Kitchen Nightmares and Dreams

The new house has a kitchen that is not. It is dark, dated and while I am sure it was great when it was built, it is in major need of renovating. I had really thought we might do some updating to the existing cabinets and reface them, paint them and add molding and new hardware. Ricky had other ideas. He has been adamant that I get the kitchen of my dreams. Now, not being a huge kitchen person, this has been hard for me, however, I am beginning to get really excited about this!

But back to the kitchen in its original glory. While the kitchen is dated and dark, I do really like the layout of it. It was designed as a galley style kitchen. Long and narrow, but not so narrow that it feels cramped. The layout really works for me and my favorite part is the pass through window above the kitchen sink. It looks right into the family room. I am really excited about that. Currently when I am in the kitchen I am cut off from the rest of the house, so being more connected to the activity hub of the house will be great!

 I know, its dark, huh? See those built in light boxes above the cabinets? I learned those are called fur downs. I am here to tell you that I am not a fan of the fur down. It lands right up on my list with wall paper border and popcorn ceilings. Thankfully this house had zero wallpaper in it! Popcorn ceiling though? Oh yeeeaaahhhs. Best we can calculate over 3,500 square foot of popcorn. Its everywhere except the basement and the upstairs. Well, atleast it was ;) removal is in progress as I type this.

Back to the fur downs. Really not a fan. Especially the ones in this house. They come into the kitchen beyond the cabinets making for a very heavy feel to the room as you can see here:

Behind the fur downs are ballasts with fluorescent lighting. The covers of the fur downs are yellowed with age and just ugh. ugh. ugly.

Moving on, another positive aspect of the kitchen is the brick. I just love brick in a kitchen. The brick shows up as a backsplash around the stove (perfect) and there are two tall rows of brick that currently house an old double wall oven.

Our plan here is to salvage as much of the brick in the kitchen as we can. We came into the kitchen project with a plan that has had to be altered. We really wanted a wall oven and in the wall microwave combo unit to replace the old one that doesn't work. Sad news, they don't make them the size we need to fit in between of the brick walls. And since we are really trying to keep the brick, we came up with a different plan. We plan to turn the existing space into a floor to ceiling pantry which is really needed in this kitchen. Then we will go back with a free standing gas range where the current stove top is now. More on that as it transpires.

At the end of the galley sets a nice open area with a bayed window. This would probably be traditionally called a breakfast nook, however this is where I figure we will eat most of our meals and will probably only use the dining room for company.

 The counter tops are about a year old and while they are in good shape, we are hoping our budget will allow us enough room for either granite or some sort of composite type counters. That remains to be seen.

 The pictures are awful I know. The glaring yellowed light the fur downs give out is just awful and makes everything glaringly more awful than it already is.

 Let's see... what else? Oh yes, the flooring. We have some lovely faux wood linoleum througout the kitchen. That was laid directly over some faux stone linoleum. The stone pattern shows through the wood pattern. So basically we have a faux stone and faux wood two-fer linoleum :) and yes, it's days are very numbered. We are really struggling with what we want to put down here. Ricky is set on tile, and I do like the look of tile, however, it is cold and hard and I think it is hard to keep it really clean enough to suit me. I do so love the warmth that woods (natural hardwood, engineered or laminate) bring with them. We haven't made a decision on this yet, so if anyone reads this and has some input, advice or experience please let me know.

 And while these custom cabinets were very well built and were way ahead of their time when they were built (they have custom pullouts) they too have taken an exit.

What are we going to put in their place? Well, I will leave you with a tiny hint--- something along this line :) squeal!