Before and Slightly During

OK, here they are... the before pictures.  Well, actually they are kind of during because at this point, Rob has already taken off the cabinet doors (so he could begin scraping the wallpaper off of them) and I have already begun some of my de-cluttering and moving things around in the kitchen.

When you walk into the kitchen, from the dining room (the only way into the kitchen) this is the first view of the kitchen you see.  And as you can see there was once a door there that has been closed up.  Rob removed the door several years back and bricked in the wall.  Obviously the door trim is going to have to come down and the cracks are going to have to be filled... or whatever it is that you do for that kind of problem.  You can also see the wallpaper that I hate... I don't know what it is about the paper that I don't like, but it just gets on my very last nerve.  Flooring isn't much better.  I do love the vintage light (I wish they had not painted over the metal fixture).

Once you enter the kitchen and turn to the right, this is what you see... sorry for the bright light, it was a sunny day.  We don't have a lot of cabinet space or counter space... so we store a lot of things on top of the cabinets and in the two carts on either side of the kitchen.  My hanging pot rack is a life saver.  My goal is to get these cabinets organized and streamlined.  I've already moved the Rx to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom... where they should have been in the first place.  And shift pantry items to my "pantry" that I created in the laundry room.  I've turned the cart to the right into my "baking cart" and inside it is flour, sugar, oatmeal, raisins... etc.  most things that would be used for baking... and most things that were in my other cabinets.  This freed a lot of space to bring my most used cook books into the kitchen (kind of where they need to be anyway).  I had the cook books in the dining room, but I have plans for that room too... but that's another post.  I'm thinking maybe vintage picnic baskets on top of the cabinets for items that I use, just not every day, so that they are handy, but don't get dusty.  I want to get the counters as clear as possible.

Looking back towards the dining room, you see the "baking" cart... which is basically the hub of the kitchen, this is where I do all my prep work... note the cutting board.  We eat a lot of our meals on trays, because we like to watch TV... we are very casual peeps in our house, so the trays are kept on the cart all the time.  It is, what it is.  My cork board squares that run down the wall are going to be relocated to the inside of the cabinet doors, once the kitchen has been painted and revamped.  I figure it will be a great place to keep notes and whatever, but keep the kitchen from looking cluttered.  Again, small spaces + a lot of stuff = junked spaces.  Once we get into the meat of the project, the water heater is going to be replaced.  This one is on borrowed time.  I think we will probably go with a smaller tank this time.  Would love to get one of those tankless water heaters, but that might be out of our price range right now.

And finally to the left, when you enter the kitchen is the stove and frig... an odd couple, but there you go.  If money were no option, we would have the gas line moved and set the stove over along the other wall... under the clock (see first picture).  Maybe we will just move the frig to that wall... it's just crazy having the two side by side.  You can't open the frig all the way, you have to bend yourself in half to clean it and it has to work twice has hard to keep cool when you have to stove on.  Anyway, still lots to decide and plan.  But that is our little kitchen.  It's not much to look at right now, but believe me, we cook some amazing meals in that room.