Kitchen Remodel Part 2

The Project

Welcome back to our kitchen remodel. After living in the house for a few months, we finally had our kitchen organized but the bathroom remained unfinished. 

The Bathroom

Truly, it felt like a cave. If being located under the stairs in a brick and mortar construction home wasn’t enough, it is accessed by a door smaller than standard dimensions. In fact there was a broken folding panel slider that we removed and for the first year of living in the house was covered with a sheet. Remember, we moved in a hurry. 

We knew we needed to refinish it and doing so we had to find a sink and toilet with the perfect dimensions because space was limited. It would also serve as a laundry room in addition to containing the access for the floor heating system.

The Kitchen

At the same time, we had added a dishwasher to the kitchen that was designed to fit under a cabinet. It was placed near the sink tucked under the ledge below the window that typically held the radiator in the past. It was a bit ugly, but functional. 

The kitchen itself was a standard single sink with stove top and very little space for preparation. The refrigerator was built into one of the full size cabinets as well. 

We initially painted the kitchen a pale green but with the black tiles, quickly regretted this decision. With our dark wood windows and glass door painted evergreen, we were definitely not living a life of zen and tranquility.

We survived and were happy to have a house to call home and continued this way until one fated day where the refrigerator support shelf collapsed. Most likely weakened from all the moving and in general being of low quality. 

This put us in motion to finish the kitchen in a way that wouldn’t feel like a punch in the eye upon entering. Below you can see the cabinets as it was when we were first moved in. Pay attention, because we didn’t buy a new kitchen as is the typical reaction in this case. 

The Plan

First I would finish with the kitchen and if there’s more time, move on to the bathroom. Like any great architect, I started with a sketch of what the kitchen could look like. No, I’m not an architect looking at the sketch I think you understand why.

We opted to buy a larger refrigerator and place it on the left next to the window. The majority of the cabinets would stay in the same place, however we’d extend the cabinets to move the sink from its previous location in the corner under the upper cabinets to in front of the window to view the scenery as we washed dishes in the future.  I drew cabinets above the upper cabinets as well that were never realized but could have added a regal aesthetic. You can also see the dishwasher located under the cooktop. 

Since the flooring and backsplash would remain black, I opted to make the countertop white or perhaps gray. I had been studying how to make cement countertops at the time and decided that’s how we would accomplish this project. Usually the color of cement countertops are dark, but I wanted something with a lighter color. I made a test mold and tested a few cement products and found one that was completely white. 

In order to  increase the size of the countertop I  had to find some base cabinets to support them. I didn’t want to spend money on trying to match the outer cabinet colors but discovered that if I took one door from the base cabinet that would support the corner and place the other so it closed on an angle, I could actually create the effect of having more base cabinets without actually having them. 

In this blurry photo you can see an example of me testing my theories. The cabinet to the right holds the door on an angle and I stole the other door to cover the space to the right side of the dishwasher. I even created base cabinets from wood paneling to join the cabinets together. Again, not the most beautiful thing, but definitely functional. 

At the time my oldest was about 1.5 years old and by that time crawling all over the house. In the photo she is featured in you can see we were still trying to live and eat in the midst of this project. I’m pretty sure it was winter as well. The base cabinets were all in place and next would come the countertop. 

Before we could finish the countertop, we needed to know the dimension of the sink. Time to go sink shopping. Sometimes, my wife is a genius. I should say all the time! One evening she came home from work and said, “I have an idea to pay for the kitchen! I found this page showing different offers from local banks. We can sign up for them and they will give us Amazon gift cards!” You have no idea how many accounts we created that week. Three for my wife, Two for me, one for my brother-in-law and father-in-law….just because we could. With the One bank wanted her to set up direct deposit, another wanted €2,000 held for 6 months. We needed a place to save an emergency fund anyway so we systematically moved our money around until everyone was happy. A few weeks later we started receiving the bonuses. 

Any guesses on how much we made?

I’ll give you a hint… It was enough to buy a refrigerator, sink, and kitchen faucet in addition to the bonus my brother-in-law kept for himself. Check out the proof from my Amazon account. Technically we did spend €20 on the faucet.

Talk about a haul!

Don’t worry, I’ll tally up the project costs at the end. 

Now that we picked our sink it was time to frame the cement mold and pour the countertop. I don’t have any good photos of the pouring process but after smoothing it I was pleased with the results. I used a lot of rebar in the making of this project and I’m quite sure that an elephant could have stood on it had the cabinets themselves supported the weight. 

I used a water sealant to seal the cracks and in the process learned that ‘White cement’ translated from Italian was not what it sounded like and was actually for restoring sculptures and cracked very easily when moisture was applied. Since the sealant itself was a liquid it cracked upon drying and left the countertop in a horrid state. 

It worked out however. We decided it wasn’t really the color or effect we were hoping for anyways, but it made a perfect base for a tile countertop. We picked up some small white rustic tiles for a low price and it turned out really well. Sadly the only photo I can easily find right now is from a few years later in order to show you the final effect. 

For the rest of the kitchen, we opted to paint it a light gray with white trim including both the door and window. It really lightened up the room and finally connected everything. Remember where the fridge used to be? I used some old wall paneling the previous owner had installed in the garage to construct shelves which really increased our food storage capacity in addition to giving us the possibility of hiding the microwave. Remember the tiny folding bathroom door? Initially I searched around for a sliding barn door. Here in Italy the style calls for more than 600 Euro. Instead I went to the local hardware store and picked up some rails and wheels and constructed this with wood from the garage.

Truthfully, I used the same wood paneling for creating the base cabinets and cement mold which really saved us money. I even used it to make floor running boards throughout the living room. 

Cost Explanation

So how much did that run us?

• Fridge : Free (€600)
• Sink : Free (€120)
• Faucet: Free  (€ 80)
• Wood Frame: Made from Garage wall paneling
• Cement: €    30
• Paint: €    50
• Tile: €  145
• Sliding Door €    25
• Various Tools €    50

If I add that to the total project so far:

Those amazon gift cards really reduced our out of pocket cost for this little remodel. In the end, nothing is free, we dedicated our time to saving money. The question is: ‘Was it really worth our time?’  I’ll let you be the judge. I think I’ll save the bathroom for next time! See you again soon!