Upgrading our kitchen has been in our thoughts for a number of years and now is the time. Every time we hosted something at our house it was a challenge to prepare food and serve it efficiently. Large baking projects were a piling and juggling act with cookie sheets balanced on flour canisters and cutting boards balanced across the sink. Our dishwasher rolls up to our sink and I am grateful that I don't have to hand wash dishes but the dishwasher gets in the way. We have been considering finding a new home in the area and we realized that this roll up dishwasher was going be a detractor if we put the house on the market. And so we decided it was time to renovate our kitchen. If we do decide to sell, it will be a selling point and if we don't sell we will enjoy a more functional and pleasant space.
We spent hours working on cabinet configurations and appliance placement just trying to come up with a floor plan that fit our space. Even the designers that we consulted were surprised how hard it was to get things to fit. After a number of visits by contractors we determined that the wall between the kitchen and the dining room could be removed. Removing that wall gave us more flexibility and by going into the dining room 18 inches we will wind up with a great space. the girls have been hearing about cabinets and upcoming constructions, but none of it impacted them until now. Demo begins the Tuesday after Easter. Boxes are all over the kitchen, dining and living room and pictures have been removed from the fated wall. That wall has now become a huge canvas and the girls have taken full advantage of it. we got out the markers and the crayons and they had a blast. Jim and I added our touches in between unpacking the kitchen cabinets and moving things around to set up a kitchen in the basement.
Bridget has been hearing a lot about the kitchen renovation since I make calls during the day, and she was worried that we wouldn't have a bathroom when the workmen were here. She thought that everything was moving downstairs and she was happy to find out that we would still have the use of the rest of the house and she would still sleep in her bed. Having "only the kitchen" out of commission will be a big enough change.
Here are some "before" pictures of the kitchen.
What a fun idea to decorate the wall. Nice way to say good-bye to it.
ReplyDeleteDad, the ever observant male, thought your "new kitchen" looked really nice! I pointed out that these were before pictures and he would recognize it in 2 minutes, when the family started living in it again. At least, that's how my kitchen works.
It won't just be the kitchen that will be affected during the construction-but let it come slowly to Bridget's little world. Love ya