The "New" Kitchen

JMJ

We were fortunate enough to be given some wooden cabinets to replace our old decrepit ones in the kitchen. We have been storing them in the basement for about a year and we finally decided to take the plunge and install the new (to us) cabinets along with new counter tops. If anyone reading this has not been to our house before, let me explain a bit of the kitchen. The cabinets used to be white. I suppose, technically, they would still be called white, but they were so dingy that--even right after I had cleaned them--they still looked old. Though the cabinets were white, the counter tops were a creamy tan color, along with the appliances. I suppose if you had to get tan appliances and had white cabinets (or the reverse) the only way to unite them is to get tan counters? the floor is linoleum sticky tiles that look like fake green marble mosaic. Sooooo, even if everything was in good condition (which it wasn't) the color scheme was dated, to say the least. Oh, and the counter tops didn't completely cover the dishwasher, so we have been supplementing with a couple of boards. Oh, and the cabinets don't go completely to the wall, so it is good sized kitchen without adequate cabinets space. We had a shelf and a free standing cabinet against the wall, but by the time we had stuff on all those shelves the kitchen looked so cluttered that it actually gave me a headache if I thought about it too much. But there was hope: the cabinets in the basement. And finally that hope has become a reality.

Here is the kitchen before:

And Here is after the cabinets are all in--Please excuse the clutter on the counters; we hadn't fully moved back into the kitchen when this photo was taken:

I can't believe that that cabinets fit the kitchen like a glove, with a bit of finagling and A LOT of worry and mind crunching. We now have cabinets from wall to wall on two sides of the kitchen. There is still plenty to do. In fact, since the picture was taken, we have painted the walls, filled in the space above the stove, and reinstalled the light above the sink. We still have to stain the upper cabinet to the left of the sink, finish sanding a few spots and touch up the paint, paint the window frame, and add trim around the tops of the cabinets. Oh yes, and there is one more section of counter top to go in to the left of the frig; we thought it would be easier to paint without it installed because there is no cabinets going under it--we will stow the trash can and recycling under it. The floor still needs to be done, but that is a project for another day. For now, we have a fully functioning kitchen that does not give one a headache if you look at it too long! :) A HUGE thanks to our friend John who had the know-how to help us install these ourselves, and to Ron for helping with the installation. Craig, John and Ron pulled out all the old cabinets and installed the necessary lower cabinets and counters tops for us to have a functioning kitchen, all in one night!

It is amazing what gets covered in old houses. once the cabinets were out, you could see several layers of kitchen decor. The walls were a deep clover green at one time; I guess that explains the green flooring, though I don't think the greens actually match well.

And there are remnants of a hideous wall paper all in 70's browns that was a print of pastas, onions, and vegtables. I am SO glad that is not what was on the walls when we bought the house!

John came back another day to help with the upper cabinets. And a huge thank you to my Dad for spending a week with us and finishing a lot of the remaining work in the kitchen. Thank you to my Sister and Brother-in-Law for coming over and helping get all the painting done. Thanks to Ben especially for sacrificing his neck and painting the ceiling! I will post pictures of the new paint color soon.