19 July 2013

This Kitchen Will Be The Death of Me

My post today had originally been something a bit more thoughtful on the whole how it is that I practice and perceive being Heathen.

Instead it's about the kitchen. Why the kitchen? Because the boyfriend and I are gearing up for quite possibly the biggest project we've ever undertaken together. We are taking this:

That right there? Some kind of Sexy. 
and trying to turn it into say, this: 

http://www.decorpad.com/photo.htm?photoId=6986
Gorgeous. Bright. WHITE. 

This of course poses multiple dilemmas. One, money. Two, time. Three, our kitchen is not from a magazine and is roughly the size of a large post stamp with eight, count them! eight egresses of some form or another. The stove cannot be moved to an outside wall, so there is no vent unless I do a recirculating vent (which has been the point of many a frosty argument between my darling dearest and I) The fridge really must be recessed otherwise it eats up a good eighth of our floor space. The sink is currently in the galley which is great when I want to ignore the dishes for a week (don't judge!) but if one is going for something resembling hygienic, perhaps it should be a bit more you know... in the way. Which interrupts every other design dream I had. 

The galley. Of Doom.

We have a few weeks if we are lucky of Jeff being home. We have the cabinets stored in our basement, an awesome craigslist score from February. We just have to you know, gut the two layers of sheet rock, plaster, lathe, and all that, rewire everything, put new sheet rock back up, and ... then we can put the cabinets in? Except that in between now and then, I am fussing over the semi-original design plan that looked like this: 

The pretty mock up the cabinet people did for us... and then wanted $14,000 to build the cabinets. Not the counters, not installed. Just.. cabinets. No. 


Which is lovely and mostly wonderful, and basically... turning the galley (to the far left of that picture) into a butlers pantry (say it with me now, ooooo!), putting a normal sized sink in the island with a dishwasher and just giving up on my absolute need/lust for a marble island, and ... trying to convince the boyfriend that we can put a small bar area in the galley. With a prep sink. Which when I mentioned, he actually looked like he might help me pack. 

The other thought was putting the sink to the counter area to the left of the main room (marked in red). Eventually the area to the right of that which is currently all brick from the main chimney no longer in use, that will all come out. So we could put in a bit more counter and cabinet. In like five years when we redo the roof and the chimney comes out from the third floor on down (The expression on Jeff's face while trying to explain to me WHY we can't take out the chimney only in the kitchen? Poor devil. Someone buy him a drink, will you?)

I forsee a long weekend of pencils, pizza, and alcohol while we hash this out. Gods help us. 



8 comments:

  1. I look forward to seeing how this evolves. I mean this, honestly.

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  2. I think you are going to love that Butler's pantry. I've found myself wondering lately... "What if we turn the office into a big store room? Like a butler's pantry on a grand scale. Let's forget for a moment, shall we, that my husband works from home. In that very office.

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    1. HA! oh your poor husband. But see, this is a challenge! What other space can be reconfigured to make sure he has an optimum office? This could totally work to his advantage! (I do optimism like some people do illicit drugs)

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  3. Also? Please let me subscribe via email! I don't use feed readers.

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    1. and voila! Thanks for the suggestion! (I'm still working on prettying everything up. Just like my house.)

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  4. Post your layout problem here http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/ You'll get all kinds of help.

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    1. Thank you for the suggestion! We are ... well. A bit beyond the layout at this point and I am fairly certain I'd be murdered for suggesting we change it around again :) As of last night we had ordered the few cabinets we still needed for the perimeter and the dumpster for the tear out arrives either tomorrow or Friday - so the weekend is going to be plenty messy!

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