New Kitchen Time

It's just about headache time. My new cabinets are supposed to come in this week. We're almost at the end and I'm leaving Saturday. Everything is working out in my favor at this point. I'm going to try and put off demolition of my existing kitchen until MJ goes home--the second week in August. Since the cabs haven't arrived yet, I think I'll be ok putting it off a week or so. Phew! This way the kids will be back in school and I will be home! Good stuff.


As you can see, my kitchen folder is quite thick. I've been compiling it since we first left Virginia in 2001 when I thought we would be building a new home down here. Then, of course, we found this wonderful house--the only thing I hated was it's kitchen. Promised that a new kitchen could be had eventually, I just kept on clipping ideas. This is the second time I've hired someone to refinish it. The first one just kind of disappeared--guess he was too busy. Glad I didn't go with that company. Small miracles. The company I'm using now, I hired last year around this time. They were booked up until September and I certainly didn't want to get into the holidays with a torn-up kitchen. So, I put it off. We finally made all the decisions, picked out and purchased all the appliances and signed off on it. So glad that part is over. It's been such a long process, I certainly hope I like all my decisions once it's all said and done. Wouldn't that be horrible? Hating my new kitchen? hehe


Here is the old kitchen. Yes, I know, nothing wrong with it, really. It's just not set up logically. I mean the cabs looks ok (I prefer white) but that's just cosmetic. Just a few things that make it horrible are: You can't even put a dinner plate in them without turning it sideways, they don't fit--a DINNER plate! Sux. The fridge stuck out so far (as you can see that big boxy wall on the right hand side), so it was moved into the laundry room. We have never had a refrigerator in the kitchen since we lived here. I chalk it up to our quirkiness--and I'm sure many others have also. There's an air return vent in a cabinet that pulls all the dust and dirt into the cabinets--lovely since that's were I house all the dishes and silverware. Yum. I mean, they literally built the vent into the cabinet instead of turning it on the wall just beside. Geesh. The dishwasher is as far away from the sink as you can get, ruining the hard wood floors as you splash water everywhere, everyday, several times. You can barely open the oven door without it hitting the island. The island is almost useless with a sink (right across from the main one--duh) taking up most of the room. And look at all the white appliances against that wood. Don't you think someone would have at least chosen stainless? Hmmmm. It's just silly. And downright ugly with a capital U!

And here's the new plan. Opened up quite a bit. The illogical items have been corrected. I even added a china cabinet to house my hordes of china pieces that I have collected over the years. Yea, I will finally be able to use them again without having to remove everything from the drawers I now have them in -- spread out all over my dining room. At this point, I only use them on holidays and even then I find it such a pain to pull out that I think twice about doing so. (Oh, and a surprise for my brother--a warming drawer! He has to have all his plates warm when he serves his meals---tut tut.) I'm sure I will use it too. It sits beneath the microwave drawer. Yes, a microwave DRAWER! How fun is that????

As time nears demo, I am beginning to get both excited and apprehensive. What I dread most is the sanding of the existing floors. Yuk. And, oh yea, with that comes moving EVERYTHING from one side of the house to the other. I have to have the entire downstairs floor done. So, I've decided to cut the job in half. I couldn't stand moving everything out. Lord. I'd have to rent a couple of those PODS! So we will do the back half first--then, after we recover, do the front half. Gawd.

But, I think if I can put it off until school starts, everything will fall into place and it will all be good--gud. Keep your fingers' crossed!