The Sink is Now Back Online

I realize that this post is not going to be of interest to most people. Who really cares about the detail of a kitchen facelift. Well, my family apparently. And now that they are joining the blog world in droves, they are full of requests. "We want to see pictures. Post them on the blog." So this post is mainly for Sarah and Jen. (And Mom, don't waste your printer ink on a dozen silly pictures!)

Here goes.

Stuart moved to Smallville and went house shopping while I stayed in Chattanooga. He did not pick out the house that we live in for the kitchen. As a matter a fact, this blurry shot that Stuart took with his cell phone...

...was the only picture that he e-mailed to me of the kitchen, "because it's really horrible, Kate. You'll hate it." Now this kitchen did have some features that were not too impressive, mainly the cabinet that hung over the counter. I kind of had to do a little backbend when I worked in this space. But I was surprised by how efficient the setup was (Our last kitchen had three doorways in the workspace!) and it turned out that we did not need to rip everything out and start from the ground up.

It did (and still does) need a little work though to make it more functional. If you look past Faith and her math and the bread mixer and the chicken broth, you can see that the eating area is very narrow and there's a gaping hole between the fridge and the cupboard. Not to mention the lovely '80s decorating. And if you look under the math book, you can see the wood laminate countertops. They are pretty in some applications but they did nothing for the oak cupboards.

Here I am making spaghetti on the drafty Jenn Air cooktop. Every crumb and spill either fell into the burners or the vent. I stopped caring after a while. Notice that the cupboard over the counter is down here and the end cupboard needed a bit of finishing after that deconstruction.

Here the wall between the kitchen and the living room has been removed. Now there is breathing room around the table. Before we took the wall out, we used to sit around the table Last Supper style. The chain that is hanging next to the fridge held up a corner of a shelf for the microwave. A Rube Goldberg creation by Stuart. Cabinet makers will be installing a new cabinet in that gap shortly with a built in shelf for the microwave and the chain will go away.

Stuart wrestled the countertops out to the garbage late one evening just a few hours before he had to catch a plane for a business trip. I am slowly rubbing down the cupboards with steel wool, putting oil on them and replacing the hardware. Five doors down. Twenty-five to go.

We kept our old sink. It's huge! Stuart took a wire brush to it and restored it to brand new. The faucet retails for well over two hundred dollars and we got it for forty at a sidewalk clearance sale. Thank you, Jack at Homeware Acre for knowing that this little gem was stashed in the bargain bin and for digging it out for us. We never would have found it on our own.

Our kitchen has very little ventilation so Stuart was looking for maximum efficiency when it came to a the cooktop. This induction cooktop has all the temperature control that a gas cooktop has but none of the wasted heat. All of the heat is directed into the cookware. I love this thing! It's fun to cook on and easy to clean.

Here is where we stand at the moment. The countertop is a vast improvement over its predecessor. It's a foot wider at the bar area than the old one. Now the kids fight over who gets to eat there at each meal. The next things we need to work on are paint (Goodbye flowerpot border!), a backsplash, under cabinet lighting, and a floor. I'll post again for you, Jen in a few months with updates.