iFutz: Before: The Great Kitchen project of 2011 commences.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Before: The Great Kitchen project of 2011 commences.

The ants made me do it.
We have a terrible ant problem, and I finally reached my breaking point. My breaking points, when they happen, register on the richter scale. In typical fashion, I can go for months with something status quo, and then suddenly, all hell breaks loose. Such is this project. Every cupboard has been emtpied, Krud Kuttered, (I cannot say enough good stuff about this cleaner...seriously.) sanded, caulked, repainted and the contents emptied, washed, refilled, relabeled and put back neatly into place. Every. Single. Thing.
I had permission from the landlord to remove the doors from the cupboards, but had never gotten around to doing it. When we moved in, they had painted to doors, but not the interiors, and I just wasn't up to the task. I got over that this weekend. Here is what it started out looking like (notice that these cupboard doors are the old-fashioned big giant ones. They swing waaaay out into the kitchen--They were a total safety hazard.)

The first thing I did was ditch the doors. (I am not a door person; it's the first thing I do to nearly every house we live in...I remove as many doors from all the kitchen cupboards as is practical, and I remove closet doors. I don't know why; I have stopped pondering this about myself... I just go with it.)

My kitchen has not been my favorite room since we moved in; I am merely in here because I need to be, and have not really had a groove with it. (I'm thinking those days might be over.) This photo is my primary storage wall: Not streamlined, not organized, just everything-I-need-fairly-close-at-hand. Mixer not near the baking supplies, coffeebeans not near the coffeemaker, mislabeled bottles and jars, no lighting to speak of, no really usable counterspace...It was a mess. All topped off by the fact that there is no vent over the stove. Despite fairly regular maintenance, everything was greasy and nasty.