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We have lived in this house for about 6 years now and the kitchen has been this one big ugly eyesore. It's a bigger renovation than either of the bathrooms, and yet as ugly as it is, it's been "serviceable" - meaning that we got new appliances and there's basically enough storage for our needs. Only not really.
Let's take a look at it and talk about the problems - keep in mind that these photos are from our first day in the house.
Stove/oven - We got a new stove about 5 years ago and we really like it - it's black/stainless (not that awesome brown one in the picture). Pretty much everything else you see here will be removed. Yeah, we don't really dig the brown hood/vent so we'll probably replace it with a microwave vent. It will cost us a bit of over-the-stove storage, but we'll make up for it in counter space. Also see that sweet brown plaid backsplash? Yeah, that's gonna go too.
Sink/dishwasher - We will be replacing the dishwasher - we replaced the brown one shortly after moving in, but it's had a happy life and the interior racks are rusting. I'll put it on CL and maybe get $20 for it because it does work. We may be relocating it to the opposite side of the sink though. In its place we'll have a nice cabinet and/or bank of drawers. It'll be good.
Fridge - We will also get a new fridge. We got a new fridge - a stainless side-by-side and it is only 6 years old so we'll be CL-ing it for sure. The fridge is great but it's just not working for us. The position of the fridge next to the wall makes it so that the fridge door doesn't fully open. It's really annoying, actually. The best decision we made so far was to relocate the fridge to the other side of the room and to have the cabinets wrap around the corner. We'll get more cabinet AND counter space. But we'll need a different fridge.
Back side - To add functional space in our kitchen, we got a butcher-block island/counter from Ikea. It's really great, but our new kitchen design puts the fridge - a new counter-depth fridge over here. And we'll have tall pantry cabinets on either side of that.
Sliding doors - NEW! The current doors are in rough shape. The handle falls off, the lock doesn't work, the screens jump the tracks and are all ripped. The best way to go is to just do a full-on replacement.
So what's it gonna look like? We're thinking white cabinets, probably a blue/green tinged composite counter, a dark cork flooring, and some to-be-determined tile backsplash. We don't have much paint, but that will be a light color that will coordinate with the counters or tile. Floors are still a question - maybe dark cork?
I'm pretty excited. We are in the very early stages here, but it's going to be great!
So the other day was miserable and rainy. And I was "over" Play Doh. And Chris was sick of coloring. And we were all tired of tv, trains, books, dinosaurs, and everything.
SO I decided to let him do something messy, but not REALLY messy.
I got a tray (I think I paid all of $1 for it at Ikea, but I already had it). I dumped a bunch of rice onto it. That's it. The tray mostly contained the mess and anything that ended up on the floor was easily vacuumed up.
Chris spent about an hour scooping, pouring, piling, drawing. He employed dinosaurs and trucks, not to mention kitchen tools.
I think next time I'm at the store, I'll pick up a bag of dry beans to create some additional textures for him to play with.
A few tips - it will get on the floor. Just vaccum. And it's probably a good idea to use rice you don't need to eat for dinner that night. I think toddler hands are pretty gross and I certainly had no intention of eating that stuff.
