We started our remodeling journey the end of July 2012 and thought it would take a month or two and well as we all know construction takes a lot longer then one thinks. It has taken 6 months of hard work, and now we are waiting for nice weather to finish the rest.
The first 3 photos are of the original kitchen.
First thing we took down a wall in between the kitchen and living room - to open it all up. The wall is by the fridge in the 2nd picture.
We had to hire a contractor for this as it was a bearing wall. We had 4 bids and we went with the contractor who would let us do some of the work so we could keep the cost down. This ended up costing us only 800.00 vs quotes for 3000.00. It pays to have more than 1 or 2 bids. We tore out all the sheet rock on the wall so all that was left for the contractor were the studs.
You can see the new beam that was installed for the support of the house. Later we will sheet rock around it to make it look a lot nicer.
Second after moving all the furniture out of the living room and kitchen we tore up all the flooring down to the sub floor. Carpet was easy, tile was hard. We had tons of creaking that we wanted to address before we continued with new flooring. We addressed this issue by hammering more nails into the floor where the joices where. Make sure to hammer them in at an angel -less chance of the nails working there way out later on. After many, many nails later we went ahead and put new wood down before we were ready to lay the new laminate flooring. That step has to wait till later.
Third we decided to add more
insulation to our house. The house was built in 1975 and is a smaller
home, around 1500 sq ft. The house has a flat roof with a very small
slant. We had quotes for pitching the roof and we had quotes for just
insulation. Because it was a flat roof -doing just insulation meant we
would have to take the ceilings down have the insulation put in and then
put up new sheet rock for the ceilings. This older home has no
attic-which would have been very helpful and cost a fraction of the
cost. The cost of pitching it was 10,000 and insulation was 3500. We
decided to do the insulation for now, so with that decision down came
the ceilings. 
The old insulation was so thin and almost burnt that we
were really glad we had made that decision. We may in the near future
add a pitched roof for even more insulation and protection from the
elements, but we are truly happy with taking down the ceilings and
removing all the old insulation and other debry that got in from the
outside. We didn't have a vent in the bathroom so when we took down the
ceilings we found lots of mold. We cleaned that out with bleach and
warm water, added a vent and then continued with the ceiling. Luckily
we have a 5th wheel trailer to live in while all this fun was
going on. The insulation company came in did foam spray and mesh and
blow. This meant we had to be out of the house for 24-48 hours. They
claim it will bring our r value from 13 to 29. 
We decided to take out a window in the kitchen and add in a sliding glass door that would later walk out onto a deck. I priced out the big box stores for this and they were twice as expensive if not sometimes three times as pricey as a building warehouse. If you live in Utah I highly recommend Pro Build. They have highly skilled people who will help you with all your needs. (I do not work there, or know them. Just a very happy customer)
Fourth up goes the sheet rock for the ceilings, and the fun of mudding, taping, and painting all begins.
Fifth we installed all new can lighting in the living room- kitchen (and even a few in the bedroom)
Sixth we ran the new gas line for the gas stove that was getting moved from the original place, as well as ran new 220 wiring for the new location of the oven. The sink we choose to leave in the original spot so we didn't have to run new pluming for that.
Seventh we had the cabinets installed. (We found a local cabinet guy who would custom make cabinets at a fraction of the big box stores). We started the design and working with the cabinet guy from the very beginning of this journey as they can take a while to custom make. We found new appliances by shopping around. We found a very nice Miele oven from Mountainland Design in the clearance section, as well the Viking downdraft for the Island. The gas griddle for the island we found on KSL deals for 400.00 vs 3000.00. We shopped around and matched pieces together to save money. The refrigerator wasn't to old so we didn't replace that.
Eighth we ordered the granite and had that installed.
The cabinet guy installed a nice piece to finish off the ceiling to make it look tapered.
Ninth we had the entertainment center (that was also custom made by the same guy) installed.
Again the cabinet guy made us a piece to finish off the ceiling, to give it a tapered look.
Tenth we layed the flooring. We were able to get laminate at a really good price at Costco, we got it when they had a coupon on it.
We started this journey with of course a city permit for a bearing wall coming down, kitchen remodel, and deck plans. In Sandy Utah the city was very fair on there prices. I have heard in other areas they can be really expensive. My husband, I, my 2 kids 14 and 9 and our very helpful father in law are not contractors. My father in law was so helpful in all this construction, my husband and him did all the electrical, and sheet rock. My 14 year old, 9 year old and I did all the mudding and painting, my husband moved the gas line and was the brains behind everything and we all helped with the demolition and decking. It was a family remodeling event.
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