Handy Honey: kitchen remodel part 1

Well, it has started. A cascade of events that were unexpected have started the ball rolling. I looked into getting a granite remnant for the kid's bathroom and learned that it would make more sense to do it when I do the kitchen. The kitchen counter leftovers will go toward the bathroom counters. Overall it will save me money to do them at the same time.

Wow. So I got the estimates and decided on a company. I soon realized that I will not DARE stand on the granite after it is installed so I better get busy on painting the upper cabinets. They came and did the templating today and they will install in about 2 weeks! I better get going!

Here are some befores. Lame-o orange, builder-grade oak cabinets. Oak fronts and doors, particle board everything else. You can see how hard I worked to stage the photos. Not.

Here the counters are cleaned off a bit since the templates were going to be done that day.

Here is a good shot of the sides of the cabinet boxes. Laminate. With...a sticker finish? I don't get it. I don't want to paint right on the plastic veneer so I decided to cover it with beadboard like I did in the bathroom. Look for that coming up.

Took the doors off (and removed hardware) and washed the cabinet boxes and doors. I just used oxiclean. I opted to use deglosser/liquid sander to rough up the cabinets. I decided I wasn't willing to deal with the sawdust. I do have 3 small kids after all. I can't totally shut down operations in here. I will sand the doors (out in the garage).

Below you can see where I removed the oak backsplash. (What were they thinking?) P.S. I am seeing a lot of empty space in there. I need to organize better. I am short so it isn't real convenient to have to reach things up high.

On another note, the cabinet doors above my fridge can't open all the way because they hit the fridge parts just so. I may have to leave the doors off and use baskets or something. What do you think? Storage is at a premium y'all. Gotta find a way to use every bit.