How We Decided To Renovate Our Kitchen
Let me state for the record that I’m in love with our new house. It’s cozy, cute, and traditional, with everything we need and nothing we don’t. It’s the kind of place where I know we’re going to be happy here for many years, and I can see a lovely future of family, friends, dogs, celebrations, and quiet moments unfolding within its walls.
Well… it doesn’t exactly have EVERYTHING we need!
You can learn a lot about your organizational needs by living with something for a little while, and that’s exactly what has happened with our kitchen. It’s a beautiful, airy space, done in a traditional style I adore – and can you believe that floor? However, we quickly discovered that the way it’s organized doesn’t work smoothly with our lifestyle and the way we cook.
First, my husband is a really nerdy cook – he likes to use the latest devices and we own all kinds of ridiculous machines and gadgets. This works out well for me, since he’s always working on something new, inventive, and delicious. However, we’re finding that there isn’t room in lower cabinets for all these fun toys, and not nearly enough counter space to spread out on.
Second, I’ve always had the feeling that I wouldn’t like living with transparent upper shelving and it turns out that I don’t. Especially now, when I have to put things in upper storage that I’d prefer to hide behind closed doors like smaller appliances, baking dishes, water bottles, and food storage. This post was oddly prescient!
Third, I grew up with double ovens and a separate cooktop, and I have found the transition to a range with single oven to be cramping my style. I know these gourmet Wolf ranges are all the rage, but for the way we cook (especially for entertaining) we just need more than one oven!
We had wanted to start our renovation project immediately after move-in, but I’m now grateful that the process has taken long enough for us to be able to live in our space and truly understand what works and what doesn’t. I think we made a mistake in our previous place of waiting too long to do work we knew we wanted to do (we started after 3 years and moved at 5!), but I do recommend taking some time so that you get the best possible results once you do start making changes. Our plans have gone through significant revision between move-in and now, so I’m already confident that time was priceless!
LMW
Here’s the thing about the junk drawer, though. It doesn’t actually work all that well to help you find those things you’ve placed inside it.