Today's post is about the hub of the home, the kitchen.
When we first moved into this house, which was sorely in need of some tender loving care, there were several thoughts that struck me about the kitchen in particular.
To start with, it was brown. No, I mean it was ALL brown. There were wood planks on the walls - actual thick boards stained brown wood - even on the ceiling. THE CEILING had brown wood planks. I said to the family, "Either this woman (former owner) LOVED the color brown or she was suffering from a very deep depression.
See for yourself. Brown wood, brown appliances, brown tiles on the counter - those teeny tiny ones we used to make into ashtrays as kids. The far end of the kitchen was like a little cave. It took weeks for me to feel comfortable enough to touch things in there.
Fast forward several years. The Englishman and I stripped the walls of the boards right down to the studs. We took down the ceiling, which turned out to be an absolute gift. We discovered that one of the main beams in the ceiling had a crack in it and was about to come crashing down, and would have taken part of the second floor with it and possibly a member of the family. Thankfully, we had the beam reinforced and all is safe now.
We took out the cabinets you see on the left in the second photo to open up the space. We put down new flooring. We removed the brown wooden shutters which covered the entire bay window and replaced them with curtains. We opened up the wall where you see the white door, creating a walk through to our back entrance and a large pantry. We removed the wood "surround" of the refrigerator.
I think the change is rather dramatic. Even on a rainy day such as this, it is a warm, bright and welcoming kitchen. Well worth all the hard work it took and every penny spent.
As you can see, the Englishman is not only handsome and charming, he's a talented handyman. Lucky me!!
Did we really do that?
ReplyDeleteYup, that was you and me, babe. Good, aren't we?
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