Kitchen Makeover - House Crasher Style!

Remember my promise to you to post pictures of my kitchen makeover with the DIY t.v. show, House Crashers? Oops! I'm a bit late, I'm afraid! We weren't able (as in legally able) to post pictures prior to the show's debut in April 2011. Then, well, I kind of just forgot! So sorry!

Here is my before, all the work in between, and after kitchen, thanks to Josh Temple and his AMAZING House Crasher crew!

These are pictures of my kitchen before. Drab. Stunted. Cut-off and completely diffcult to work in for someone who cooks from scratch most of the time. You'll notice there are no doors on any of the kitchen cabinets. Yeah, well, that was our attempt at staining. That would become a two year nightmare. In fact, I never lived in this home with cabinet doors. We took them off prior to moving in to stain and they stayed that way until the dumpster was parked in our driveway by House Crashers!

Goodbye, countertops, odd island thingy and cabinets!

Kitchen is officially gutted!

They ripped off the ceiling with the intention of making the entire ceiling flush (because the fluorescent light box mandated the ceiling be dropped to fit it) but discovered that bathroom pipes from upstairs ran through the beams. It wasn't expected and in their budget to move those pipes, so the ceiling had to go back on. The yucky fluorescent light box is gone, though!

Old sliding door is removed and the opening is widened for french doors.

I have to point out that all of these pictures, where you see a man dressed in a dark blue, long-sleeve shirt and tan/khaki pants... that's Josh Temple. I have to say he is NOT just the host! He worked so hard and was involved in every step of the way!

Chris with the jackhammer. We had to move the pipes to our sink because the sink went into a new location!
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Josh Temple having fun with the cameraman, Quentin!

French doors being prepped and the floors being cleared of all debris for the new flooring being installed on day two. We had lots of great friends that helped us over the entire weekend.

Josh having fun with Chris' mask!

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The "before" pictures of my new china hutch! It was completely re-done! New paint, the scrolly things were cut out and wire was added and new knobs!

The new flooring being installed. We went from faux wood planks to real cherrywood floors. The wide planks are in keeping with the farmhouse style.

Now that the floor is in, the cabinets are being installed. The show works on a 3 day turnaround, so we had a TON of people streaming in and out of our home each day and many times, while working on one project, the next project guys were already there waiting in the background to jump in and get started! It moved FAST!

The apron sink is being fitted and the cabinets are being measured for the counter tops.

Each day, a list of work was posted and checked off as completed! It really kept us on task!

Goodbye, table!

Hello, new one!

Lots of people in the house but it made it SO MUCH FUN! They are a great group of people!

The new hood gets installed and the industrial pipes are measured out and installed for our upper "cabinets".

How it looks at the end of day two:

The apron sink is permanently installed, the subway tile backsplash is being finished while others are putting in the dishwasher.

The stove is put in and at this point and we are kicked out of the house for the next several hours while they finish the kitchen. The surprise at the end of the show is REAL! I left there with it slightly coming together and walked back into a completely finished, beautiful new kitchen! So, we took this opportunity to give our sincere thanks to each member of the crew and take a picture with them. I won't post all of them because there are A LOT but I'm so glad we got some time to personally thank each one.

And now (drum roll, please)... the finished kitchen! We absolutely love it!

The show still airs as a re-run (just aired on Feb. 6 and will again on Mar. 28). It's called "Farmhouse Kitchen", if you want to check out the whole episode! You can also watch it online too! They also did some 'tip' commercials at our house which run on DIY network throughout each day! Tips on painting, cabinets, changing out air filters... pretty fun to be watching DIY and your house and, sometimes, my husband, friend or me, is on the commercial! What a trip!

We had an amazing, exhausting, memorable three days and had so much fun with this crew! At the end of the 3rd day, Josh said some very touching, sweet things to both Chris and myself. He brought tears to my eyes. This was an AWESOME experience that we'll never forget!