House Tour - The Kitchen

When we purchased the house, it had been empty for (we estimate) a year and was NOT in move-in condition.  The biggest reason was the kitchen.  Looking back, I'm amazed that the it didn't completely turn us off of this house - I guess we love a challenge.  Think dirty appliances, peeling linoleum flooring, dilapidated (when not missing!) cabinets, the list can go on and on.  Take a look for yourself:

Notice the wire shelving bridging the cabinet and stove on the right

Those cabinet doors were not left open - they just didn't close

The far wall - grey door and burgundy trim.  Also note the (gross but at least matching) lighting and electrical disaster waiting to happen - an air conditioner plugged into a run-of-the-mill extension cord to the adjoininig garage!



Nobody puts baby in the corner!

Yes, that is a wood-paneled soffit extending much past the cabinets

There was no salvaging to be had - the pictures I have don't begin to do justice to the task that awaited us.  We closed on the house in January and spent 4 months fixing the house up before moving in - mostly working on the kitchen.  We did no structural work, other than opening up the doorway into the dining room and moving the fridge beneath the stairs (there was already electrical and water there) to bring it within the "working triangle" space.

Aesthetically, I love the look of white cabinets and dark countertops, however Esposito thought it would be impossible to keep clean so we compromised on maple cabinetry in a warm cinnamon stain.  We purchased the new cabinetry from a local shop - Bergen Kitchen Wholesalers.  I don't think they are around anymore (this was 3 years ago), but they were great - we were able to purchase semi-custom, real wood cabinets for about the same cost as going the Ikea route (and much cheaper than the options we priced at Home Depot and Lowes).  Esposito's mom gifted us granite countertops as a housewarming gift, and we went with Uba Tuba granite since it included warm-toned flecks that matched our cabinetry.  All the appliances were purchased from P.C. Richards and are GE.

Looking in from the dining room

Looking towards the dining room

Another view from the dining room - we've sinced removed the eating area
at the end to make room for the dogs

After painting the kitchen green

Opposite view of the green kitchen

If I could do it all over again, I would've pushed Esposito harder for my dream white kitchen - now I find myself thinking of painting our cabinets (which is insane considering they are pretty new). However, I think considering where we started, our kitchen looks pretty good and since we know this isn't our forever house, I don't mind living with cinnamon-toned maple until we move and I can have my crisp white kitchen!

In terms of what I'd still like to do to this space, I'd really love to close the door to the sideyard (seen in the photo above) and put the fridge there (flanked by additional cabinetry under that window, for storage) which would open the space beneath the stairs for a walk-in pantry (where you see the fridge handles poking out currently in the above picture). We also still need to complete the backsplash - we finally picked a tile so now it's just a matter of ordering it and doing the work (blog post to come!).  What I love most about the space is the new paint color (I painted it Asparagus by Behr in May) and the diagonal floor tiles - one of the best design decisions I made since it cost hardly anything and does so much in terms of adding interest to the space.  I am also still on lookout for the perfect gray and green geometric fabric that I will use to make roman shades for the window to tie in the dining room and kitchen spaces!

So that's our kitchen, and really our biggest renovation project to date.  The rest of the house, I'll summarize fairly quickly as they are the least "done" - in quotation marks because clearly nothing is really done - starting with the bathrooms next!