The plans for our new kitchen

The plans for our new kitchen

First of all, I just want to thank everyone so much for the kind words of support and encouragement after my big announcement on Friday. It really means so much to me.

And now on to the good stuff…  Our new kitchen!! We are finally moving forward with a new kitchen after years of hating ours. We found a contractor we like (who actually returns phone calls, can you believe it?!) and we’re on the schedule for work to begin in October, yay! That’s right around the corner! The whole project — new kitchen and bathrooms — should (fingers crossed) be done by Thanksgiving.

I thought you may like to see what the new kitchen is going to look like. The layout is actually going to be pretty much the same as what we have now, because it’s really the only thing that makes sense in this room with four doors. Seriously, four doors? In one room? If you’re keeping count, that’s the back door, the pantry door, the basement door, and the door that leads to the rest of the house. It’s not really so much tiny as just terribly awkward.

So again, this is our kitchen now (before pictures are supposed to look awful, right?):

This is the view when standing in the doorway to the rest of the house. Just to the left of the window is the back door which leads outside. In the middle, where the open shelves are now, is the chimney that we’re hoping can be exposed (a masonry expert is coming to look at it next week, but given what we’ve told him, he’s “75% hopeful” that it can be done — that’s… decent odds, right?).

These are the plans for the same area:

As you can see, the general layout is the same, but there are a few changes. Under the window we’re adding cabinets. That’s the same spot that Andy talked about last week, where there clearly was a lower cabinet at one time that has been removed — leaving some really awkward flooring behind. We’re going to put one of those fancy pull-out garbage cans here, as well as some really big cabinet space. On the other side of the chimney, on the lower cabinet, we’re going to have more drawers, which is what our current kitchen is desperately lacking. Above that, to the right of the chimney, we’re adding open shelving. I love having a place to display a few cute things, and I don’t want this room to feel super closed in with a ton of upper cabinets, especially when we have a huge pantry right off the kitchen where we can put a ton of stuff. The shelves are something that Andy and I will make ourselves when the rest of the kitchen is finished — so pretty much, don’t expect that part to be done by Thanksgiving like the rest of it! You’ll see we’re removing the cabinet in front of the chimney, as long as that plan works out, and if not we’ll drywall it back in and probably wrap the counters around like they are now, with a shallow cabinet. The rest is essentially staying the same. We’re keeping the fridge we have, which we bought when we moved in, and we are getting a new range and microwave (we ordered them last weekend when Sears was having a huge sale).

Here’s a shot of the other side of the kitchen (it embarrasses me even to show these pictures!):

So I was standing in the corner by the stove when I took this. The door on the left leads to the basement, and on the right is the hallway that leads to the rest of the house. You can’t see it in this picture, but to the right of the hallway is the door to our pantry. The pantry door and back door are on the same wall.

Here’s the plan:

The layout on this side is staying exactly the same. We’re adding glass doors to the cabinets over the sink, which I think will also help keep the space feeling a little more light and open. We’re keeping our dishwasher, which we also bought when we moved in, and we’re replacing the sink with an apron front farm sink in stainless steel that I think is one of the things I’m most excited about in the new kitchen. We debated the merits of a traditional white vs. an easy-to-keep-clean stainless farm sink for a while, but then the decision was made easy when our contractor said our size is only available in stainless. It’s so much easier when decisions are made for you! It’s hard to tell in these drawings, but all of the uppers throughout the room are going to be significantly taller than the ones we have now, which I’m pretty sure are as short as they come. With 9 1/2-foot ceilings, there’s a ton of wasted space over our cabinets now, and that drives me nuts. The new cabinets will come within about a foot of the ceiling.

After years of hoping that maybe someday we’ll have a new kitchen, it’s so exciting to now be able to picture exactly what it’s going to look like in only a few short months. I can’t wait to see it!