We are getting a new kitchen!

We are getting a new kitchen!  To say that it’s exciting is perhaps the biggest understatement ever.

When we moved in to our house (I love our house – have I mentioned that? Anyway…), our kitchen was a mess.  We have white laminate-coated cabinets and, when we moved in, they were covered in a fine layer of grease.  It was nasty, nasty, nasty.  My mother and I spent days and more rags than I care to count with grease-cutting spray (nothing else worked) to get them clean, both inside and out.  It was a major feat, but we did it.  That was nine years ago this month.  Now, the laminate coating is peeling off and, with some cabinets, has separated from the cabinet, causing a bubble.  It’s not good.

We have a white laminate countertop that is impossible to keep clean, even though I’m a clean freak.  Despite the number of cabinets, we don’t have a pantry, which means not enough usable storage.  In addition, many of the cabinets are ill-shaped or too tall for shorty me, so it’s unused, unhelpful space.

Here is what our kitchen looks like now (I am so proud I remembered to take “before” pictures this time!):

Starting when you walk into the kitchen from the garage door (above), and moving around the kitchen counter-clockwise…

Please note the wood-trimmed white laminate counters and the peeling laminate on the cabinets.  Lovely.

As much as I love the white cast-iron sink, I have broken enough stuff by dropping it (wet hands) in the sink that I want a stainless steel sink now.  I still want to have a divided sink, though, because on the days we get our farm veggies, I need room for them to soak while I still use the sink.

The bottom corner cabinet door there is actually broken – hard to see from this pic.  It won’t hang straight anymore (yes, the hinges are still there, though – odd).  The laminate is peeling there, too.

View from kitchen into living room.

On the right side of this picture is our cabinet we use as a pantry.  You can kind of see the laminate bubbled up where it’s separated from the cabinet.  The top shelves are pretty much empty (or store things we never use) because I’m too short to reach them.  I think our stove is 25 years old.

Our new, fancy Kitchen Aid toaster oven, which stays (and I love).  Above it is our microwave, which is nice that it’s off the counter but a little high for me, who is 5′ 3” on a good day.

Fridge and cabinet too tall for me to reach.  Fridge is nine years old.

Chalkboard wall I painted to cover really ugly wall.  This should disappear in the renovation, so I’ll put a chalkboard wall somewhere else, because my kids love it.  During the school year, we put our “spelling words of the day” there – I draw a picture of the spelling word and D has to spell it.  Sometimes M spells it (which makes D mad).

Our entry from the garage/mudroom-ish area.

And we’re back to where we started.  Note weird space under the TV/window – the dog food and our shredder goes there now, but I’d love to make that more cabinets instead.  The dog food will go in the NEW PANTRY! (Note all caps = beyond excited!)

Our breakfast room.  See the wall with the shelves on it?  Behind it is our garage storage room.  We’re going to bust through that wall and make a door there and turn the storage room into a PANTRY (and, obviously, close off access from the garage to this storage area).

This is perhaps my very very favorite idea in this whole renovation.  A PANTRY!  That means that dishes can finally come out of the guest room closet…that we can see what food we have on any given day… so so excited about this!

And what will go in our new kitchen?  New appliances – all stainless steel.  Double ovens and a cooktop instead of a range.  That will make family dinners, holidays, and cookie baking much, much easier.  Here is the cabinet style we chose:

Here is the tile for the backsplash:

It’s called “misty sea glass.”  The counter we chose is Eco by Cosentino’s Crystal Ash – it’s a steel gray color, made of recycled glass.

The paint color will be Benjamin Moore’s “Sesame,” which is a light green color, similar to that in the tile mosaic.

The hardwood floors are fine and will stay.

I am so, so excited about this (could you tell?  Have I said that?).  I love to cook, so it’ll be amazing to have new appliances (e.g., an oven calibrated to the right temp) and storage.  Plus, with my design and organization tendencies, planning the kitchen design has been a blast.

I’m off to start packing some little-used things up and take down shelves and artwork.  Let the fun begin.  I’ll blog about our progress as we go.

UPDATE: Click here to see the finished kitchen!.