There Was Light and an End to the Kitchen Tunnel

With the walls painted, floor down, and trim up I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and turned my sights on the cabinets and countertops.  Every aspect of this project EXCEPT for the countertops I had past experience and success in performing.  I have never installed a laminate countertop.  Jackie was looking at ordering custom laminate, which would have been cut to the exact sizes needed, hole cut for the sink, but it was 3x the cost of the stock counters, so I watched a few YouTube videos and told her I felt confident I could handle the cuts.  I should say I felt comfortable I could ask my neighbor to help me with the cuts.

We did cut one of the 4′ sections  to short (his fault), so I had to purchase a new one.  I attempted to cut the hole for my sink by myself and cracked the surface while drilling my pilot holes for the jigsaw blade.  My neighbor came to the rescue on that and we were able to conceal the cracks.

This project was like a riding Space Mountain at Disney World.  A simple ride, but because it’s in the dark the simple hills and turns were more scary.  These were simple task, but because there were so many unknowns uncovered in the process it made simple tasks harder and longer.  In the end the kitchen turned out beautiful.  Her mom is happy, her family is happy, and I’m thrilled to get back to my house.  Here are some final images:

This had layers of paint, so I cooked it in a foil pan on my stove to get back to original surface.

White spray paint to give it a cleaner look.

I had to rebuild several drawers and put new hinges on the lower doors so they’d stay closed.

I used the same process on my doors to restore the cabinet.

After her daughters accessorized

Jackie’s husband put up a new light fixture.

New curtains

This cabinet my neighbor and I completely deconstructed in order to lower the height and width.