With not that many walls left to paint, we're starting to look ahead to the bigger and more involved house projects…like the kitchen and bathrooms. These spaces are investments. They cost a lot, but they also add the most value. Still, we're going to need to tackle them in pieces so we don't go into debt trying to do it all at once.
Old dishwasher
When our dishwasher started leaking all over the kitchen floor a few months ago (it was about 30 years old, so I can't blame it!), it forced us to start making upgrades to our appliances. The dishwasher, for obvious reasons, had to come first. We bought a floor model to save a couple hundred dollars, but it turns out that was broken too (floor models are 50/50 chances…they are either great deals or bad mistakes and we lost on this one). Luckily, the store was able to replace it at no cost with a newer model (Samsung in stainless steel).
New dishwasher (Samsung stainless steel)
I thought the stainless steel would stick out and make it so obvious that the rest of our kitchen looks hideous, but in reality, the steel actually blends in MORE with the space. It's a welcome change from the old bisque and black appliance.
Before and After
With that initial change in the kitchen, we decided to hire a contractor to complete a project we've been wanting to do since we moved in…venting a range hood to the outside so that grease and steam can escape our kitchen (the original vent was non-ducted).
Old hood
It made sense to get a vented hood in place before making a lot of other changes to the kitchen and getting them covered in grease.
Venting to the outside through the upper cabinets
We chose a sleek stainless steel Broan under cabinet hood (QML30SS) that's not overly fancy, but will do the trick for normal kitchen cooking. We had the contractor run a 7" round duct through the upper cabinets (which we really don't use anyway) and install a vent cap outside. We could have used smaller duct work but the 7" allows the vent to work at max capacity, so we went with that.
New hood (Broan stainless steel)
New range hood
This winter, we're hoping to upgrade the stove and maybe start to tackle painting the upper cabinets and replacing the door faces which would really help brighten the space. We'll work our way down from there (eventually getting to the countertops and floors).
