It's Great To Be Home

Before & After: The Kitchen & Dining Room

August 17, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 37 Comments

I’m so glad you guys like the way the flip turned out! It’s so much fun to see all of our hard work pay off – actually, I guess it hasn’t really paid off since we still own it, but you know what I mean. :)

I thought we’d start this little before and after tour with the kitchen and dining room, since the kitchen was by far the most heinous part of the house when we bought it back in the beginning of June.

Not only was it not my cup of tea (pea green laminate counters, anyone?) but it was hugely lacking in functionality with a distracting and view-blocking range hood and an awkward angled peninsula.

Remember?

Well, we tackled those challenges with a switched up floor plan – and here’s how it looks now!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

In addition to improving functionality, our goal was to lighten and brighten this kitchen and give it a classic feel that will stand the test of time.

See what I mean about that crazy range hood? Not only could you hit your head on it but it was blocking all the natural light from the window (as well as obstructing the sight lines throughout the kitchen).

By the way – see those leaded glass panels in the built-in hutch and on either side of the kitchen window? My mom made those! She’s the coolest mom ever (and I’m not just saying that so she’ll keep outfitting our flips with awesome panels).

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

As you can see, we moved the fridge over to the other side of the room so that we could fit bar stools at the island.

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

This was our first time using carrera marble counters instead of granite, and I’m totally sold. Love it!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

This is where I became a little obsessed with photographing the tile and flowers. My apologies.

We also moved the door a few feet down to the left so that we could have an uninterrupted L-shaped counter rather than having the range shoved in the corner.

I will definitely be using this herringbone pattern and gray grout again! I kinda love it.

There’s that crazy peninsula I was telling you about – isn’t it better with it gone?

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

The built-ins look so much better after a coat of dark brown paint and new cabinet fronts (those swoopy details were pretty dated). And another shout out for my mom’s handiwork!

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

Even though it’s not a true “open kitchen,” I think that the connection between the kitchen, dining and family room will work really great for the new family that buys this house.

( I wasn’t going to post a photo with all of the previous owner’s stuff in the house but this was the only “before” photo I had going this direction. Please excuse all of the moving day craziness. )

( Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography )

And that’s it! This is my dad’s favorite flip that we’ve done so far – what about you? You can check out our other flips here.

All photographs taken by me, unless indicated as “Courtesy of Lance Hames Photography.”

The Kitchen Floor Plan

June 8, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 15 Comments

The last time you saw the kitchen at our third flip it looked like this:

But now it actually looks more like this!

That’s right my friends, that outdated kitchen is gone!!

Hopefully before too long that empty shell of a kitchen will look like this – but in 3D of course. :)

Here are the changes to the kitchen floor plan that we’re planning on making:

Move the fridge and water line to the sink wall (it’s currently on the bottom wall that is blank on the floor plan sketch above).
Move the door to the office/formal dining room down to make room for an L-shaped run of countertop.
Get rid of the crazy vent hood, switch out the double oven and electric cooktop for a slide-in gas range, and move the whole shebang to that left-hand wall. Luckily there were already gas lines so it will be easy to switch from electric to gas!
Make the island a more manageable size – we’re thinking 48 x 32.
Nix the half bath off the kitchen (oh I can’t wait to hear the opinions on that one, ha!) and move that wall in about 2 feet to create a larger dining area. What remains of the bathroom will become extra space in the laundry room that will be a built-in pantry.

I think that’s it! I went through some really horrible floor plans before our contractor helped us come up with this option, and I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

The Flip: The Great Room, Then & Now

January 4, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 80 Comments

We did it!! We reached the finish line and our old pal the flip is now on the market and FOR SALE!! Cue the confetti and streamers. :)

Now that every inch of the flip has been fluffed and puffed beyond all measure, I think it’s high time to see how far it’s come over the past 3 months!

Without a doubt, the great room underwent the biggest transformation. It was a gigantic undertaking to figure out how to combine four different rooms (den, kitchen, breakfast room & enclosed patio), get the vaulted ceiling figured out, fix the flow of the kitchen, and a billion other things.

Here’s how the great room looks now:

And here’s a reminder of how these four rooms (that we combined) looked when we bought the house on September 29, 2010:

What do you think?

This room gave us the most headaches during the renovation, just trying to figure out how to make the most of this gigantic space, but in the end I think it’s the room that most buyers will fall in love with.

Maybe I’m being sentimental, but I can just imagine an entire family hanging out in this room, kids doing homework at the kitchen table while the dad reads his newspaper at the peninsula and the mom whips up something tasty for dinner. Can you see it?