The Finished Product

Here are the "After" pictures from the remodel. I'm very pleased with the end results--definitely worth all the hassle. I took it as a high compliment when a coworker who was at the house on Tuesday asked if I'd had a designer help me with my new furniture selections, tile choice, etc. I've had another friend ask me the same thing after visiting a friend's house that did use a professional designer. I guess the countless hours of HGTV, looking at catalogs and magazines, and stealing ideas from friends who can use designers has paid off. (I didn't do a very good job of staging the pictures though. Please ignore all the stuff that come with actually living in a place.)

One more remodel picture. A little Southern ingenuity on doing dishes in the downstairs bathroom--use a sweater dryer for the dishes. Oh, yes. Someday we'll look back on all this and laugh.The finished kitchen. I guess I did have help choosing the tiles although the remodeling consultant really sat back and let me decide, offering a few suggestions but not many. That's why it took so long to make a final decision--I had to mull through all these choices before I settled on these. I had taken the doors off the cabinet over the microwave when I had all my cookbooks there. Now, because there are only a few left in there and the rest of the cabinet has been reclaimed as dish space, I put the doors back on. Putting the matching pulls on is on today's honey-do list.
A close-up of the finished counter and backsplash. The contractor did a fantastic job with the tile and the little finish details like the finish tile on the edges of the tile.
The new sink and bar area. We reused our old faucet much to the chagrin of the remodeling consultant. He wasn't sure I'd like the old faucet with all the new surroundings. I like it and think it looks fine here.
A close-up of my fabulous new sink. The right side is 11 inches deep while the left side is 9 inches deep. Looking into the living room from the hallway. I'm positively thrilled with the end results of taking out the windows. It is such a nicer light in here--proof that it really is possible to have too many windows in a space.
Another view of the living room, this one from the dining room.
Our new chair and ottoman. It was delivered earlier in the year.
Looking into the dining room from the living room. I like our new cabinet. It's a darker wood than I'd anticipated but very pretty especially against the red wall. I love the tin tiles and since I put our Nambe pieces and some silver picture frames in the cabinet, I thought it looked nice with them hanging like that.
A closer-up view of the cabinet and tiles.
An even closer-up of the picture on the bottom shelf. I found this picture at an antique store when we were in Kansas in December and it amused me enough that I had to buy it--four farmboys from Kansas on the beach of Santa Monica, CA in the early 1900's.
So, that is it. One more big project that is finished. I haven't figured out the next project I'd like to tackle next around the house. I'm sure there will be something. There is always something. . . .