Kitchen Upgrade: 1 Year Later

Well, it's been just a touch over a year since I finished upgrading the kitchen. I look back on it now and it's almost like a dream. I forget how much anxiety, exhaustion, and hard work it was, and I think, "Oh, it wasn't THAT bad."

It's sort of like pregnancy amnesia...so I've heard.

In the beginning...when things were innocent and easy.

We've had friends, family, and even a couple of realtors compliment us on a great job, and I think it is a HUGE improvement compared to what it looked like before.

Orange you glad we updated the kitchen?

I can proudly say that everything has held up like a champ. The cabinet finishes are wonderful and I've had no chipping or scraping, other than that one incident of knicking a cabinet with a measuring cup. I give the cabinets a wipe down every once in a while to clean up spills or drips.

My outside vented range hood is a dream, although we've learned that we have to grease the outside wall vent flap with silicone grease in the winter to keep it from freezing shut!

The ONLY touch up I've had to do recently is re-caulk the base of the backsplash with the counter top. It's pretty common that caulk can shrink and pull back a little over time and need to be refilled. That, and I went pretty sparse on the initial application.

If there's anything I hate more in the world it's caulking. It drives me nuts and I end up wiping away more than I put down to prevent it overlapping onto the tile/counter or looking sloppy. I'd ALMOST rather cut and fit trim moulding....ALMOST. :-)

Anyway, I decided to try the whole put-down-painter's-tape trick for caulking a straight line with the least amount of mess, and it worked pretty well. I still had some touch up wiping to do, but much better than free-styling it.

So, one year later I am still thrilled with the kitchen upgrade and I'm SO, SO glad I did it. It's made a huge impact on the value of our home and it's made the kitchen more user-friendly. Not to mention it's gorgeous!