Our Kitchen Renovation

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BEFORE

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When we first looked at the house my biggest concern was the kitchen.  Our kitchen in our previous home was the quintessential farmhouse kitchen complete with a wood burning stove, seating area, high ceilings and plenty of cabinets and even a pantry.  It was definitely the hub of the home with sunroom, family room and stairs to the sleeping quarters directly off the kitchen.

Despite the much smaller size, the kitchen appeared to be in good condition even though it may not have been to our tastes.  It even had granite counter tops which I thought would be quite nice. It was clean and tidy so we figured we could make this work.  

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Soon after we moved in we realized our new kitchen wouldn't work.  It seemed more like a closet than a kitchen.  We couldn't find room for all of our kitchen items.  We really like to cook and there simply was no room for baking essentials.  Our first week a cabinet door fell off so I fixed that.  I added some extra shelving in the cabinets but things were still piled up and unreachable.  One ceiling fixture coupled with a small window covered in stained glass made the kitchen so dark that we were cooking with a flashlight!  I added a new light and over and under cabinet lighting.  It all helped but still it was dark.  But, still it was workable.

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Then, one month in the wall oven broke.  Time for a new oven but in the meantime we had a stove hooked up in our shop and we cooked our Thanksgiving turkey out there.  When our new oven did arrive I removed the old one only to find that it was perched on a few pieces of lumber piled up on each other.  At that time we figured we may as well order a new fridge and dishwasher.  The existing fridge had french doors but the way it was situated you could barely open the freezer side and other shelves were broken.  The dishwasher heating elements were caked in lime since there was no water softener.  Yes.  We got a water softener as well.  Things seemed to be working out better.

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Well we finally had enough.  I wasn't cooking much.  Paul was doing most of it.  The counters were extra high.  The granite was so dark that you could hardly see to work on it.  We were both frustrated every time we had to use it.  If that weren't enough, there was a particularly small bathroom with no ventilation right beside the kitchen.  The main entryway entered the kitchen making it awkward with no lighting and no place for coats and shoes and boots.  Up to this point we were keeping coats and boots outside the door.  

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