2014's Resolution: Kitchen

2014's resolution for me was the kitchen. Instead, we gutted and rehabbed the bathroom. I'm not complaining, because the bathroom was hideously ugly and more importantly - it's DONE and I never have to do it again.

Now that the cold weather has arrived, I'm readying the cutters and sledge hammer for the kitchen. Waiting a year (by accident, really) has given me a chance to think on my old design, and I've come up with another I'm toying with.

Plan A: Counter seating

Plan A: Counter seating

Plan B: Built-in bench with round table

Plan B: Built-in bench with round table

I was really sold on the 2 stool/counter space before but now I'm not so sure.

Kitchen Virtual Makeover

Thank GOD for computers and programs. I can only image how fucking divorced I'd be if I made Guy move things around multiple times to see what I liked in a room.

I found a totes awesome program that lets me move things around. I think I may have come up with a decent and fairly *cheap* way to get a better looking and more functional kitchen. Here's some reminder photos of my small and stupidly designed eat-in kitchen.

Let me tell you, my house layout is all over my neighborhood. BUT... since our house is a corner house, we have that back door, as see above. Other houses have the door on the side of the house, so they can use that space there for a table. If we do that, we block ourselves in and it feels congested and awful.

So conclusion: House builder fail.

Here's our current layout:

On the North side are our only cabinets plus sink and a table we've yet to actually use.

South side is an exit door, oven, a cart with booze and a microwave, fridge and wall that juts out to hide the chimney stack.

What I hate about this configuration:  No flow, at all. Not nearly enough counter space. Double sink (not seen in mockup) is really overkill. No dishwasher. No matter how we position a table it feels "wrong".

Meh.

Here's my proposed layout:

Here's what's good about this: We're reusing ALL the cabinetry. Would eliminate the metal microwave shelf. Would add some shelving, would add a DISHWASHER. Would extend countertop by a mile or so.

As you can see, seating would be built in. A risk? Maybe, but for us, it would really work. The big expense in this entire change would be a dishwasher, stools, and countertop. We already purchased a new sink (smaller and deeper) and paint for the cabinets is fairly cheap.

Spring!

It's like Winter might finally be, almost, nearly gone.

Look at what my handsome husband got done while I was having a nap!

Before

After!

To stain or to paint?

Paint and Patchwork

Patch, patch, patch. That's what our back entrance really needed.

It was pretty beat up and neglected, not to mention filthy.

It's been done for about a week now (done-ish) and looks a LOT better.

Before: Was a dirty brown, the walls, ceiling and baseboards were all painted the same color. There were holes galore. The light was an old acorn style.

Someone fucking hated this wall.

After: Ceiling white, oops paint, drywall mud save the day and a snazzy new flush-mount ceiling light. I LOVE the light fixture, and it actually gives off more like than the acorn fixture.

Our $8 "oops" paint from Walmart

Hampton Bay Flaxmere Round purchased on eBay for $22!

I have some nickel coat hooks I'm going to install, probably, near the switches. I'm still devising the prettiest way to do it, of course.