Our Kitchen Remodel

We purchased our 1925 Prairie Home in September of 2013 and I feel like we waited an eternity to make this kitchen renovation happen. I’m so glad it turned out to be worth the wait! And while I had steered clear of the oh-so-trendy apron front sink all these years, I’m glad I had a change of heart & decided to purchase the Kohler Whitehaven apron front sink 🙂 *We had Lowe’s order the sink for us, which saved us $412.25 Here’s our old countertop & backsplash…impossible to clean grout lines for days, ugh. I don’t know why someone thought this was a good idea, but I’m guessing they thought it was the cheapest route to go while staying a step above laminate. I honestly would have preferred a laminate counter.Laminate would have been less of a mess coming out, that’s for sure. If you’ve never had to have tile removed, prepare for dust & debris to end up everywhere! Thankfully, we love the cabinets and didn’t need to replace them, although they could really use a fresh coat of paint after all of this.
The Marengo Silestone (Quartz) counters are everything I hoped for and I absolutely LOVE them!!! They don’t need to be sealed and are super low maintenance, with soap & water clean-up. We purchased new appliances as soon as we moved in & I believe within just days of the series being released in October of 2013. They’re from the GE Artistry Series and not only do they have a fun retro look, but they’re also very reasonably priced!I was planning to install a marble subway tile for the backsplash but that didn’t work out.

I learned the hard way that marble tile is cut by hand, which means it’s not square and after two different sets of uneven marble tile, I decided to go with a ceramic glazed subway tile.

I was really upset about not having any marble in our kitchen (counters were never a practical option), but I have to say that the ceramic tile turned out much prettier than I thought.

My quick fixes before this renovation included: new paint on the walls, new appliances, new light fixtures, and a new sink. Those changes alone made a pretty big difference & got me through the next two years of waiting. The photo below was from the original listing & what our kitchen looked like when we bought our home. I won’t miss it 😉