Beginning the Kitchen Renovation

You've listened to me lament about my kitchen for some time now.  It's small, cramped and generally hard to work in. I have all kinds of ideas for the kitchen that would make it much more workable.  One of the things I want to do is switch the china cabinet and refrigerator around. But so far, Jim hasn't been as enthusiastic about making those changes.

Kitchen as it looks now

Refrigerator and kitchen cart

Do you see how close everything is on the wall where the refrigerator is now?  Right now, that's the only place where that cart can go to hold the microwave. It makes using the counter space there in the corner next to impossible to use, which leaves only one work surface where I can cook or do anything.

Here's another view that shows you how close it is.

Tight Squeeze

Then of course, there is this little awkward space.  Right now we have the coffee pot there, which works okay, but I don't have any surface space next to the stove.

The stove stuck in a corner

The curtains hide a little shelf that I put there to fill in the empty space.  I put a large cutting board on it to give the shelf a little more surface space. It added a little storage also. At first I didn't have the curtain up and it looked cluttered, but I kind of like how the curtain gave it a country feeling.  Even though it does look nicer, it still isn't very efficient.

China Cabinet

Right now this is the only part of my kitchen that I like.  I still love my china cabinet, and it still makes me smile  This is where I'd like the refrigerator and kitchen cart to be moved.  We move everything around a few months ago, and it really opened up the kitchen, probably because the huge 36 inch refrigerator wasn't sticking out into the middle of the room, and it is the first thing you see when you walk in the kitchen.

The Over-powering Refrigerator

It's also an eat-in kitchen, because we don't have a dining room. So not only are we working around limited storage space, large appliances and poor layout, we also have to eat in there. I smaller table would be nice, but we have a very nice solid oak table that is in perfect condition, so right now it doesn't make sense to replace it.

Jim was very good about letting do what I can to make the kitchen more efficient, but there have been some limitations we just haven't been able to overcome yet, because of upgrades that needed to be made to the house. One of those upgrades was the electrical, which Jim took care of having done this past autumn. Now we just need some plumbing done to be able to move the refrigerator so the water dispenser and ice maker will work.

I'm not sure when that will happen, but in the mean time, Jim has agreed to painting the kitchen this weekend!!!  Hurray!!!  I'm so excited!  Even if the kitchen won't be easier to work in, it will be more pleasant looking!  We've selected a Dutch Boy color, Jade Frost DC447.  It is kind of a muted green, and it will make the white china cabinet really pop.  The trim will be painted white, and I think it will look very crisp and clean.  I'm hoping it will also update the look of the dated look of oak cabinets since Jim will NOT let me paint them.

I can hardly wait to get started!!!

Flowers on the dining table