The before and after, from the 70's to the 00's.



Slideshow The Removal

Slideshow The Rebuilding

Wow! I'm truly impressed! Guess I couldn't convince you to wander off to my little neck of the woods and re-do our kitchen, too?

A beautiful job, JimV - thanks for sharing this with us!

Afraid not Mara. Once is enough for me. I hope I get 30 years out of this one too, that will probably see me out.
It was a lot of work for us even though we didn't do the cabinetmaking or floorcoverings. The prep work took us about 3 weeks working every day. Our house is steel framed so the floor had to be all screwed down (I used about 500 screws) as it had loosened up a lot and 30 years of bumps and scratches on the walls had to be repaired before painting
I have a spinal disease that means I am in pain all the time so this sort of work wasn't good for me.
The hot packs and heat rub got quite a workout during this little project.


Gee, when I see that written it sounds like I never did any maintenance for 30 years but I did. Honest!!!

Oh well, guess I'll have to learn to live with my present kitchen then - gentle grin. In reality, it's only 7 years old and looks lovely - but efficient it's not.

Having done all that work while being in pain is mind-boggling - redoing the screws alone must have been torture for your poor back - ouch! Glad heat seems to help it, at least a bit.

Would you mind sharing what the countertops/floors and cabinet faces are made from? Hard to tell from photos and I'm fascinated with renovations - sheer magic!

How wonderful to have a steel-framed house - ours here are all wood framed (partly because we are surrounded by forests and lumber is relatively cheap, thankfully) but could use one of yours when our next earthquake hits!

Hi Mara,
Thanks for the compliments. Yes, screwing the floor down nearly killed me. I can't do much of anything that involves bending without making my back really sore. I had to force myself to get this done, way too expensive to pay someone to do it.

The benchtops are marble granite lookalike plastic laminate, the real granite was too expensive for us. The facings and doors are fine particle board with a 2 pack paint coating (colour then gloss sealer). Very easy to keep clean and any scratches come out with car polish. The floor coverings are sheet vinyl in a slate tile pattern. Once again cheaper than real tiles and softer and not as cold to walk on.

We also did a major renovation on the bathroom a couple of years ago. We gutted the whole room and started from scratch. Even the walls came down as some were damaged from leaking pipes.
Somehow I managed to lose all those pics when I had to reformat my computer. I wont do that again, all that stuff is now stored on a external hard drive.

Do hope you'll be able to find the photos of your bathroom retrofit - what a huge amount of work that must have been!

Can surely understand re the cost of solid granite counter tops, too. We had a quote shortly after moving in here and the granite alone (no labour included in price) was over $2,000 - egad!

And everytime I hear someone has decided against using tiles on a kitchen floor, I feel like cheering! We bought a new house many years ago with "imported French tile" in the bathrooms and "Italian tile" in the huge kitchen. Hmmm, must have taken me a week before I was ready to weep! The tile was cold enough to make one's tooties cramp up and worse, hard on the feet when standing in the kitchen preparing food for any length of time - and drop a plate and nary a hope it won't shatter all across the room. (And scrubbing the grout between each tile with a toothbrush left a tad to be desired too - grin!) But my least favourite was the bathrooms - high gloss tile and since they left bare feet toe prints, had to wash them every single day - eep! Enjoy your solid vinyl flooring and easy-clean cupboard facings and counters, wise man!

Beautiful job on the kitchen Jim, I too wish you had your pictures of your bathroom remodel. Both my kitchen and bath need done but with prices the way they are and now my hubby getting ready to retire it doesn't look like it will be happening any time soon. Right now I'd be happy just to have a decent counter top and possibly new flooring. It sounds more expensive than it would be, my kitchen isn't all that large so we can get by with a little less expense than most people.
Are you sure you won't come over and help Mara and I both get some remodeling done?? I have a very good heating pad!!

Gee, Iodine, if we could convince Jim to cross the sea for just a "good heating pad", what a marvelous thing it would be, indeed

Have done so many renovations through the years and must admit living in an apartment now does have some 'perks' - including renovations costing less simply because there is less space/surface areas to deal with, etc.

Which reminds me, rather than hijack your thread here, Jim, I should toodle over and start a separate thread before suggesting an easy floor for Vicki. And maybe you and I (and others), Vicki, can pick your brain Jim for hints on surviving renovations, etc - grin.

Here's a pic of the new bathroom. Still haven't been able to find the pics I took during the renos.
Do you know how hard it is to take a decent photo in a small room full of mirrors without getting all sorts of flash reflections or yourself (now that's a scary thought) reflected in a mirror.



The vanity extends right across the back wall and there are narrow cupboards with shelves behind all those mirrors.

Love it, simply love it! Few things better than a sparkling white bathroom with drawers under the sink vanity - well done!!

Sorry to bring this up again... But about how long did the kitchen reno. take, JimV? If you don't mind me asking

Hi Kyle, don't mind you asking at all.

The kitchen renovation took up about 4 weeks all up. The prep work took the longest with having to remove the old flooring (it was glued down) and screw down the floorboards. Then the patching of the walls and painting all took time. The wife and I did all that ourselves just working when we could over 3 weeks. I have a crook back so I could only do a few hours each day.

The kitchen itself was done over 4 days.
Day 1. The old cupboards removed along the wall and the new ones (prebuilt) installed same day. Electrical and plumbing done.
Day 2. The flooring done. Underlay nailed down and sheet vinyl glued down.
Day 3. Tiling done and island bench, that had to wait for flooring, done. Extra wall cupboards installed.
Day 4. Grouting of tiles done. All finished!

Getting the tradesmen organized for the same time was the hardest part. Luckily I live in a small town and just called the plumber and electrician when we needed them and they came and went and came back if needed all day.

Wow, that's quite fast. When I had my kitchen redone, it took about a month and a half.

I should add that ours was about 8weeks from initial measure up to finished. It took the cabinetmakers around 6weeks to build the cupboards in their workshop.

Still drooling with envy - both the bathroom and kitchen look great!

Come to think about it, I'm having some kitchen woes myself so rather than steal the thread here, shall start my own, but I love the photos you've shared with us, JimV.