My Improved Kitchen

 Hi there!  How is it going?  Has it been raining pretty much none stop in your area like it has been here?  I have to say it begins to affect your mood, doesn't it?  It does mine for sure.  Enough of that!  Today I am finally going to show you my kitchen with the new appliances and a few other cosmetic changes.

When we purchased the house almost a year and a half ago, we knew we would be changing out the old appliances.  That was a given.  What I didn't know was that it would take forever to get it all done. There were a few hurdles along the way but, thankfully, we are finally pretty much finished in this room.  The changes are slight but, they have made a huge difference, at least for Tom and me :).

The refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave and wall oven were all very old.  I'm thinking before the 1990's and maybe the 80's.  They were old.  But thankfully, they were still working and worked quite well.  I think that is why I took so long to figure out which new ones I wanted.  

I admit the professional realtor photos look nice.  You can see why we were able to live with the old appliances as long as we did but, the fact still remained that most of the appliances were very old and made the kitchen look dated.

The other problem that faced us appliance-wise was that the refrigerator was very, very small and the space where it was placed was too short for any new refrigerator of any value in fit into. Hence, my handy husband had to build a new space for a new refrigerator. This also took time.  We needed to find the exact cabinet door style to match the other cabinets and we needed to match the paint color exactly, which was harder than we thought it would be. Otherwise, we would have to repaint all of the cabinets, something we had done in our old house and really did not want to repeat again.  We are getting older you know!

Once we found the right door style for the cabinet and I figured out what refrigerator I wanted, my husband was off and running.  He had to totally rebuild the cabinet to fit the new refrigerator and it took three or four trips to the hardware store to get the paint color just right. I am lucky my husband is patient as well as handy.

Here is how the cabinet and refrigerator look now.  You would never know we had to transform the space.

The other appliance problem we had was the trash compactor.  It was old and didn't work...or so we thought.  After we had decided on reconditioning that space for a trash cabinet, we discovered that the trash compactor did in fact crush the trash.  I didn't want to keep the old one, but I might have considered buying a new compactor to limit trash amount, but at that point the decision was made.

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 It was time for Tom to work his carpentry magic again and turn this space into a trash cabinet, something he did equally well as the refrigerator cabinet. I now love having a trash and recycle space in that cabinet area.  Doing this also made the cabinets more unified, no stainless-steel trash compactor messing up the line of white cabinets.  I was concerned about that.  I like how both of these projects came out.  The dishwasher decision was a no-brainer.  I chose the one I had most recently purchased at my old house. I love it!  It is a Bosch dishwasher and has a China cycle, which I really wanted, and is very quiet.

We had already replaced the microwave.  That thing was possessed when we moved in.  It wouldn't turn off regardless of how many times you pushed the off button.  This GE model was the only one that would fit in the tiny space.  Thankfully, it is still available.

We also replaced the ancient wall oven on the far wall.  I really like the looks of the new one but, to be honest, I haven't used it yet. 

The only really nice appliance we had when we moved in was a GE convection oven. That is the oven I use all the time.  However, the next big holiday I will use the wall oven for overflow dishes.  I need to try it out before then, however :). 

I think the only other change besides furniture we made to the room was replacing the old light fixture hanging over the kitchen table.  I am very happy with the Pottery Barn light I chose.  It brings more of my style into the room.  

So, as you can tell, the changes in the kitchen are subtle but, I do think they transform the room to a more current vibe.

I have to admit the previous owner made this home very cozy.  I hope you don't think I have made the space cold.  I realize I need to put a painting on the wall next to the fireplace, but I haven't found the perfect one yet.  Also, having the armchair in the middle of the floor was very confining to the room, especially when my grandkids come over and like to run through the kitchen to get to the family room.  It was a choice we made but, I do hope to warm up the room in other ways asap.

One thing that did not need to be changed about the kitchen was the beautiful view into the backyard.  I love it! (Even on rainy days!)

In conclusion, I should mention that this post took a long time for me to prepare.  It involved two days of photo taking. One day was a pretty big snowstorm.  Another day was after the snow had melted and some of my flower props had gone by the wayside.  That is why I moved things around and there are different features to the photographs.  Sorry for the confusion.

Thank you for taking the tour of my kitchen with me. I like all the changes we have made.  I will be running out to find a pretty painting to fill up that empty spot on the wall very soon!

Happy Weekend!!!

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**Please note again that I have not been compensated for writing this post.  One of these days I should find out how that works but for now it is just me sharing information.  Haha!