A Fab Kitchen Rehab

5 1/2 years ago this kitchen was too disgusting to take pictures. We bought the house in a great neighborhood and with the layout we wanted but it came with a price~it was a disgusting mess. The kitchen could not be cleaned. There were cigarette butts clogging the drains of the sink; and the oven, well, let's just say that there were roaches stuck to it! So I went about and gutted everything down to the joists because grease, mold, and years of neglect could not be scraped with a putty knife.
We enlarged the kitchen too and moved the mudroom/laundry, and 1/2 bath so that I could build the dream kitchen. It took 5 years and a lot of patience, sweat, and creativity to come up with this. As a good friend and neighbor says "Renee, you step in it". I found everything in my kitchen for thousands less and unbelievable deals.
I still have some finishing touches~I am going to make my own crown moulding and finish encasing the tops of the cabinets before adding the moulding. I also am adding a freezer next to the refrigerator again and I have toe kick to install. I also just "scored" $1.99 markdown can of Rustoleum counter top paint at Home Depot that an employee tried to tint for a customer and it turned out too black. (I will update pics when I have 3 days to paint the counter with a messy teenager who eats me out of house and home LOL)
My kitchen island houses the garbage and dishwasher which makes loading and putting away dishes so much easier. The best thing I ever did was find the double ovens and the 36" cooktop on Craiglist that came from a home of an elderly woman who did not use them! The cooktop area and the island are granite which I picked up the 2 slabs at a going of business sale for $50 each! and then had them fabricated for $450 where the granite guys told me I had over $3,000 worth of granite. I walk in to deals. That is what I do and have for 30 years. It does require patience and a lot of visualizing and creativity to envision what I do with my finds.
The paint was a gallon of mis-tint I picked up for $5 over the summer for another project but I decided last minute to try it for the kitchen. I am not a blue person and the color looked gray in the can but dried and in certain light the paint has more of a blue hue~which ends up bringing out the blue flecks in the granite. The handles were from my neighbor and had been in her garage for 13 years! They were discolored and she thought they were to gross to use. Well not for me~I cleaned them up and used my Rustoleum hammered spray paint in chrome and they look fabulous! I had to purchase a few knobs to mix in since I was 5 handles short.
My backsplash is Armstrong laminate flooring that was special order and returned and marked down from $40.37 to $1.05 each box. I could not decide on what to do for backsplash and I remembered seeing a HGTV show where they used flooring for a wall; and today many are using pallets but pallets were too primitive. My husband says to me "why not use the flooring?" I balked at first because the flooring was for the foyer but then I came around. The flooring hides a multitude of flaws and it was so easy to install.
The glass tiles were marked from $2.87 to 16 cents each. I had to buy trim for less than $10 and the slate piece for $1.59. The Stainless Kenmore hood was a steal at $300 ($1200 regularly) at Sears (because it was a return and the box was a mess but the hood was in perfect condition).
I hope this inspires others who are on a budget to think outside of the box. I have renovated and remodeled and even built one home. I love to create and make things beautiful. Everything is possible if you can dream it.