Things Ain’t Cookin’ In My Kitchen

Are you a Crowded House fan?

That means you likely went to high school or college in the early 1990s. Welcome to the old folks club.

For those of you not into Crowded House, or too young to even know who CH even is, the title of my post is a line from one of their songs, called Weather With You. I’ve loved it forever. Once, when I was on vacation with friends in Marbella, Spain, we heard it as we were entering a parking garage, and I shocked the snot out of everyone as I sang along to the rather odd lyrics.

“Things ain’t cooking in my kitchen, Strange affliction wash over me

Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire couldn’t conquer the blue sky.”

Don’t ask me what that story has to do with anything at all.

Of course, other than the fact that the title of this post is 100% true. Things certainly ain’t cooking in my kitchen. I’ve mentioned it 457 times already. I have no cooktop or oven.

That all changes at around 3 o’clock today.

My new range is being delivered. It likely won’t be fully installed until Wednesday morning, but it will be In. My. House.

The range – the final piece in my new appliance puzzle. Several new goodies were delivered and installed last week about this same time, so I’ve been enjoying the new appliance scent for about 7 days. Don’t you love that smell? Odd and perplexing, but somehow mesmerizing. Mmmm.

Once this puppy is up and running, I’ll introduce you to her. Assuming she’s a girl. I’ll not know for sure until it’s in and has a name, but I somehow doubt it’s a Bobby. Or Mike. For some reason I am thinking Gilda. Don’t ask me why.

Although I’ll introduce you, I’ll be holding off on the full reveal of my new and improved bake space. It’s been a lot of undertaking so far, and my husband has done the biggest part of the work. Wanna see?

Above you’ll see my before. On the left, you are standing near my fridge, looking past the center island towards the eating area of my kitchen. The countertop oven sitting atop my non-working range reminds me of TV sets in the 80s. Remember when the furniture style TV sets encased in wood died a slow death, and instead of removing them, a newer, smaller TV sat perched on top of it?

Yep, I grew up in West Virginia. Did you do this in other states?

In the right hand picture, you’ve got an opposite view of the all maple, all white appliance kitchen. When we remodeled this house in 2001 (the house is from 1920, and actually had NO kitchen when we bought it for less than most of you paid for your car), I wasn’t a cook, and the kitchen appliances were of no real importance to me, other than the fact that everyone else had them and I knew we needed them. So I went white. You can see that I have a ton of crapola above the upper cabinets – geegaw, baskets, books, plants. Not really my style, if you must know the truth, as I prefer plain and contemporary. The kiddo pictures hanging on the fridge? Actually bothers me. I’m not one who likes things on her fridge.

Don’t judge. We all need to live in harmony, okay?

So, those are the Befores.

Here are some Durings.

Not fun, right? The range is gone, as is most of the drywall. The backsplash tile that Jon spent a good amount of time installing was cut out in large sheets. If you notice in the bottom right photo, you can see I had them lift the glass fronted cabinet that used to sit flush on the counter up to the height of the others. Since I am replacing a 30 inch range with a 48 inch range, I felt the need to make up some counter space, so that gained me 36 inches. It seems to open the room up a lot, too, which surprised me.

In the top right photo you can see a stubbed out copper pipe. Jon can plumb (I know, lucky!), so he ran me a line for a Potfiller. Yes! I am incredibly excited for that. I was very fortunate to have Moen offer me a new kitchen faucet and a potfiller for the new kitchen, and I do know how lucky I am. Just another perk in the reno of my dreams!

Jon and his friend replaced the drywall and Jon finished it off for us, so that crazy newspapery insulation was finally contained again. Great on the electric bill, but I prefer just knowing it’s there and not actually seeing it.

Below you can see a reworked kitchen.

I painted (with the help of Brandi and her husband Nick) the feature wall a color from Lowe’s called Knight’s Armor (an almost black) that I added gold flake to. You can’t really see it unless you are looking for it, but I LOVE the dimension it gives. I added the same gold to the blueish green walls (Barely Jade, I think was the name), and I couldn’t love the color more. It looks so great against the warm maple cabinets.

We also lifted the existing cabinets there where the fridge was. Our new microwave is to hang under the right hand cabinet, and Jon is building a wine rack and cookbook cabinet to fit in the empty space on the left, so it will kind of look like a built in fridge.

You can also see that my island is no longer an island.

That was a little unexpected.

I’m a huge planner, and despite my measuring time and time again, and despite the fact that it actually FIT, the reworked island was just too long for me…AND, I was losing a 15 inch base cabinet that I really didn’t want to give up. So, what was going to be a 90 inch island has turned into a 4 foot by almost 6 foot peninsula.

I love the change. It has added so much more room to the kitchen. And, I got to keep that 15 inch base. See the missing cubby in the picture? Something special went in there. Wanna see?

It’s a set of KitchenAid Refrigerator Drawers. Refrigerator Drawers!! I am in love. We currently have all of our beverages in there – Jon has the top drawer for his, Seven and I share the bottom drawer. It’s fantastic, and so convenient. I’ll show you more about it soon, promise!

Above the peninsula on that black wall Jon ran cords inside the wall and mounted my new HP Touchsmart 620 Computer. It’s not only a computer (fast as all get out) – it’s a TV, too. A 23 inch TV! I can watch HGTV in there, check my email, Skype, and tweet…no problem. Such a blessing!

Okay, that’s all I can show you for now. Still a lot of work to do – get that range in, get the counters in (Ignore the current countertop – it’s just a piece of plywood until our real counters go in at the end of the month.), the sink, the faucet, the backsplash, and finally, the potfiller in.

I need about a month. Can you wait?

I can’t.

If you aren’t already, follow me on Instagram (I’m Doughmesstic), and you might catch a sneak peek or two at the progress. I love Instagram!

Have a great day, everyone, and thanks for letting me share!