Kitchen Renovations - Part One

I came to the realization a few months ago that at big part of the reason that I have come to dread cooking and hardly ever bake is that I hate my kitchen.  I know that as long as we live in this house, I will never have a kitchen that I am totally in love with, it just isn't feasible, however, I need to have a kitchen that I can stand to be in for more than 30 seconds at a time without wanting to run away from home!

When we bought this house in late 2002 and started painting and making it ours, I was dead set on a blue and yellow kitchen.  And although I did, at the time, like the finished product, it was never quite what I had in mind when I planned for blue and yellow.  This time, I didn't know what I wanted.  We had dozens of paint chips stuck to the walls and cupboard doors for weeks, trying to decide.  And we changed our minds almost every week.  

My blue and yellow kitchen, getting ready for a makeover.

My blue and yellow kitchen, getting ready for a makeover.

Finally, we decided on green and tan.  We choose a light, sage green for the walls, and what Henry calls a coffee with too much milk colour for the cabinets.

Tennessee Haze and Onion Skin were the colours we settled on (third from the top on both cards).

Over the course of a week, we spent our time on the weekend and after work, painting.  Everything needed two coats of paint to cover up the old colours.  The cabinet doors had to be taken down to paint.  It was a big job but it was so worth it!

Newly painted kitchen!

Newly painted kitchen!

Newly painted kitchen!  Complete with Henry's latest batch of hard cider, fermenting in the white pail!

Newly painted kitchen!  So much brighter and enjoyable to spend time in!

Yesterday, Henry took down the old, very dirty ceiling fan and put up a nice new track light.  He also installed LED strip lights over the counter, sink and stove!  The lighting is so much better now!!

New track light!  Prettier and better lighting than the old ceiling fan!

We are still a long way from done, the kitchen still needs a new counter top, sink and floor.  Unfortunately, these renos have been put on hold for a little while as we have some outdoor projects that need to be completed this spring.  But as soon as the outdoor projects are done taking up our time and money, we will be back to finishing the kitchen!

Until then, we have done enough to make me enjoy my time in the kitchen again!  

Organization . . . In Baby Steps

I can organize . . . at work, I am very good at organizing and keeping things organized.  At home, not so much!  I would love for my house to be organized and tidy all the time but I don't think that will ever happen.  I just don't have the time or energy to have a "perfect" house.

But something has got to be done because not only is it not a "perfect" house, it has become an absolute disaster.  Not quite sure when the tornado went through, but it did and the results are not pretty.  Every room seems to be overflowing with unorganized piles of stuff.  And it makes me want to scream or cry or sometimes even both.

It is so overwhelming, that I don't even know where to start.  So, I just don't.  I started trying to organize our back room in the fall, got overwhelmed and quit.  I haven't touched it in months and it is worse than ever.  

So, I've come up with a new strategy.  Instead of trying to tackle a whole room, I am just going to pick one job at a time.  I am going to organize my house in baby steps.

Over the Christmas holidays, I took the "in with the new, out with the old", philosophy, getting rid of anything that could be replaced with the new Christmas items.  Three boxes of stuff are ready to be delivered to New Moon Rabbit Rescue for their spring garage sale.  Good bye baby toys, hello toddler toys!

I've also organized my recipe box.  Now, I know this probably sounds like a quick, easy job, but it wasn't!  

I didn't want this anymore!

I spent hours sorting and rewriting recipes from scraps of paper on to proper index cards.  So that it could look like this!

So much better!!

In the grand scheme of things, it is a little thing, but it has brought a glimmer of organization back into my kitchen and some motivation to keep going!

Last weekend, I decided to organize my spices.  I bought a lazy susan type spice rack when we moved into the house eight years ago.  It was a nice spice rack.  I really liked it at the time.  But not anymore.  Now, it had become a counter top dust collector.  And my spices had long since outgrown the rack and were now taking up space in two different cupboards as well.

The spice rack dust collector!

A mess of spices in the pantry.

Another unorganized mess of spices in the cupboard above the stove.

So, everything came out onto the counter.

YIKES!

Once it was all on the counter, I had no choice but to continue.  Everything got organized, containers got filled and labeled.  Then, it all got nicely placed into a drawer.  There was lots of garbage.  There was lots of mess.  There was lots of sneezing.  But I am so happy with the results!

My new spice drawer!

And I am still motivated to keep going.  I'm not sure what I will tackle next . . . more kitchen cupboards?  My desk in the back room?  My bedroom closet?  The bathroom closet?  The possibilities are endless but I will keep taking organizational baby steps through my house.