September 02, 2004
We Love Our Kitchen

I haven't said much about our new kitchen since the last payment was made and Jack & Co. left me alone in the house with Annie, but we absolutely love it. It's about 9 months since we started the remodeling process, and we have a few observations about what we like, what we would have done differently, and what we still have to do.

the blue backsplash We painted the backsplash blue. Or rather, I painted it blue. We cooked for a couple weeks with the drywall exposed, but after splattering oil on it one night, I decided it was time to prime and paint. It took a while to find a color that would look nice with the countertops, the cabinets, and the floors (I took both a tile sample and a countertop sample with me to Home Depot to hold paint chips up to, which helped a LOT), but we ended up with something we both really like. Someday we might install slate or glass tiles over the paint, but for now, we like the backsplash the way it is.
the unpainted ceiling We've yet to paint the ceiling. I'm nervous about wrecking the cabinets with drops of paint, and I got pregnant shortly after painting the backsplash, so the ceiling remains unpainted. There've been proposals to have Al paint the ceiling or to hire the job out, but so far, nothing has been done.
the under-cabinet light switch We wish there was a switch for the under-cabinet lighting by one of the doorways. We LOVE the under-cabinet lighting (I even prefer it to the overhead lights) and use them all the time. The only switch for them, however, is next to the sink—and given that they're often the only lights on at night, it'd be nice if we could turn them off on the way out of the room.
the current location of the cable outlet I wish the cable outlet were separate from the phone jack. In fact, I wish it were across the room, under the corner cabinet. At the time of the cabling I was thinking that we'd want the TV out of the way, so I suggested that the cable outlet go on the dining room wall. As it turns out, the TV would be more out of the way if it were under the corner cabinet, because the corner is deep enough to actually accommodate the TV. The dining room wall counter really isn't. Still, since moving the little 9" TV down from the office-turned-nursery, we've spent even more time in the kitchen. It's nice to be able to cook without missing sporting events or favorite shows. where I wish the cable outlet were
the snack drawer We're glad we planned where everything would go *before* we started putting things away. As the end of the remodel drew near, and we could see what our drawer and cabinet options were, we sorted through all our dishes, cookware, and silverware and figured out what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to give away. (We had a lot of duplicate items from when we combined households.) Once we had a final inventory of what we were keeping, we went through the kitchen figuring out where everything would go based on how we thought we'd use the kitchen. I don't think we've moved a single thing since we put it all away; the arrangement has worked out beautifully. Al's favorite storage area: the snack drawer. Mine: the tea cabinet. the tea cabinet
Posted by Lori at 05:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Permalink