Our Kitchen Reno: Before & After


When we bought this apartment (more on that here) we knew the weakest link was the kitchen. While it looked livable, the cabinets were falling apart and from 1999. They were made of a fake wood, and the previous owner put a white plastic coating over the top. We didn't love the granite, it just wasn't our style, and the appliances were all older. It wasn't a renovation we felt needed to happen ASAP, but we knew eventually we'd make it happen. 

BEFORE:


After we found out I was pregnant, our timeline for renovating sped up a bit. We are the kind of people who like to continue to live in our home while we renovate, and we weren't sure if we'd be down with that with a little baby around.  

Enter Lowe's. We already used Lowe's to add our wood flooring in, so we figured we'd use them for our kitchen as well. This time around, we hit a ton of road bumps along the way. It's not that I would say don't use Lowe's, because we are SO happy with how the kitchen came out, but just be aware that it's not as smooth sailing as maybe hiring an outside contractor who is going to be on your job day-to-day monitoring the step by step. 




In the spirit of honesty, let's discuss the good and the bad. First, the bad. The gentleman who came and took our measurements for our cabinets was in a bit of a rush, and he messed up our measurements - twice. The first time he accidentally did not include cabinets that went all the way up to the ceiling, so we had to reorder and push our install back almost a month. Then, after everything was installed, the cabinet above the refrigerator was too short. So yeah, i don't know what happened there. Also, the delivery service that Lowe's works with was AWFUL. Our building does not allow deliveries after 5PM, and every day they showed up hours after their scheduled 1-3PM delivery time, no apologies. 

Now the good! The employees from the Lowe's kitchen section in our local store, Mary & Billie, were a HUGE help. They were there every step of the way to walk us through ordering, cabinet selection, sink selection, etc. They were even there to call on the day of the renovation for any snags that came up. The installers/ carpenters who were in our home installing our cabinets were a gem. They were extremely neat & organized, showed up right on time every day they worked, and did an all-around amazing job installing our cabinets and making sure that we were in the loop. 

As a contractor's daughter, I know that no renovation goes 100% smoothly, and mistakes always pop up. Knowing this, I am satisfied with how quickly the actual instal process was, minus the few snags that happened along the way. Feel free to share any of your own stories in the comments, or ask me anything - this is the second kitchen reno we've gone through, so we're basically pros, right? I hope you enjoyed the before & after pictures! 






*Thanks to Lowe's for partnering on this post. All opinions are my own! 

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