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Well, I finally got my new kitchen. My oven died while cooking dinner for a birthday party, and my dishwasher died shortly thereafter. Oh, the decisions! The mess! The stress! The huge amount of MONEY!! As usual, I had it all planned out with my pre-conceived notions: white beadboard cabinets, keep the beadboard on the walls, paint the upper walls a cool color (like maybe yellow or blue), brushed nickel bin-style drawer pulls and round knobs, white appliances. I picked none of the above. I went with a Martha Stewart design--her Ox Hill cabinets and everything associated with the look in her brochure (cabinet pulls, shelving, corbels, paint color). The only thing I did differently was to not include a backsplash and to get granite counters (Luna Pearl).
I fell in love with the picture in that brochure, which my kitchen designer at Home Depot had suggested as an alternative plan, plus the white beadboard seemed too busy and sterile and I wanted something simple due to my tiny space. The layout was a difficult decision. I've got the front door, back door, bathroom door, basement door and doorway to the dining room all in this space, plus two windows and two radiators. Generally I'm pleased with how it turned out. I'm not sure it could have been done in another way unless I wanted to make major changes. I'm more inclined to want to stay with the general look in the house to keep it historically accurate. I opted for a long stretch of counter which wraps around to a backwards "L" shape rather than gain more space on either side of the stove. Previously I had had to take down two upper cabinets above the refrigerator when I ordered a new one (the old one started leaking the Thanksgiving weekend of my first year) and it was one-quarter inch too tall. So I stacked them and put bricks between them for a little more counterspace next to the cooktop. I'm not sure why the previous owner thought it was a good idea to put a cooktop in and leave the kitchen with about nine inches of counter space. My sister and I had dragged up a base cabinet from the basement, and that was handy for storage and more counterspace.
I changed my mind and decided I wanted stainless steel appliances when I saw my "dream" stove in person--an LG. I got an Advantium GE microwave oven and a GE dishwasher. I love them. I already had a stainless Frigidaire fridge, even though it's too small and I hate it. I'll just wait till it dies and replace it eventually.
The best decision I made was to gut the exterior walls to add insulation. What a difference it made this past Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad winter! I never wanted to leave that room! Also, I had the radiators sandblasted and they were powder-coated silver and look fabulous! But, whoa, that was expensive, and required bleeding the pipes to remove them. I also like how the floor refinishing came out.
Please excuse the unfinished painting. I had removed paint from most of the trim, doors and windows but was so sick of dealing with construction dirt, dust and grime, I didn't want to finish. I just wanted to enjoy my beautiful kitchen and entertain. I started demolition in October and the contractor finally finished in April (we had trouble with the cabinets being warped and it took a while to get replacements).
