Step 21: Kitchen

November 2018

The kitchen is probably my favorite part of the house other than the screened-in porch, which, I mean, there is no contest for that. I just can't get over how beautiful everything turned out. It's not completely done yet, I'll update more, but the progress in the last week has made such a huge difference, I wanted to put the pictures up even though it's not totally done.

So, again, this is what the original kitchen looked like:

old kitchen after they took out the stove & fridge:

And here's the new kitchen:

Everything in this picture (and the mud room, which we'll look at below) is part of the addition. This room didn't even exist before. The house used to end where that wall in the foreground is. The original kitchen was where I am standing to take this picture.

We're still missing the dishwasher and the faucet because the plumber hasn't been out yet, and one pantry door is missing because he had to take it back to the shop for some reason, but I didn't want to wait to show y'all. Isn't it amazing!?!?!

The wall on the left where the fridge is. The architect's original plan called for the fridge to be in the corner on the left, but I changed it to be centered on this part of the wall, between the wall and the door to the mudroom, both for visual appeal and for function. It makes for small cabinets on either side, but it's not like we need more cabinets. And they're actually kinda cute. And it looks centered. It would have driven me insane the other way. And the fridge doors clear the wall on the left nicely.

The appliances are Slate instead of Stainless Steel, which we picked mainly because it doesn't show fingerprints, but also just for something different, and not as shiny. We didn't get a double oven, but we got a convection microwave, which everyone said would accomplish the same thing. Though the appliance lady said I would need to sit down with the manual for three days to figure out how to use it.

We already discussed the light fixture in the last post, but here's that side again. Just this side of the kitchen is more cabinet space than we had in the whole kitchen before. And it's only like 1/4 of it!

And just look at that huge pantry (there will be a door on the left eventually):

The countertop is "solid surface," by a company called Living Stone. It's cheaper than granite, but still pretty darn beautiful, and one of the things we love about it is that it doesn't show seams. At all.

The style/color is called "Apollo." It looks darker in the pictures than it is in real life. The close up below is closer to the real color, but still not quite right. Again, you just have to come visit and see it in real life!

We got a nice huge sink, all one basin. It's as wide as the window!

Everybody doubted me on the drawer pulls, but they all said they looked nice once they were in. Pretty much everything else in the house is simple and clean lines, so I thought with the light fixtures and the drawer pulls, we could try something with a little design to them. If we hate 'em or just get tired of them, they're not the most expensive thing to replace. These are called "Sisal." I'm lovin' all these names of the things I'm picking out. They just look kind of Craftsman-esque to me. Remember, we're not going for full Craftsman, just Craftsman-esque.

I mean, just look how good they look with the light fixture. Sooo pretty.

And there are pull-out shelves in the pantry and next to the stove:

and a lazy susan in the corner:

And tons of drawers and tons of cabinets. And the mudroom... The old cabin didn't even have a washer/dryer, much less a whole laundry room, with a little mudroom bench and coat closet. So much storage.