the Valspar paint for me.

Fixtures

For some reason I had it in my head I wanted a rose gold water faucet. I had a specific style in my mind. Turns out, if you search high and low, you’ll find what you’re searching for. I found my particular faucet on Overstock.com. 

The fan… One Sunday we decided to go wander around Menards. We found this ceiling fan and fell in love. It screamed my kitchen so when we were ready for a ceiling fan, this is the one we bought. Yup, I had to have a ceiling fan to move air in the kitchen. We had one in our old kitchen and it was nice!

When it came to the sink, we were back and forth with 2 basins or 1. As you can see, we finally went with 1. It has 2 cons against it… if you’re trying to defrost a turkey, you don’t have 2 basins. And it takes a while to fill it up. Otherwise, I wanted to be a rebel and go with 1. So far, loving it! This came from a wander through Sutherlands. Their website won’t allow me to find this particular sink.

The switch covers came from Home Depot.

Flooring

So the flooring was interesting… I swear, we’re going to have withdrawals from our home improvement stores. We were wandering around Sutherlands when we found flooring that looked like barn wood. Sold! The lady allowed us to take a piece home to see in our lighting. I had decided on one type of flooring… until the wander around Home Depot. That’s when I found this flooring. It was new and I was in love. Burlington Walnut 6 in. x 24 in. Porcelain Floor and Wall Tile. Then I had to decide which direction. Whew!

And don’t worry, I used the Sutherlands tile elsewhere :). Stay tuned!

Ah, the Window

This is a weird sized window. It is 20″ by 30″.

Hubby had been having a hard time finding a window. It was smaller than the original. Plus the window that was in the kitchen had a hole in it. There was a small, then when trying to close it, it became bigger. It never broke but… So it had to be replaced.

So one day in either January or February (February I’m thinking) hubby found a guy trying to sell one this size. On dry pavement it would have taken about an hour and 10 minutes to get there… but we weren’t on a day of dry pavement. Oh. NO. It was snowing and sleeting and icy roads. And he sent me out to pick up this window. My driver’s side windshield wiper was totally screwed up. I either had to lean on the console, sit up really tall, or slouch to see. Stupid stupid stupid… stupid. I stopped twice on my way to flip the ice off the windshield wiper. I had the heater running full blast. And inside the cab, I was sweating like crazy because I had on a sweatshirt and long-sleeved t-shirt. I made it there in about an hour and 45 minutes maybe. Then I found an O’Reilly’s. I walked in and when they asked what they could do to help me, I might have shouted, I need a new windshield wiper. Gosh, those guys were awesome. They installed it and everything.

Oh… and I didn’t mention, hubby sent me out with like 70 miles to empty in the truck. I might still be a little sore about all of this. But I put fuel in the truck and a new windshield wiper and I was ready to go. The drive home was just as long, but smooth sailing.

The Cabinets

Back to the cabinets.

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We FINALLY got the point of hanging cabinets. But first, we had to stain them. We ordered the Hickory and had plans of keeping them as natural as possible. On one of the end caps, we decided to test the different stains. And in the above picture, none of the colors were chosen. We actually went with Puritan Pine (Minwax Wood Finish Puritan Pine Oil-based Interior Stain)

Then it was time to hang the cabinets. Exciting!!!

The Counter

We went with a concrete countertop. So the first thing you do is put on the hardy backer. Basically just like you would with a tile floor. Then we went with bullnose fronts. I really wanted the rock look, but it was quite a bit more. We decided bullnose to still get a pretty look but saved money doing that. You then put all the work in on that. I can’t even walk you through that.

Finally, you mix up the concrete and pour! You do have to put plastic down. Helps to keep the floors cleaner. And you put the sink in. I would recommend a deep sink anyway. Think of tall pots/pans. But the sink becomes a permanent fixture. Like your sink. To change it, I think you have to tear out the countertops. Mine is poured in there. Plus the concrete gained another inch in the sink depth.

Then, you remove the plastic bullnose pieces and you’re ready to move on. You can leave the countertops this color, or you can stain them. There are special stains you buy. We got a sample pack. Jared took pictures when they first started staining. Said he share with me but never did. Said he was scared I’d come up when they did that and be scared about the countertops. 

At this point… I told them I was okay with the color, but I wasn’t 100% sold. But we weren’t getting any darker so… I said it was good. Thing is… wait for it!

We put multiple coats of Crystal Clear Epoxy Resin on it. Oh gosh, guys, it made it gorgeous. it darkened it up. We used a heat gun to help pull the bubbles out of it. And I’m in love. I might love it even more than granite countertops and gosh I love granite. You have to be careful not to get the Epoxy on your hands. It has a chemical reaction that isn’t good. We used gloves and that was definitely best. You also have to be careful where you put the containers you mix the stuff in. 

The Backsplash

Subway tile, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. haha.

Initially, I bought some other tile that was kind of a sandstone texture/look tile. The more I contemplated it, the more I realized it wouldn’t be easy to clean. And sometimes the girls and I aren’t the cleanest cooks in the world. So I talked hubby into Subway tile. We decided to go with Mini Subway tiles (American Olean Starting Line White Gloss 12-in x 12-in Ceramic Brick Mosaic Wall Tile). I’m so glad I got him talked into the Subway Tile! So glad.

Then came the question, what color grout? I spouted out white but Jared suggested dark. Oh, Dark just sets it off! The color is Charcoal. We knew Charcoal would be nice. Look at the color of the thin set. Very similar to the charcoal color. It was the perfect color!!

Decor

I’m not going to focus much on decor in this post because, wow, we’re at 2,662 words here and I’m not quite finished… but check out this sign. Way cool, right?

The Finished Product

It’s been a labor of love but totally worth it. And we aren’t moved into the house yet, so the kitchen hasn’t totally been decorated yet, but gosh I love it.

So the first day my appliances were in, especially the stove, they hooked it up to a bbq grill propane bottle so I could bake something. My big propane tank hasn’t been set yet.

We even had Easter dinner at our house. And after the 1st load of Easter dishes, I sat in a lawn chair and stared at the dishwasher. I hoped if I stared long enough, it would magically unload itself and reload itself. Let me tell you, that didn’t happen. Bummer. Maybe my next kitchen. haha.

3 thoughts on “I Baked an Angel Food Cake (The Kitchen)

  1. We’ve had the same problem with our dishwasher!

    You have so much to be proud of. It looks great!
    Congratulations to you all and God bless. 🙂

  2. OH MY GOSH! Your kitchen has turned out amazing!!!!!! So gorgeous! Love those countertops!! Love it that your hubby knows how to do all those things!

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