It all started with the AGA. While looking for a range to replace our horrid 20-year old 30" electric oven, we found an AGA Legacy range and instantly fell in love. Unfortunately, to replace our range would require replacing flooring, countertops, and replacing part of the cabinetry. Eventually we decided that we didn't want to put thousands of dollars into fixing a kitchen we didn't really like. Instead we put thousands of dollars into creating a kitchen that we love.

Before

The hated electric oven in our old kitchen. The oven was about 20 years old and had only two temperatures: glacial and heat of a thousand suns. It destroyed more than one piece of cookware.
 

After

The beautiful, gleaming AGA Legacy range that started the whole project. We loved the appropriate vintage character paired with modern functionality. Note the beautiful blue flame of a gas range! I love my new range a bit too much. All the extra cookies and pies are adding up!

Before

The wiring in the kitchen was minimal and of dubious quality. For example, in this picture you see a surge protector used to provide a grounded outlet. The counter and backsplash were equally uninspiring.

After

Now we have more outlets than we can use, many with beautiful electrocution-free GCFI! In this picture they don't yet have their covers but you can see the large number of outlets and the spiffy new backsplash.

Before

This is one of my least favorite features of our pre-remodel kitchen. A huge, drywall box complete with fluorescent tube lighting. It was clearly meant to be some sort of specialty storage but obviously things did not turn out as expected. Who doesn't want a flickering, useless cabinet over their oven? I was especially annoyed by the fact that the original molding around the door was ruined to build this! I took personal joy in seeing this item smashed to smithereens.

After

Since we have a "professional style" gas range, we now have a huge vent over our range. I would've preferred not to have the vent hood there but the AGA requires it. We had our contractors build a custom one of plaster and wood trim and we feel it turned out pretty well.


 

Before

The photo below shows the extent of the counterspace in our kitchen. The kitchen is a reasonably large 150 square feet but the layout was awkward. As a result, our old kitchen had a lot of unused space and only about 6 feet of counter space. Making a complicated dinner (like Thanksgiving) was a nightmare!

After

This picture shows the countertop in the "baker's nook". By adding countertop and cabinetry to our nook and moving a door, we now have over 20 feet of counterspace. Richard and I can work in the kitchen concurrently now without risking divorce.
 

Before

In this picture you can see the original subfloors for our kitchen. We hoped to be able to pull up the existing flooring and refinish the existing fir subfloor. As you can see, it was a bit too rickety to refinish. Note the big knot holes and gaps.

After

This is the tile floor we had installed.