Kitchen Plans

I recently mentioned Knut’s comments about renovating the kitchen in a nearer future than I had expected.  Now he’s trying to make it very clear how near he’s thinking so that I can start doing some research and making some plans:

NEXT SUMMER!!

The thought on a whole is overwhelming.  There are so many things to figure out before then.  It might be easier to explain what’s staying in the room: the ceiling…and the walls (although not the wallpaper on the walls) and of course the antique light fixtures (although the wiring will need to be redone).  Well, Knut has debated several times about moving the walls as well, but I’m determined to take a restoration view of the kitchen, not a “bigger is better” view.  Our house was built in 1900, and I want our kitchen to look like it fits in an old house, while being very functional.

After searching several kitchen ideas, the design above is what I’ve concluded is my “mood board” but I’m pretty sure our kitchen will look a bit different.  For starters, we’re going with a wood floor, and we’re planning on keeping the wood trim around our windows.  Also, through lots of measuring, we’ve concluded there just isn’t enough space for an island, and we’ll just stay with the peninsula idea instead of knocking down some walls.

At any rate, I told Knut that this picture is the “feeling” that I’m going for, although not anywhere near a blueprint.  He liked it, which made me happy.  I know he’ll want some more “wood” elements in it, but I assured him, there would be.

So for starters, our floor which is not very level will have to be ripped up.  The cabinets that are crooked (with a few crumbling shelves) will be gutted and replaced.  Our 20 year old fridge will be replaced, and we’re planning on upgrading the oven and switching to a gas stove.  The most exciting of all?  Drumroll…

We’re getting a dishwasher!

We’ll be the first owners of this house to have a dishwasher in their kitchen.  We just need to figure out where to put it.  Since I’ve finally convinced Knut that although he would do a fabulous job on building the cabinets, he simply does not have the time to do it.  The only person he says he trusts to do it is the guy who did his parent’s kitchen when they built their house about 4 years ago.  So job number one is to track down “that guy” and see if we can get a layout worked out to accommodate a dishwasher, etc.

I’m grateful Knut told me about it now.  My moods lately have been…well quite hormonal.  I feel great most of the time, but it seems very quickly that I get worked up over something.  It’s been very helpful when I’m feeling overwhelmed, or ready to escape the house, to have something really fun to let my brain sit and think on for awhile.  I often just sit in the kitchen and think while looking around, much like Knut did for months in front of the fireplace.  He’s been calling a lot of the shots in the recent “big” changes in the house (and making some decisions I disagreed with, but ultimately liked).  I sense that he’s wanting to make sure that this is “my” dream kitchen, while insuring it isn’t totally contrary to his style either.  This will be by far the biggest house project we’ve taken on, and will make the fireplace and bookshelves and painting, etc. look like small potatoes.

I feel like we couldn’t possibly be old enough adults to be taking on a project this big.  We’re big Dave Ramsey fans, and this project has been sorted through his system for a couple of years now.  It will push back other projects like the kids’ bedrooms upstairs, and getting furniture in our dining room, and very possibly, replacing our van with nearly 210,000 miles on it.  Those were all projects I had thought we’d work towards first. I think this project may have been moved up because our view outside the kitchen is about to be “ruined” due to the electrical company forcing our hand to sell them some of our farm land so they can put some ugly power lines that pretty much mess up our pretty country view outside the kitchen.  Knut was a bit annoyed at that.  I think our consolation prize might be the ability to make the view on the inside of the kitchen a bit nicer.

However, when a man offers his wife a dishwasher, she takes it.  He will receive no argument on the order of projects on this one!  I’m pretty sure this means that every date we have for the next year or so will be the two of us (well…probably nursing baby in tow makes 3) walking around showrooms.  That makes our date planning pretty set for awhile.