A Labor of Love for Labor Day...

Well for those of you that have patiently waited and watched through this and this wait no longer...we have arrived so come on in...

POP THE CORK, IT'S THE KITCHEN REVEAL!

Oh and by the way, fair warning...this may be a bit picture heavy but you'll just have to suffer through it so pour yourself a glass of champagne and come sit a spell :O) Also I think I may have to post in phases because in the end there's a lot to see in this sweet little kitchen...well maybe not, I'm so excited to show you this it may just be one big long post :O)

First of all I'll get the text out of the way and let's just say this was a labor of love and as always it took a lot longer than we ever thought it would. But during the remodel we lived out of here for almost the entire time because of the kind of stuff going on you see in the picture below! 
This picture was taken during month six when the painting was happening and let me tell you, it was AWFUL...DID I SAY AWFUL? WELL I MEAN IT, IT WAS THE WORST PART OF THE ENTIRE PROCESS...stinky and messy all at the same time for 3 long weeks!

One of the main reasons the remodel took so long was because Mr.La Bella Vie did 99% of the labor...and yes he does work-full time folks at a "real job" but like my grand kids always say, he's "IRON MAN PAPA" and seems to be able to juggle things really well! 
He can build an island, rip out walls, climb mountains on 100 mile epic bicycle rides and yet still be willing to do a major kitchen remodel! So enough said, let's get on with the show!

But before we do, one more peek of what our 20 year old kitchen looked like prior to...7 months ago...

And what a beautiful new kitchen it is today taken from pretty much the same exact spot. 

Notice where the wasted, unusable space is under the counter on the island, well we changed that up by making it a bookshelf with lights to house all my prized collectible cookbooks and enclosed the end with the glassware, which you can see in the photo below. This not only allowed us to gain storage but by moving the bar stools to that end, we're able to open the refrigerator without knocking guests' off their chairs! 

(Click any picture to enlarge and toggle through for a better view)

 

Below is the view you see when you first enter the kitchen from the front door. Out the back window of the nook we have a great view Oregon's state tree, the Douglas Fir...

So keeping that in mind...

We chose a beautiful hand-made scenic tile coupled with ivory Subway tile from Pratt and Larsen for behind the Wolf cook range that would reflect our surroundings. It may be difficult to see the color of this tile but its sort of a Taupe/grey...

Below is another view from the other side of the kitchen. The first shot, again that ugly 20 year old kitchen. Oh and may I point out the "terrible awful" behind the stove...the only reason all the junk is sitting behind it was because it was sheet-rock and grease splatters wreaked havoc on it! 
Also, note the oven/microwave area in the left of the picture. That big hole was where the Ginormous old microwave used to live but died many years ago, so the Hubs enclosed it to better accommodate the new, smaller SS microwave that you see in the picture below.

and today...

The picture above and below is looking from the family room toward the kitchen. The hubs and I designed all that you see here and sketched it up on Visio a design program, the hood, the cabinets...everything. 

Which also includes the pendant light platform above the island. It used to be that when we turned on the over-head lights ALL 9 can lights came on which was like being in a suntan bed!

So we had to come up with a way to have only the island lights come on with a separate switch without having to rip out the entire ceiling and this was our solution...rewire but cover it up!

To the left of the fridge is the new beverage bar which used to look like this...kinda blurry but I was in a hurry to start ripping out walls!

 

and below once again the way it was meant to look all along...

The new beverage bar is a great place for this...my favorite Chardonnay!

So just as the title said, this truly has been a labor of love!

I hope you've enjoyed it and I'd love to hear what you think! 

Oh and there's lots more where this came from but that's for another day!

Linking up with my favorite blogs:

Top This Top That

Common Ground

Between Naps On The Porch-Metamorphosis Monday's

"Wow Us Wednesday's" at Southern Savvy Style

Sources: 

Cabinet paint color: "Vintage Ivory Cream" commercial source

Island paint color: "Galvanized" by Ralph Lauren

Cabinets and doors: Beaudry Custom Cabinetry, Newberg Oregon

Custom Tile: Pratt and Larson, Portland Oregon

Granite: "Portofino", Precision Granite Counters, Wilsonville Oregon

Hardware: Rejuvenation, Portland Oregon

Lighting:  Rejuvenation, Portland Oregon

SS Appliances: Basco Commercial Appliances, Portland Oregon 

Wolf Cook Range, Fisher-Paykel, Liebherr, Electrolux Icon, 

 

Kitchen designers and Labor: Mr. and Mrs. La Bella Vie

Sweat Equity: Mr. and Mrs. La Bella Vie

Staging and clean up crew: Mrs. La Bella Vie

assistants to Mr. and Mrs. La Bella Vie, Pearl and Emmy

Disclaimer: I purchased Visual Watermark but the site didn't recognized it right away so some photos may have a little teeny-tiny annoying little watermark of their own on it...just disregard it, because its useless information but I told you anyway...