Kitchen Remodel Time!

So it's been a long time coming, but we've finally started on the kitchen! Whoo-hoo! Now, you would think I'd be all over taking some nice before shots...but that would be before I let our "good" camera tumble off a guard rail trying to take a timed picture of our family visiting the Smoky Mountains last week. Sigh. It not working no more. Thankfully, I DO have a couple lesser quality cameras lying around...one w/o a working flash and the other is just plain questionable, but they work in a pinch so here we go!

We'll start with a walking tour of the kitchen. As you come in from the entryway...this wall divides the living room and dining area. [Notes in orange are the future plans! This wall is coming out! We'll leave a small column for the electrical but the rest will be open space. The window you see through the cut out is actually an unused back door that will become our main back entrance.]


A peek in from the living room... [So that perfect spot for my kids' portraits is disappearing.]


Then looking back through the cut out into the living room. There is a sliding glass door on the right behind (to the right in this shot) the table. [And that door is coming out to become a couple of nice large windows with a bar and storage cabinets beneath.]


Turn around and you see the work area...lovely appliances circa 1991 along with the coveted golden oak cabinets and those pulls we all love...creamy ceramic with brass...nice! You may notice double microwaves...I think I've shared before how the built in one has functioned as an oversized timer for quite some time now. It has a little sticky note the says "I don't work" for visitors' convenience. :) Funny how you can't see the bottom of the dishwasher dangling with the packing tape that is no longer holding it flush. I can see it. Right now. Ugh! [Bye, bye golden oak! Bye, Bye laminate countertop! Bye, Bye...well, everything. The appliances will be stainless-look (to avoid fingerprints and water streaks), counters quartz or granite (still working on a color...brownish?), we're painting the cabinets a rich creamy color with a light amount of brown glaze to highlight the raised panels, rubbed bronze pulls, composite sink, and maybe a greenhouse window.]


If you spin around to the other wall you'll see my pantry cabinet, our junk counter (which I was going to clear for the picture, but this is reality people), and the once lovely fridge which I did pick out myself 9.5 years ago. [Same cosmetic redos here. I'm trying to decide on the backsplash, but need to figure out the counters first. Was thinking about accent tiles of the mosaic glass mixed with subway tiles, but keep reading designer blogs and their advice is JUST SAY NO to accents. Hmmm.]


Back on over to the stove wall is the lovely view of the 1/2 bathroom. Nothing like a huge, wide, open door beckoning you to come use the commode while you're making dinner! In a perfect world that door would remain shut...BUT there are little munchkins in this house, so that's a no go so far. [We're shrinking the door frame (it was large to fit in the washer/dryer...but that's a non-issue since the new laundry is upstairs now) to gain about 9 inches. We'll use it to add length to this counter and build a lower cabinet with vertical storage for baking pans and a pull out trash/recycling center...see ya nasty trash can!]


And that's it! Not very big, but it gets the job done. Our goal is to open up some space and do a little rearranging and updating to make it function much better. I think I'll go back to the top and insert in captions of what the plans are...yeah, that will be fun! So up I go...

And I'll be back soon...Eric has been working hard the last couple days so we already have some progress.