My Kitchen – March 2008

We have been getting our kitchen changed slowly, the past few or more years, with only better changes of late. We now have new cabinets, not actually “installed” but in use.

Our old ones are all either moved or thrown away, hurray!

The base cabinets are in use where they will be installed permanently and the wall cabinets are here and there on the floor or on the top of the MDF we have for very temporary counters. The sink and stove have been relocated to their new permanent locations. The stove was finally done this past weekend, the sink just a few weekends before.

We have a semblance of an L-island in place, but it won’t be like it is, we need to get some more cabinets and haven’t determined if we can get the type we want for the design we are going for, or will need to retro-fit some to do what we need.

Basically I need/want drawers for bases on the short part of the L shape, which will be paralell to the stove, adjacent to the sink, and be table-height, so I can chop anything/roll out dough in comfort. I’m short and 30″ high is my preference for any standing up work in the kitchen. It’s a must for dough and chopping, so I’ve alway had to use the dining table and that is something I do not like having to do. So with this “new” kitchen I have a temporary spot on the “island” though it’s not as wide nor doesn’t have the right sort of storage underneath, since we are using wall cabinets that are 30″ high for now, until we get them up on the walls. We have to find out if the manufactuer has 30″ or so high drawer bases they can get us, or if we can cut off the toe-kick on drawer bases (like we’ve bought for other areas of the kitchen) successfully.

It’s what I’ve dreamed of for some time, and have wished for partially since moving into this house late 1997. The kitchen was on the other end of this 20 ft. long space, but was right next to the garage, and had a pathway dividing the main work counter, which was right next to the door, and the stove was on the other side of the door with no space horizontally next to it to work on (which I desire strongly to have for cooking with) it was basically jammed into a corner on the left with 12″ of counter space on the right.

We removed the French Doors that were on the other end of the kitchen. That’s where the sink is now, with the Fridge down towards the middle of the kitchen, about right across from where it started out in 1997. Basically the design used to be a glorified galley, two sections of counter and appliances separated by the garage enterance/walkway.

Now it’s an area with enough space to cook in. The stove has 36″ of horizontal space on the left, and 30″ and then a corner on the right. 🙂

The sink is one nice triangle space to the rear/right when at the stove. The L-island “baking center” is directly behind the stove. Basically the space will be a Double-L design, but an inverted Double-L from what I’ve mostly seen on paper.

We have to get a new window for over the sink still. We did get one for free, but it wasn’t installed as I wanted it, and it’s not going to work, even if it was re-installed correctly. We have a glass sliding door to install but have some plumbing work to finish before that can happen. We have to paint and fix a few drywall things, and decide on how to finish out the area we removed part of a wall.

Then we can put in the wall cabinets then install the base cabinets on the outside “regular” part of the kitchen. Then at that point we are going to put in wood floor and THEN put the island on top of the wood floor. That will give us a counter around the kitchen that is more like 35-inches tall, then the island with the 30″ baking center and 36″ bar and work counter. That’s the current initial plan, at least.

We’ve changed the plan time and again, before we bought any cabinets, then settled on something, bought the cabinets, then after a bit decided to change the layout again, somewhat back to my original desires though.

Thus far it’s great to have things where they should be, appliance-wise. I’ve found the few meals I’ve made to be much more efficent in prep than ever before, and that’s super duper for a Mama of 4, with one being a baby, and none of them helpful enough in the kitchen to aide me in cooking, really. I love to cook, but hate the daily chore of it. I hate clean-up. It’s tiresome too being so short in comparison with my kitchen counters and cabinets. So finally, I have something to chop on that isn’t the table and doesn’t kill me and nearly get my fingers chopped off, having to stand on my toes to chop on high (to me) counters. The “feeling” of the kitchen is finally right. That oriental chi stuff, I’m not into that, but I can say that “feeling” is important and some of the prinicples I’ve read of about it seem right on with much of comfortable design and for placement of things in rooms for working/living.

My kitchen feels so right, when it has always felt so very, very wrong, and it’ll get more “right” as time goes on. Wow. 🙂