The after.

Were done, were done, were DONE! 

The whole "during" process I regretted doing this over and over again. I told myself I'll embrace everything WOOD in our house and NEVER try and change it again. I honestly didn't realize all that would go into doing the cabinets. BUT, Now that were done, I'm highly in love with them and even more so with the new hardware. ;) 

I wont bore you with the "before, after" business.... just know the wood is BEFORE and the white pearl ash is AFTER.

see the wood swirly thing above the sink?? 

You can tell in the  after pics that it is gone, and made such a huge difference... I definitely love the straight, sleek look, rather then the swirvy look. Also, hiding up under the swirly thing is a hideous, yucky light. That has also been replaced. We also left the cabinet doors off the 2 high ones above the sink.

We also took out the above (main) lighting and replaced it with a similar one as this one, just bigger. (No pic) 

oh and note the new dishwasher too.

Next up is to replace the stove top and built in oven. Which will be quite the ordeal financially AND physically.

 Seems that the people who built the house in the 70's made just about everything a "special order" size. and thats just plain 'ol frustrating!!!!! The stove top is a whack size thats in between the "normal" ginormous size, and the "normal" smaller size.... so, seeing as the counter tops are already cut out for it, we would only be able to go bigger, to cut out more counter top... 

bigger= more $$.... 

and the oven is 27".... who in their right mind would build their kitchen around a 27" oven?? Someone who obviously does NOT cook for a big family. I can barely for a 9X13 in it, and Nat took my regular size cookie sheets and cut the handles off cuz the extra small tiny cookie sheet just did NOT cut it when cooking for my fam. Its been frustrating, to say the least, learning how to get around cooking in such a small oven. Sooo... when we replace, we shall replace BIG. I'm thinking huge, DOUBLE oven for this mama!! 

oooh I can't wait. Every time we go to Lowes, I go to the appliance section and just look and dream about that double oven.

Anyways, since the smaller over is built in, we will have to bust out some cabinet area to fit a bigger stove. Nothing too terribly difficult, but thats what will have to be done to get anything at all remotely bigger than what we have now.

Also, we have some countertop stain stuff which I'm also really excited about. The counter tops now, with gold swirls in them, I just highly dislike. Highly. So, were gonna give it a try. We leave to go on our trip next weekend, so were gonna stain them right before we leave because you're not supposed to use them for 2 weeks. (eeek... we'll see how that goes. ;)

Anyways... I'll fill you in on that when we get it done.

So, there you have it. I am loving my new WAY brighter kitchen.

Thanks for going on this little make over with me... and listening to me vent about my not finished cabinets. :)