Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A tale of a sad kitchen

When we bought this house we were in a bit of a rush. We had one week to search the entire DC area for a house. It was the height of the housing boom and all the houses were way out of our price range. All of them except for this house. It was the very tippy top of our "there's no way we are going to spend that kind of money for a house but have no choice" budget.
I was so happy to see a house after days of seeing very yucky townhouses. It needed help. That's ok, we can do it. Right? That first summer I painted every inch of this house. Allen and his dad redid our pink bathroom and a year later he finished the basement. The kitchen got a paint makeover, but it was just putting lipstick on a pig. We knew the kitchen was going to be major. We needed a dishwasher, but in order to fit in a dishwasher we needed new cabinets. New cabinets are a lot of money, so we just kept putting it off.
Finally, I could take it no longer and told Allen we would be purchasing a portable dishwasher. The idea is just so weird to me. You screw a hose onto your faucet and run another hose into your sink and that is how you wash dishes. He was game, so we ordered the dishwasher.
Not long after that Kelly and I went to IKEA and I saw one of their display kitchens. The price looked pretty reasonable and before you know it we were planning our long awaited Kitchen renovation. The prices that seemed reasonable turned out to be twice as much once we priced our kitchen. Plus we had to move a doorway to make room for more cabinets and a better flow. It's never as simple as it seems at first.
We never picked up our portable dishwasher. I don't mind because yesterday Allen went and bought a nice new dishwasher that will be installed tomorrow. Along with our new sink and disposal (didn't have one of those either).
So since I have been promising pictures here you have it. Our FORMER kitchen in all it's cluttered glory. Maybe in a week or two everything here will be finished and I can give you the after pictures.

This is the wall that we changed. It is opposite the sink. Since the doorway to the hall was there we couldn't do many cabinets. That doorway is now closed and there is a doorway where the pass through shelf thingy was.

The shelves that served as a pantry.

The sink area. See all the clutter? I. DO. NOT. LIKE. CLUTTER.

The stove and all my cabinets. That big black hole is no longer there.

1 comment:

  1. I am SOOOOO excited to see how it turns out. I also looked at the IKEA kitchens and dreamed of moving them right into my house.
    Don't you love old houses. It is amazing the funkiness that you can put up with. Your kitchen is not cluttered. You just lack cabinet space. I wish I had a place to hide everything. I am glad you were able to send the kids away. It has been hard having a toddler in a construction zone.

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