“Conformity, I won’t let myself become a sheep” – Now You See Them

The kitchen reno moves on.

John has now taken down all the top cabinets. He has repaired and primed the walls and painted the ceiling. He has started ripping up the flooring. We have picked out the kitchen color, a really soft, pretty yellow. The countertop is picked out, a solid surface by Staron. The flooring has been ordered and so has the sink, faucet and disposal. Waiting on a sale for the fridge and stove. Our Ikea cabinets come in on Friday, all 73 boxes! Our first appliances have been delivered! Our washer and dryer are just waiting on our electrician to hook up electric in the studio room. We found plumbing for a washer and dryer in the studio closet and decided to utilize it instead of putting the washer and dryer in the basement. Thinking long term and old age here folks.

We have made some other decisions that could be considered unconventional.

We are taking out a tile floor to put in vinyl. Yes vinyl. The tile floor was yuk, trust me.  We really wanted a checkerboard floor in the kitchen. We looked at a lot of options. We opted not for tile. Tile in the winter is really cold and it’s tough on the back and feet if you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Our first choice was marmoleum. A great product and very easy to install but oh the price! We just couldn’t justify it. So we went with Armstong commercial vinyl in white and brown square tiles. Vinyl fits with the mid century style of the house, its easy on the feet and back, durable and inexpensive, what’s not to love!

We are not installing upper cabinets. We are going with open shelving. Our daughter Madeline and her husband Brendan have open shelving in their kitchen and it looks fabulous! I love the look and it opens up the kitchen more than upper cabinets.

No dishwasher. When we moved out of our last home into a rental, it had no dishwasher. With just the two of us, washing dishes is no big deal. We presently have a dishwasher in this house (although right now its in the living room!) and we have never used it. We opted for more cabinet space and saying no to the dishwasher.

We are reusing the old kitchen cabinets. The shelving in the upper cabinets are solid wood. We are going to sand and stain those shelves and use them for our open shelving. The bottom cabinets are going to be repurposed. Some are going to be painted and put into the corner of the kitchen and become a coffee/bar area. Others will be put outside on the deck with a concrete countertop and used for food prep next to our Big Green Egg.

So there you have it. Next up will be an update on the assembling of those’s Ikea kitchen cabinets!

Lyric from “Spelling Bee” by Now You See Them. Sadly, NYST is no longer playing together, but… you can find Dulci’s music here, Shane’s music here as Color Collage and Jason manages the amazing Holy Ghost Tent Revival. Catch them here.