After hoping and wishing for a dishwasher ever since we moved into our house in Chilliwack it finally happened this past July long weekend. My parents came through with a nice surprise phonecall letting us know that they wanted to buy us a dishwasher after knowing our current financial woes and I'm sure my repeated complaining about the amount of dishes I wash everyday which probably hinders my ability to spend more time with Liam. Probably not that true but hey it worked and we now are living in modern day bliss!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

However, Matt and I first decided simply to remove a few cabinets and install the dishwasher. After talking to our friend, Ryan, who would be helping us with this home reno the reality sank in it probably wouldn't work unless we just torn down the existing cabinets and started anew. So one afternoon Matt and Ryan headed to Abbotsford to do an 'innocent' trip to Home Depot and low and behold Matt came home with all new bottom cabinets for both sides of our kitchen. For those that have been here before they would be aware of the ugly pink countertop and very space inefficient cabinet placed next to the refridgerator. Here are some before photos:

Main counter with 1970's pink countertop along side the flory wall paper that I have innocently ripped off in sections throughout the kitchen

Cabinet the previous owners installed that probably worked for space for two people but the space around the cabinet just made for a headache for us.

So on Saturday the demolition began while Karen, Ryan's wife, Samuel, Liam and I all headed out for the morning.

Matt working out some post-graduation stress!

We were nicely surprised by the progress of these two by the time we arrived home and by Monday the kitchen was transformed. There are some finishing touches like putting on all the cabinets dooors, adding some more electrical outlets, and adding the kickplates but all in all what a wonderful reno. Simply said we have a new kitchen. So see for yourself:

The black box of greatness (diswasher works likes a dream)

What a difference a new countertop makes to a room, most people didn't even know we had tile flooring in this kitchen until they saw it against the grey of the counter.

Our kitchen reno continues as I ripped down all the wallpaper and we have purchsed paint to give this room a true makeover. So until next time...

Matt, Monique and Liam