“Look What I Did!” Contest Entry – Our Kitchen Windows
Written by stephanie on July 22nd, 2008
We can never resist entering a contest (a few of you may remember our infamous Blair Witch/Home Depot video) so when we read that Houseblogs.net was sponsoring a sweepstakes in partnership with True Value we, of course, had to enter.
We’ve done so many DIY projects here at Bungalow Insanity, it’s hard to choose a favorite, but one which stands out among many is our kitchen remodel. Basically, we designed the entire kitchen around four $10 salvaged windows.
When we purchased our house way back in July of 2004, the kitchen was sporting a face-lift acquired in 1962. The cabinets, flooring and appliances were all fairly hideous, but what we hated most were the sliding aluminum windows. Totally inappropriate for an 1911 bungalow!
So, when we found these windows at the ReBuilding Center for only $10 apiece, we were ecstatic.
Of course, finding the windows was easy. Installing them was the hard part. First we had to re-frame both exterior walls.
We then had to insulate, drywall, stain and install a whole kitchen’s worth of stuff before we were ready to hang our $40 set of windows:
In retrospect, our “bargain” windows may not have been such a bargain in terms of time or money (considering all we needed to do to incorporate them into the kitchen), but we love them nonetheless. Unlike their sliding aluminum predecessors, they look as though they have always been here.
Now if we could just get around to tiling our backsplashes, our kitchen would finally be complete!
This post was written for Houseblogs.net as a part of a sweepstakes sponsored by True Value. If you would like to submit your own contest entry, visit click here or visit www.StartRightStartHere.com.
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LOL…love the blog’s name. I personally think the notion of remodelling an entire kitchen around $40 worth of windows to be an entirely reasonable endeavour.
I myself am about to re-frame 6 doorways to accommodate 6 genuine 5-panel doors, circa 1912, obtained for Cdn$10 each. They’re 36 x 84 and the existing doors are 32 x 80. And our home is just a regular home with appropriate bones that we’re restyling into a Craftsman!
Your kitchen looks great, and I hope you win!
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Thanks – both for good luck wish and for understanding that sometimes you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do, even if the rest of the world thinks you’re crazy for doing it!
Good luck with your door re-reframing project!
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If I hadn’t seen the pictures to prove it, I would never have believed those weren’t the original windows. Great project!
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Thanks Jason! It always makes us feel better when people say that instead of “you people are crazy!)
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Where did you get the kitchen cabinets? (What kind?) Love them! Love the whole kitchen! Very efficient use of space.
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HiBradley. Thank you very much! We’ve been very happy with the kitchen so far – especially the pantry closet which hides our ugly microwave from view!
After much deliberation, we went with Schuler cabinets from Lowe’s. http://www.schulercabinetry.com/
Schuler is a company based here in Oregon. They account for only about 5% of Lowe’s cabinet sales because they are their higher-end, semi-custom brand. They are a lot more expensive than their other brands but much more affordable than something truly high end like Crown Point. They are sturdily built and since they are semi-custom, they have a lot of odd sizes the larger brands don’t offer, which is helpful in an old bungalow kitchen where you’re trying to squeeze a lot into a teeny space.
(I believe Home Depot carries them too. In some markets, they go by another name – Medallion.)
Anyway, the doors are solid and the hinges and drawer hardware are really smooth – the drawers glide like a dream. We ordered a couple of doors without panels so I could insert art glass which matches our light fixtures. (The cabinet company charged $90 per panel for their glass, which wasn’t all that great.) I went to a local stained glass supply store and they cut both panels for me for $23.)
We passed on the Schuler hardware and chose our own (from Emtek) to customize the cabinets a bit and make them look more at home here.
Schuler makes a Prairie style door in quartersawn oak that we we really liked, but ultimately, we decided to go with the same door style in cherry with a mahogany stain instead because the woodwoork in our house is so dark, the oak looked very washed out next to it.
I had been obsessed with inset doors, but ultimately, because of cost, we went with flush-mount. Not “authentic” but not bad. I’m overall I’m still very happy with the end result. I think we managed to respect the style of the house while not completely blowing our budget, which allowed us to also tackle the scary pink bathroom!!!