Kitchen Makeover - Part One

It's a sad fact of life that doing the work of a makeover takes far longer than promising to blog about it.  But, at last, I have some pictures to show you.

There is a process I go through when re-doing any room, and I'd like to share it with you.

The first step is to assess what you have.  What are the room's strengths and weaknesses?  What do you love about it?  What do you loathe?  What's your budget?

In the case of our new kitchen, I love its nice square shape.  I've had to work in too many long skinny kitchens through the years.  Square is much easier to work with.

I love that it has two windows and a door, each on a different side of the house.  So it's flooded with light, especially in the late afternoon.

The door itself is problematic, since it opens right next to the stove.  Plus it tends to fall off its hinges when you open it.  That and the fact that there's at least a two inch gap between the bottom of it and the floor made replacing it a top priority.

We also needed new appliances, since we sold our last set with the place in Sebringville. 

It may surprise you that we only bought three new appliances for the house - a fridge and stove for the kitchen and a washing machine that will live in the basement.  We don't own a dishwasher, microwave or dryer.  The refusal of the dishwasher and dryer are due to environmental concerns.  And we really don't like what microwaves do to the food.

So.  A simple, basic kitchen.  We're keeping the small bank of cabinets that came with the place.  I love that they're solid wood, hand built in the 50's (the drawers only fit the opening they were made for).  And this little set-back under the sink - try getting that on a brand new cabinet!

And this little set of cupboards is pretty much what sold me on the house!

The new appliances and back door used up our budget for the year (and then some!), so everything else that goes in here will be stuff we already own.

Stay tuned!

And next time I'll tell you what I did to turn the counter top and backsplash from navy blue to white!