Freshening Up the Kitchen

When we moved into our house 2.5 years ago, the kitchen had already been updated at some point. Sure it wasn't exactly as I would like it, but it didn't need money poured into it (nor did we have that money). After living with it for a while, I started getting an itch to update it a bit.

The push for updates came after we decided we really need to replace our broken microwave. It's been broken for the past year and a half and we really haven't missed it. When we first started out, we were just going to get rid of the microwave in favor of a hood, but have been talked out of that one and will be replacing it with another microwave. And since we have to get a new microwave, we may as well replace the other appliances as well, right?!

I thought it would be nice to remember what we started with before we changed up our kitchen. And I am glad I took the pictures when I did. While I was gone for two nights last week, Ian painted half the kitchen as a surprise. I was impressed given that I had just mentioned to him the week prior my thought of painting the kitchen the same gray we painted the rest of the main part of the house a year (actually, close to two) ago.

I must also warn you, I have discovered I am no good at taking pictures of kitchens. Also, my kitchen looks so much more cluttered in pictures! I have actually already de-cluttered it a little just because of these pictures!

 ^^ Looking at the kitchen from the playroom. The refrigerator is hiding the stove/oven and on the right, by the sink, is the door that leads to the dining room and the rest of the house. 

^^ Our kitchen really lacks storage space and this has become the catchall. Since taking these pictures, I found a better solution for this area and now have old school lockers sitting here as storage. 

^^ A closeup of the cabinet hardware. Not bad, just not my style. 

^^ The other side of the kitchen. You can see the door to the dining room at the far left of the picture and the opening to the playroom on the right.

^^ I made this menu board over a year ago and have yet to make the "menu" stickers for the top...and Connor has pealed off the Saturday and Sunday stickers from the bottom. But I don't mind. I don't need to cook on the weekend anyway ;)

Here is a list of the updates I would like to do to the kitchen:

• paint kitchen to match the rest of the house
• paint the walkway into the playroom (currently the trim is brown)
• hang old window in said walkway 
• find a better storage solution for next to the refrigerator 
• new hardware for cabinets and drawers
• convert oven to gas (this is Ian's request)
• new appliances - microwave, oven and dishwasher

And I am thinking about ripping out the small cabinets above the sink that really only house the lighting components for the can light above the sink and replace it with a pretty hanging light. 

If money were no object (well, I would rip out and reconfigure the whole kitchen), I would also replace the flooring, but I have to stop somewhere, right?!

Hopefully all this will be complete in the next couple months. After a couple things are done, I will give a bit of a progress update. 

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