Before and After, One Year On
Finally! The backspash is in and the electrical sockets are no longer hanging loose on their wires. The city inspector came by and passed the last items this morning. !!!!
We moved to this in-original-condition 1964 house just about a year ago. We've tackled nearly everything here. We knew the kitchen had to go as soon as we saw it - 1964 was a long time ago. This is then:
This is now. Notice we (that is, the electrician) got rid of the light box in the ceiling - not easy!:
The basic footprint stayed the same except we lost the peninsula and expanded a bit towards the patio door (above), added an island and flipped the DW to the left. I finally got my Kohler 45 sink!:
We got rid of the wall ovens (too small for pretty much anything) and put in an induction stove and MW. It was important to me to have a landing spot next to the door. We took the door off the doorway and have left it open:
I really didn't love the location of the fridge, but there just wasn't a great alternative. As it turned out, with the addition of the island and the landing spot next to the stove, plus the deletion of that door, the fridge location works out fine. We made a space for a 36" fridge on the theory that a future family would much rather have that size, but with just the two of us we don't need one that big. We use the extra space along the side for the step stool:
I found a place for the mixer!
The floors in the whole house are bamboo. The cabinets are InnerMost from HD. We did the installation ourselves for both the cabinets and the backsplash. The backsplash tile is Sonoma crackle - it took forever because they had just demolished the kiln for the blue accent tile when we ordered so we had to wait for a new kiln to be built.
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Comments (39)Awww, you guys are making me blush. I'm so glad you like it as much as we do. Last year after the fire, we had to convince the insurance company to put the money into restoring the interior rather than tearing it down. I know old houses aren't for everyone, but I love our old house even tho it is far from perfect. The colour is called forest black and is a warm brownish black. The painters were reluctant to do black saying that dark colours don't last, but it's been about 5 years now with no peeling. The windows were a huge project. We used a local company that builds wooden windows. The old plate glass ones were so shot that not only did they look bad, but you couldn't actually see out of them. The OPs had been here for 60 years and not only left us wonderful karma, but also pictures from thru the years and we used those to design the new windows to match the originals. dedtired, the upper porch is now off my youngest DDs room. It has glass windows and she can use it for about half the year to double the size of her room. The lower is screened and we just use it for hanging out in the summer. We live in the land of bird-sized mosquitoes so it is nice to have....See More- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
zellycat- the trim on the door on the door is just what was there already, 1.5" I don't think they even make that trim anymore.
I think what you're seeing at the window is the new window. Except for the sill there isn't any mill work there at all. (These are Milgard windows, which are fine for these windows, but don't ever get the patio doors that pull open in the middle!)
mimitten - After much debate, I went with the Sears model induction stove. What made the decision was the knobs. I wanted to be able to turn a dial vs poking at a button. I've really enjoyed using it. The only drawback is that my pressure canner won't work on it, so I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about that.http://www.sears.com/kenmore-elite-6.1-cu-ft-freestanding-induction-range/p-02295073000P?plpSellerId=Sears&prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1#
- 7 years ago
One other thing we did in this kitchen which I love: the water heater in the garage is far enough away that it takes 30+ seconds to get hot water at the sink. We live in a drought area, so all that water running down the drain made me anxious. In a kitchen, there are things that just need hot water to be sanitary. Since we had to have the plumber in anyway, I decided we needed to do a small undercab water heater. Among other things, it requires drilling a hole out the exterior wall for a relief valve. Once a year or so it needs some attention. Even so, I love having the hot water right there when I need to wash my hands or wash chicken off my hands or anything that is a quick job, but it needs hot water. I'd do that one again every time.
- 7 years ago
That rug has been a real hit! Guess where? - Costco about 3 years ago. Just after Christmas this year Costco had lots of rugs in stock, so maybe they do it every year. This is actually our family room. We haven't gotten to the crown molding yet, and haven't decided if we'll do a window covering on the sliding door (there's a patio cover out there).
Our previous house of 41 years only had one living space, so in that house this rug was the LR rug. We got another rug, same idea different colors, for the living room this year.
(The LR is also waiting for crown molding, but hey!, we got the backsplash finished.)
Patti