HOW TO REMODEL A KITCHEN WITH A NEWBORN

BEFORE

When we bought our condo, we noticed right away that the previous owners had done some quick fixes here and there, mostly for cosmetic reasons, but they cut a lot of corners and did things weird. They painted the existing cabinets which had already been painted over at least twice, so the paint was peeling off. They replaced one sink in the master bathroom, but not the other (and they DID NOT match). There were spots in the tile close to the walls where they didn't even bother to finish grouting (and they tiled right on top of linoleum floor, which was a nightmare to remove). The sink wasn't centered to the window. Worst of all, for me, was the kitchen counters. This horrible yellow tile that was full of cracks and moldy grout. I bleached it the first month we were there, but never did it again because of the time and effort. 

Second-worst was the bar. It was table-height, so it was totally unusable as counter space. It took up a ton of air and floor space which left little room for an actual table. It had minimal storage underneath, with weird, shallow drawers - every single one of which became a junk drawer. It also separated the kitchen and living room, which meant in order to sit at the "table," you had to walk around it into the living room to sit on the other side. And where could you put a high-chair where it wouldn't be totally in the way? Nope, I'm changing my mind. The bar was worst. 

AFTER

We decided to blow out the bar and open up the floor plan. On demo day (my due date), I instantly saw how much better it would be. We added some storage with cabinets and a kitchen cart from IKEA (I'm trying to phase most of IKEA out of our house, but the cart was a pretty awesome buy), moved the dishwasher to the left of the sink (more logical for me, a righty), got a super deep basin sink, and got a trash drawer so we don't have to take up floor space with a stinky, ugly trash can. New granite countertops, sleek hardware, and vinyl "wood" floor pulled it all together.

The kitchen cart is the perfect place for fruit, cookbooks, and some storage baskets. Butcherblock was something I had daydreamed about when we were planning our kitchen, but it's super expensive and not really practical for us. I was thrilled when the kitchen cart had a butcherblock top!

We centered the sink to the window, then had the dishwasher switched to the left side instead of the right.

Without the table-height bar, we were able to extend the counter out further and add new cabinets with better, more accessible storage, as well as a new wall cabinet.

And a picture that ties it all together (and shows you the lived-in condition that our house is usually in).

All completed in under two months with a newborn baby! I'm so happy with the finished results. It added a ton of square footage and value to our home, and it's much more usable for a family! Let me know what you think of the remodel! I'll post pictures of the living room soon.

Got rid of:
Carpet
Tile
Table-height counter
Cabinets (kept the open shelving)
Old baseboard
Old sink and faucet

Added:
Vinyl flooring
New cabinets and hardware
Microwave range hood
Additional storage (via cabinets and kitchen cart)
New baseboard
New basin sink and stainless steel faucet
IKEA kitchen cart

See the demolition here.
I'm linking up to Remodelaholic's link party!