Kitchen Renovations

When we bought this house my DH promised we would re-do the kitchen. PROMISED.

I cleaned and worked and baked and canned in the kitchen. I grumbled about the white sink (eck), the fact that I couldn't cook dinner and have a child do the dishes at the same time, the fact that I couldn't work with more than one child at a time, and I couldn't make cookies and dessert at the same time. I grumbled.

The economy and housing market tanked and so did my dreams of a new kitchen. The estimates kept running into the 16,000s. An addition to make the footprint larger was 40,000 without the cupboards. My kitchen was great for a family of 4 but cooking for this small army and canning hundreds of jars each year just showed the flaws in the kitchen.

After being here almost 2 years DH and I finally figured out a way to re-do the kitchen and only have to buy 3 cabinets and new countertops.


We started the re-do by taking the door that was in the middle of the kitchen and moving it 10 feet to the other side of the kitchen and making the tall full length windows half height. We had our contractor, Tom, watch Lowe's for windows and doors on sale. The we had Tom cut off the leg of the U countertop and open up the room. We lived with this for a few weeks and mulled over our options. We had a new stainless steel double basin sink from a trade with my parents (hammermill for sink) and a stainless steel single bowl sink from the old house. I was going to put in a prep sink in the old house but we never got around to it.

I drooled over kitchen plans with 2 sinks. Oh, my. A big double sink further away near a dishwasher=clean up area. Heaven! The little sink makes a prep area with no dishes around but I can wash veggies and drain pasta without emptying the dirty dishes. Heaven, I thought! Heaven!

Then DH upped the anty. He wanted 2 dishwashers. Who was I to refuse??

This week, Tom installed 2 shiny stainless steel sinks; one single bowl and one double bowl. Both sinks have faucets with sprayers and garbage disposals. He reconfigured our current cabinets into a better configuration (what person ever thought an 8 inch drawer stack was a good idea? you can hardly get hot pads into a drawer). Now there are drawers where we need drawers, a new peninsula that the kids can eat at, a space to work by the stove and not singe your arm hairs. We ordered the other dishwasher last night.

We took the melamine off the white cupboards and are priming and painting the frames and doors. Yes, it is a ton of work. But I got a better working kitchen without going into a ton of money. And someone said painted cupboards are coming back in.

This week I have to finish painting the doors and frames. I will also be tiling the backsplash. DH is putting in better lighting and ceiling fans at each end of the kitchen. I tried telling we don't need them but he just put them in the cart at Lowe's and said, "It is hot in that kitchen during canning season" and pushed the cart away.

The only thing not decided is drawer hardware. When I get some of the drawer fronts and doors on I will post pictures.

In the meantime, Dawn, I am really busy. I have to get the garden in, a garden class here in 3 weeks and a kitchen under renovation and a homeschool to run. Oiy!

Now, I know I could get some flack from my beloved sister for this post. She graduated from college this past weekend (woohooo!) and I didn't attend. I know she knows that she is more important than a kitchen. (You know that right?) But my DH would not break his promise to me that there would be a better working kitchen. Even if we didn't have the money to come to Hawaii for your graduation.